Write

> **How to use this file**: it is a catalog of smells, not a checklist to run top to bottom. The principles in `SKILL.md` Core Stance apply here too: over-editing is failure, the author's voice and genre win, and these lists are examples, not find-and-replace. A sentence that already reads natural stays. Match the smell, not the word.

## English Scenario

Eliminate predictable AI writing patterns. Write like a human: varied, imperfect, specific.

### Core Rules

1. **Cut filler phrases.** Remove throat-clearing openers, emphasis crutches, and adverbs that only signal emphasis. Keep adverbs that carry real meaning.
2. **Break formulaic structures.** Avoid binary contrasts, negative listings, dramatic fragmentation, rhetorical setups, false agency.
3. **Use active voice.** Every sentence needs a human subject doing something. No inanimate objects performing human actions ("the complaint becomes a fix").
4. **Be specific.** No vague declaratives ("The reasons are structural"). Name the specific thing. No lazy extremes ("every," "always," "never") doing vague work.
5. **Put the reader in the room.** No narrator-from-a-distance voice. "You" beats "People." Specifics beat abstractions.
6. **Vary rhythm.** Mix sentence lengths. Two items beat three. End paragraphs differently. No em dashes.
7. **Trust readers.** State facts directly. Skip softening, justification, hand-holding.
8. **Cut quotables.** If it sounds like a pull-quote, rewrite it.
9. **Do not replace one formula with another.** “Human” does not mean slangy, quirky, or performatively casual.
10. **No emoji.** Remove any emoji from the text being edited.

### Word Choice

Examples, not exhaustive -- any word used to signal importance rather than to say something is suspect.

**Overused emphasis adverbs (cut these when they only signal importance, not every adverb):**
"quietly", "deeply", "fundamentally", "remarkably", "arguably", "certainly", "really", "just", "literally", "genuinely", "honestly", "simply", "actually"

> NO: "quietly orchestrating workflows" / "fundamentally reshape how we think"
> OK: Say what it does. Drop the adverb.

**AI vocabulary: replace with plain language:**

| Avoid | Use instead |
|-------|-------------|
| delve (into) | examine, look at, explore |
| leverage (as verb) | use |
| utilize | use |
| robust | strong, reliable, solid |
| streamline | simplify, cut |
| harness | use, apply |
| navigate (challenges) | handle, address |
| unpack | explain, examine |
| paradigm | system, approach, model |
| synergy | combination, cooperation |
| ecosystem | community, network, field |
| tapestry | mix, combination |
| landscape | situation, field, area |
| game-changer | significant, important |
| deep dive | analysis, examination |
| moving forward | next, from now |

**Pompous copulas: use "is" instead:**
> NO: "serves as", "stands as", "marks", "represents"
> OK: "is"

### Sentence Structures to Avoid

Examples, not exhaustive -- any construction that performs insight rather than delivers it belongs here.

**Negative parallelism**: the single most common AI tell:
> NO: "It's not bold. It's backwards." / "Not because X, but because Y." / "The question isn't X. The question is Y."
> OK: State Y directly. Drop the negation entirely.

**Negative countdown:**
> NO: "Not a bug. Not a feature. A fundamental design flaw."
> OK: "It's a fundamental design flaw."

**Rhetorical self-questions:**
> NO: "The result? Devastating." / "The worst part? Nobody saw it coming."
> OK: State it: "The result was devastating."

**Anaphora abuse**: repeating the same sentence opener:
> NO: "They assume that... They assume that... They assume that..."
> OK: Combine or restructure. One statement, clear subject.

**Tricolon abuse**: rule of three, used three times back to back:
> NO: "Products impress people; platforms empower them. Products solve problems; platforms create worlds."
> OK: Make the point once, cleanly.

**False ranges:**
> NO: "From innovation to cultural transf