# Writing standards

## Anti-slop

1. **Claims carry evidence.** "Comprehensive", "robust", "seamless", "powerful", "production-ready" mean nothing unmeasured.
2. **Concrete over abstract.** "Parses 4GB files without loading them into memory" beats "handles large files efficiently". IDs, paths, commands, and dates beat "the relevant components".
3. **Describe what is, not what isn't.** State the capability directly. A defensive negation ("does not block", "never deletes your files", "no magic") answers a worry the reader did not arrive with, and plants it. A limit the reader must act on is a fact: state it once, plainly.
4. **No padding structure.** No restating the heading as the first sentence, no "in this document we will", no summary that re-says a short text, no one-item lists. A section with nothing to say gets one honest line, never filler.

## Anti-AI-slop

Read the draft aloud in your head and cut whatever no one would say out loud. A 'tell' is a mark that reads as machine-written and collapses the reader's confidence on sight; the verdict never reverses. Grammatical correctness is no defense: the em-dash is correct and still fatal, because almost no one writing by hand reaches for it. The rungs run loudest tell to quietest. Kill the loudest first.

1. **The em-dash.** The loudest tell there is. Never use it, and never fake it with `--`: the dash-and-aside construction is the tell, not the glyph. Restructure with a period, comma, colon, or parentheses.
2. **Curly quotes, pasted glyphs, decorative emoji.** Straight quotes not curly, `->` not →, `<=` not ≤, no emoji as ornament. Where the keyboard has the mark, use it; otherwise remove it, never a lookalike.
3. **No AI-vocabulary cluster.** delve, boasts, tapestry, testament, intricate, pivotal, crucial, meticulous, underscore, vibrant, nestled, landscape. One is chance; a cluster is a signature. Use the plain word.
4. **Say "is" and "has".** "Serves as", "stands as", "functions as", "boasts", "features" almost always mean *is* or *has*. Write the plain verb.
5. **No inflated significance.** Cut "stands as a testament", "plays a pivotal role", "reflects a broader", "leaves a lasting legacy". State the fact, not its supposed weight.
6. **No promotional puffery.** vibrant, rich, renowned, groundbreaking, "in the heart of", "nestled". Neutral description, not a travel brochure.
7. **No vague attribution.** "Experts argue", "observers note", "industry reports", "some critics" with no named source is weasel wording. Name it or cut the claim.
8. **No announcing reflexes.** "Certainly", "Great question", "I hope this helps", "It's important to note", "In conclusion", "Let me know". A sentence whose only job is announcing gets deleted, not softened.
9. **No negative parallelism.** Drop "it's not just X, it's Y" and "X rather than Y". State the point and let the contrast die.
10. **No rule of three by reflex.** Triads read as generated ("fast, reliable, and scalable"). Write the properties that are true, however many there are.
11. **No performed enthusiasm or work narration.** No exclamation marks in technical text, no "as an AI", no "I've added error handling". State what is, with the location; first person stays in conversation.
12. **Structure and formatting match content.** One sentence is not five bullets, a table is for enumerable facts, headings are sentence case not Title Case, and bold is not sprayed for emphasis.

## What brevity never cuts

NEVER SACRIFICE clarity, accuracy, or completeness of meaning to save words. Brevity first, but brevity to the point of obfuscation is extra cognitive load. Cutting a caveat that changes the decision, or a step the reader needs, is a defect.