# Writing quality guidance

Use these rules as general editing guidance. They are not a writer profile and
must never override the writer's requested meaning, facts, quotations, or
reviewed preferences.

## Clarity

- State the concrete claim directly. Remove throat-clearing such as “it is
  important to note” when the sentence works without it.
- Prefer precise nouns and verbs to vague abstractions or inflated language.
- Explain technical terms in plain language when the intended reader may not
  know them.
- Preserve necessary uncertainty. Do not turn a qualified claim into a certain
  one.

## Structure

- Make each paragraph advance one identifiable part of the argument.
- Remove repeated conclusions unless repetition is clearly deliberate.
- Use transitions that express cause, contrast, chronology, or qualification.
  Avoid sentences that merely announce what comes next.
- Keep openings and endings specific. Do not add generic introductions,
  summaries, or claims about the importance of the subject.

## Voice

- Preserve deliberate rhythm, fragments, repetition, informality, and unusual
  syntax when they are effective.
- Avoid canned dramatic patterns, empty rhetorical questions, and manufactured
  suspense.
- Do not add grand claims, moral urgency, or decorative language unsupported by
  the draft.
- Never imitate a named writer or copy distinctive phrases from a sample.

## Revision discipline

- Prefer the smallest change that solves the identified problem.
- Do not change facts, names, numbers, quotations, or citations unless the
  writer explicitly asks.
- Do not flatten all sentences to the same length or cadence.
- If the passage already works, return no suggestion.
