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Add writing-clearly-and-concisely skill from tigris-blog (#1147)
Copy the Strunk-based writing skill that applies Elements of Style rules to prose. Includes the SKILL.md and full elements-of-style.md reference. https://claude.ai/code/session_01VXpXouWGyQna6JLksukFup Co-authored-by: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
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---
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name: writing-clearly-and-concisely
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description:
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Apply Strunk's timeless writing rules to ANY prose humans will
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read—documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or
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UI text. Makes your writing clearer, stronger, and more professional.
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---
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# Writing Clearly and Concisely
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## Overview
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William Strunk Jr.'s _The Elements of Style_ (1918) teaches you to write clearly
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and cut ruthlessly.
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**WARNING:** `elements-of-style.md` consumes ~12,000 tokens. Read it only when
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writing or editing prose.
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## When to Use This Skill
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Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:
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- Documentation, README files, technical explanations
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- Commit messages, pull request descriptions
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- Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
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- Reports, summaries, or any explanation
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- Editing to improve clarity
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**If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.**
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## Limited Context Strategy
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When context is tight:
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1. Write your draft using judgment
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2. Dispatch a subagent with your draft and `elements-of-style.md`
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3. Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision
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## All Rules
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### Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)
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1. Form possessive singular by adding 's
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2. Use comma after each term in series except last
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3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
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4. Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
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5. Don't join independent clauses by comma
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6. Don't break sentences in two
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7. Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject
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### Elementary Principles of Composition
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8. One paragraph per topic
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9. Begin paragraph with topic sentence
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10. **Use active voice**
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11. **Put statements in positive form**
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12. **Use definite, specific, concrete language**
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13. **Omit needless words**
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14. Avoid succession of loose sentences
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15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
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16. **Keep related words together**
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17. Keep to one tense in summaries
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18. **Place emphatic words at end of sentence**
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### Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused
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Alphabetical reference for usage questions
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## Bottom Line
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Writing for humans? Read `elements-of-style.md` and apply the rules. Low on
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tokens? Dispatch a subagent to copyedit with the guide.

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