writing-clearly-and-concisely
This skill teaches you to write with clarity and force by applying William Strunk Jr.'s timeless rules for grammar, composition, and word choice. It covers active voice, concrete language, omitting needless words, and identifies common AI writing patterns to avoid—puffery, empty phrases, and overused vocabulary. Load the relevant reference section for your task and apply the rules directly to documentation, commit messages, error messages, or any prose meant for human readers.
Writing Clearly and Concisely helps you apply Strunk's timeless principles to make documentation, commit messages, and technical prose clearer and stronger.
AI-generated summary based on this skill's SKILL.md
Decision gist · record as of 2026-03-05
Writing Clearly and Concisely helps you apply Strunk's timeless principles to make documentation, commit messages, and technical prose clearer and stronger. This skill teaches you to write with clarity and force by applying William Strunk Jr.'s timeless rules for grammar, composition, and word choice. It covers active voice, concrete language, omitting needless words, and identifies common AI writing patterns to avoid—puffery, empty phrases, and overused vocabulary. Load the relevant reference section for your task and apply the rules directly to documentation, commit messages, error messages, or any prose meant for human readers.
Use it when
- writing-clearly-and-concisely applies William Strunk Jr.'s timeless principles: use active voice instead of passive constructions.
- writing-clearly-and-concisely identifies common AI traps: empty marketing language, overused adjectives, vague hedging phrases.
Verify before relying
Read SKILL.md below before installing (8 files). Open directory: indexed for reading, not audited.
Install
softaworks/agent-toolkit/writing-clearly-and-concisely · repository language: Python
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Frequently asked questions
AI-generated answers based on this skill's SKILL.md and metadata
How to write clear concise documentation with writing-clearly-and-concisely?
writing-clearly-and-concisely teaches you to strip away excess and prioritize force over length. Start by identifying your core message, then apply Strunk's rules: use active voice, omit needless words, and replace vague phrases with concrete language. Load the relevant reference section for your documentation type—whether README, API docs, or guides—and revise ruthlessly to remove jargon, redundancy, and filler that obscures meaning.
What grammar and composition rules does this skill teach?
writing-clearly-and-concisely applies William Strunk Jr.'s timeless principles: use active voice instead of passive constructions, choose specific words over generic ones, omit needless words without sacrificing meaning, and structure sentences for clarity. The skill also covers punctuation discipline and paragraph organization to ensure your prose flows logically and every sentence earns its place on the page.
How do I avoid AI writing patterns and puffery in my prose?
writing-clearly-and-concisely identifies common AI traps: empty marketing language, overused adjectives, vague hedging phrases, and repetitive vocabulary. The skill teaches you to recognize these patterns and replace them with direct, honest language grounded in specifics. Strip superlatives, eliminate filler like 'truly' or 'actually,' and let your actual content speak instead of relying on inflated phrasing.
Can writing-clearly-and-concisely help me write better commit messages?
Yes. writing-clearly-and-concisely covers writing effective commit messages by applying the same clarity principles: use imperative mood ('Add feature' not 'Added feature'), omit needless context, and lead with the change's purpose. The skill teaches you to write error messages and UI copy with the same discipline—every word must serve the reader's understanding, not pad the message.
How should I structure paragraphs and use active voice effectively?
writing-clearly-and-concisely teaches active voice as the default: 'The function returns a value' instead of 'A value is returned by the function.' Structure paragraphs around one main idea, place the topic sentence first, and support it with concrete examples. Remove passive constructions that hide the actor, and choose specific verbs that show exactly what happens rather than generic ones that obscure action.
What makes writing-clearly-and-concisely different from other writing guides?
writing-clearly-and-concisely combines Strunk's proven grammar and composition rules with practical defense against modern AI writing patterns. It's built for technical and professional contexts—documentation, commit messages, error messages, UI copy—where clarity directly impacts usability. The skill teaches you to edit ruthlessly, eliminate jargon, and write with force by removing everything that doesn't serve your reader's understanding.
SKILL.md
Rendered from the published skill. Quoted content, verbatim.
Writing Clearly and Concisely
Overview
Write with clarity and force. This skill covers what to do (Strunk) and what not to do (AI patterns).
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:
- Documentation, README files, technical explanations
- Commit messages, pull request descriptions
- Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
- Reports, summaries, or any explanation
- Editing to improve clarity
If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.
Limited Context Strategy
When context is tight:
- Write your draft using judgment
- Dispatch a subagent with your draft and the relevant section file
- Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision
Loading a single section (~1,000-4,500 tokens) instead of everything saves significant context.
Elements of Style
William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut
(truncated - see the full file via the links below)
File tree — 8 files
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/README.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/elements-of-style/01-introductory.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/elements-of-style/02-elementary-rules-of-usage.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/elements-of-style/03-elementary-principles-of-composition.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/elements-of-style/04-a-few-matters-of-form.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/elements-of-style/05-words-and-expressions-commonly-misused.md
skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/signs-of-ai-writing.md
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