skills/human-writing/references/prose-patterns.md

# Prose-pattern audit

Use this reference when revising AI-assisted prose or when the user says the text feels generic, stiff, inflated, salesy, or chatbot-like. Look for clusters. A single word, punctuation mark, or polished sentence is not evidence of anything.

## Meaning and credibility

| Signal | What goes wrong | Better decision |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Inflated importance | An ordinary fact becomes a pivotal moment, testament, legacy, or reflection of a broad trend. | State the fact and only the supported consequence. |
| Prestige by association | Publications, brands, awards, or follower counts are listed without useful context. | Keep the names that explain the subject's work or credibility. |
| Participial pseudo-analysis | Trailing phrases such as "highlighting," "showcasing," or "reflecting" pretend to explain a fact. | Give the real causal link or stop at the fact. |
| Sales language | Places, organizations, and products are vibrant, breathtaking, renowned, or nestled in something. | Use concrete description and verifiable benefits. |
| Vague authority | "Experts," "observers," or "reports" support a claim without being named. | Name the supplied source or remove the attribution and unsupported claim. |
| Stock challenges and outlook | A generic "despite challenges" section ends in optimism without information. | Name the actual constraint, action, or plan. |
| Guessing around gaps | Missing biographical or historical facts become "likely," "believed," or personality claims. | State what is known, leave the gap, or ask the writer. |

## Language and rhythm

| Signal | What goes wrong | Better decision |
| --- | --- | --- |
| AI-coded vocabulary clusters | Words such as crucial, delve, enduring, foster, intricate, landscape, pivotal, showcase, tapestry, testament, underscore, and vibrant accumulate. | Replace the cluster with ordinary, precise language; keep any word that genuinely fits. |
| Avoiding simple verbs | "Serves as," "stands as," "features," and "boasts" replace is, are, and has. | Prefer the simple verb when it says the same thing. |
| Not-X-but-Y templates | "It is not just X; it is Y" manufactures contrast or drama. | State the actual relationship directly. |
| Forced threes | Lists and slogans are padded to three items regardless of meaning. | Use the number of points the subject requires. |
| Synonym cycling | The same person or object receives a new label in every sentence. | Keep a stable, clear name. |
| Repeated openings | Several sentences begin with the same subject or transition without deliberate rhythm. | Merge or reshape them around the actions and ideas. |
| False ranges | "From X to Y" links examples that are not endpoints of a real range. | List the topics or describe the real scope. |
| Hidden actors | Passive voice or dropped subjects obscure who acts. | Name the actor when it clarifies responsibility. |
| Uniform cadence | Every sentence lands at a similar medium length and emphasis. | Let syntax and length respond to the content. Keep intentional repetition. |
| Dramatic fragments | Several clipped sentences turn routine points into punchlines. | Reserve short sentences for moments that warrant emphasis. |
| Formulaic sayings | A claim becomes "the language of," "the architecture of," a mirror, currency, or deeper truth. | Replace the saying with the specific observation. |
| Filler and stacked hedges | "In order to," "due to the fact that," or several qualifiers slow a simple claim. | Use the shortest accurate construction and the one qualifier meaning requires. |
| Excessive compound modifiers | Hyphenated pairs accumulate or remain hyphenated after the noun. | Keep only grammatically necessary hyphens and domain-standard terms. |

## Structure and presentation

| Signal | What goes wrong | Better decision |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Announcing the content | "Let's dive in," "here is what you need to know," or a staged aside delays the point. | Begin with the point. |
| Heading restatement | The first sentence below a heading merely repeats it. | Delete the bridge and start with information. |
| Bold-label lists | Every bullet begins with a bold miniature heading even when prose would read better. | Use a real list only when readers need to scan parallel items. |
| Decorative formatting | Unneeded bold, emoji, and title-case headings make ordinary content look templated. | Follow the format and publication's conventions. |
| Punctuation as a tic | Dashes, semicolons, parentheticals, or curly quotes recur at a rate the voice does not support. | Match the writer's sample or target style guide. Do not impose a universal punctuation ban. |
| Previous-version narration | Current documentation explains that something replaced an older approach. | Describe current behavior; reserve history for changelogs and migration guides. |
| Generic positive ending | The piece closes with a bright future, exciting journey, or major step. | End on the final concrete fact, decision, image, or implication. |

## Chatbot and staged-conversation residue

Remove greetings, praise, compliance language, knowledge-cutoff disclaimers, and offers such as "I hope this helps" or "let me know" when the text must stand alone. Also watch for:

- Fake-candid hooks: "Honestly?", "Here's the thing," or "Real talk" before an ordinary point.
- Unraised objections: "I'm not saying..." or "To be clear..." when no reader-facing objection exists.
- Fake alternatives: an option is introduced only to be dismissed and never affects the decision.
- Automatic agreement: praise or validation appears before the substance.

Keep real salutations, scope limits, safety or legal notices, named objections, genuine alternatives, and purposeful conversational language.

## Human details to protect

Do not polish away:

- Specific and slightly unusual details supplied by the writer.
- Mixed feelings, uncertainty, disagreement, and unresolved tension.
- Era-bound language, subcultural references, or personal idiom that suits the audience.
- Intentional repetition, fragments, asides, self-corrections, and punctuation habits.
- Technical or formal vocabulary that is accurate for the domain.
- Quotations, titles, proper names, and examples that contain a watched phrase.

Human writing is not defined by imperfection. The aim is purposeful variation and specific meaning, not inserted errors.

## Editing method

Mark the few patterns doing the most damage, then rewrite the paragraph around its main point. Do not patch every watched word independently. Afterward, compare all facts, qualifications, numbers, names, quotations, and citations with the source.

Adapted from the MIT-licensed [Humanizer](https://github.com/blader/humanizer), which draws on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing."