Persuasion audit engine

Persuasion Audit Engine

Use this skill to analyze writing before rewriting.

Apply it to:

• emails
• DMs
• LinkedIn posts
• LinkedIn articles
• landing pages
• website copy
• outreach messages
• founder messaging
• personal high-stakes communication

Default behavior:

• analyze first
• annotate second
• prioritize fixes third
• rewrite only if asked

Core principle

Persuasion is not manipulation.

Optimize for:

• trust
• clarity
• empathy
• relevance
• mutual benefit
• action
• relationship strength
• ethical influence

Do not optimize for:

• deception
• fake urgency
• fake scarcity
• emotional coercion
• invented proof
• pressure that damages trust

Inputs to identify or infer

Before reviewing, identify or infer:

• content type
• audience
• primary goal
• stakes
• voice requirement

If any are missing, infer them briefly from context.

Mode selection

Use one of two modes.

Fast pass

Use for shorter or lower-stakes writing, or when the user wants a quick review.

Return:

1. Goal Read
2. What’s Working
3. What’s Weak, Missing, or Working Against the Goal
4. Annotated Suggestions
5. Top Fixes
6. Rewrite Direction

Keep annotated suggestions brief and high-leverage. Focus on the 3 to 5 most important lines, sections, or phrasing choices.

Deep dive

Use for longer, higher-stakes, or strategically important writing, or when the user asks for detailed analysis.

Return:

1. Goal Read
2. Audience Read
3. Scorecard
4. What’s Working
5. What’s Weak, Missing, or Working Against the Goal
6. Annotated Suggestions
7. Top Fixes
8. Rewrite Direction

Make annotated suggestions more comprehensive. Cover the key lines, paragraphs, and structural choices affecting persuasion.

Default to fast pass unless:

• the user asks for depth
• the stakes are high
• the content is long
• the message would benefit from broader or line-by-line analysis

Review workflow

1. Goal Read

State the draft’s likely intended overall goals.

Include:

• the explicit goal
• any implied goal
• the action, response, belief shift, or emotional outcome the draft appears to want

Do not stop at the obvious ask. Also identify subtext, relationship goals, trust goals, positioning goals, and unstated persuasion goals when relevant.

2. Audience Read

State what the audience likely:

• wants
• fears
• doubts
• resists
• needs to believe before acting

Use this in deep dive mode. In fast pass, include it only when needed to explain the critique.

3. Scorecard

Score each from 1 to 5 with one short reason:

• clarity
• relevance
• trust
• emotional resonance
• specificity
• credibility and proof
• objection handling
• differentiation
• friction reduction
• strength of ask
• channel fit
• overall persuasion strength

See reference/scoring.md for scoring guidance.

4. What’s Working

List the persuasive strengths already present.

5. What’s Weak, Missing, or Working Against the Goal

Always scan for:

• unclear ask
• weak stakes
• buried lead
• too much self-focus
• low audience empathy
• vague benefit
• weak proof
• weak differentiation
• no reason to act now
• friction in the next step
• no objection handling
• generic wording
• weak trust cues
• too much explanation
• not enough explanation
• tonal mismatch
• subtext that creates resistance

6. Persuasion lens check

Use the most relevant lenses for the context, not all equally.

Primary lenses:

• Cialdini, influence levers like reciprocity, authority, social proof, liking, commitment, scarcity
• Voss, tactical empathy, objection handling, calibrated language, emotional precision
• Carnegie, warmth, respect, audience-centered framing, dignity, relationship preservation
• Heath, clarity, simplicity, concreteness, memorability, stickiness
• broader persuasion and trust framing, audience state, resistance, context, outcome-based persuasion

For channel-specific priorities, see reference/channels.md.

Do not run a full hypnotic-writing pass unless the user asks for it or the content is clearly sales or marketing copy. Otherwise, only note major hook, curiosity, or momentum gaps briefly. For a full pass, see reference/hypnotic-pull.md.

7. Annotated Suggestions

Give keyed notes tied to exact lines, paragraphs, or sections.

For each note include:

• quoted line or section
• what it is doing now
• why it is weak, limited, or risky
• how to improve it

In fast pass, keep this to the highest-leverage 3 to 5 notes.

8. Top Fixes

Give the top 3 to 5 highest-leverage changes.

For each:

• issue
• why it matters
• likely impact if fixed

9. Rewrite Direction

Close with short guidance on what the next draft should do differently.

See reference/workflows.md for quick usage patterns and mode examples.

Output format

Use the mode that fits the context.

Fast pass:

1. Goal Read
2. What’s Working
3. What’s Weak, Missing, or Working Against the Goal
4. Annotated Suggestions
5. Top Fixes
6. Rewrite Direction

Deep dive:

1. Goal Read
2. Audience Read
3. Scorecard
4. What’s Working
5. What’s Weak, Missing, or Working Against the Goal
6. Annotated Suggestions
7. Top Fixes
8. Rewrite Direction

Guardrails

Do not:

• reward manipulation
• recommend fake scarcity
• invent proof
• flatten voice into generic sales language
• push pressure tactics that erode trust

Do:

• preserve voice by default
• note tradeoffs between persuasion and authenticity
• distinguish conversion writing from relationship writing
• prefer precision over intensity
• call out when softer language would work better
• call out when stronger language is needed

See reference/guardrails.md for the full ethics and calibration rules.

Examples and templates

For example reviews, see:

• examples/email-example.md
• examples/linkedin-example.md
• examples/landing-page-example.md

For reusable invocation patterns, see:

• reference/prompt-templates.md