Humanize writing

Humanize

Strip the machine tells from a draft. Stance: authentic writing, never detector tricks. Every rule applies in every language.

Vocabulary

Banned AI words. Use the human alternative:

AI word	Human	AI word	Human
leverage	use	utilize	use
unlock	find, get, build	implement	build, ship, start
empower	help	demonstrate	show
delve	dig into	subsequently	then
foster	build, create	methodology	method
robust	strong, solid	endeavor	try
holistic	full picture	commence	start
nuanced	tricky, specific	approximately	about
landscape	market, world, space	sufficient	enough
resonate	hit home, clicked	prior to	before
comprehensive	full, thorough	in order to	to
facilitate	run, organize	with regard to	about
optimize (outside eng)	improve, fix	in the event that	if
catalyst	trigger, reason	at this point in time	now
streamline	simplify, cut	synergy	working together
tapestry	mix, mess	thought leadership	what I learned
navigate (metaphor)	handle, deal with	deep dive	closer look, breakdown
game-changer	what moved the needle	paradigm	way of thinking

Banned phrases. "In today's fast-paced world", "It's worth noting that", "I'm excited to announce", "Let me share", "Here's the thing", "The key takeaway is", "Not only X but also Y", "At the end of the day", "It goes without saying", "Without further ado", "Having said that", "Moving forward", "First and foremost", "Last but not least", "A testament to", "Serves as a reminder", "In an era where", "It's important to remember", "While X, it's important to consider Y", "As someone who", "Imagine a world where", "Picture this".

Banned transitions. Furthermore, Moreover, Additionally, That being said, On the flip side, It's also worth considering, Building on that point, This brings us to, With that in mind. Just start the next thought. New paragraph, or "But." on its own line.

Read-aloud test. If you wouldn't say the sentence to a colleague over coffee, simplify it.

No scare quotes. Quote actual people or use no quotes. "Servant leadership" in quotes is a tell.

Punctuation and formatting

1. No em dashes (—) or en dashes (–). Anywhere, any language. Use period, comma, colon, +, or new line. Hyphens in compounds (co-founder) are fine.
2. No parentheses as asides. Restructure into a sentence. Parens for citations and URLs only.
3. No over-formatting. Social and email: no headers, bold 1-2 phrases max, white space does the structure.
4. Emojis: one functional pointer or none. No decoration.
5. Vary comma cadence. If most sentences carry exactly one mid-sentence comma, mix in zero-comma sentences, a colon, a fragment. Kill the in-sentence rule of three ("clear, concise, and compelling"): two adjectives or one.

Structure

• Openers, kill: "In today's...", "As a [role], I've learned...", "Have you ever wondered", "[Topic] is one of the most important", "Let me share a story", "I recently had the opportunity", "There's a common misconception". Start mid-story instead: a scene, a number, a claim, a contradiction. Specific from word one.
• Closers, kill: "In conclusion", "To sum up", "Remember, the key is", "I'd love to hear your thoughts", "What strategies have worked for you?", "Here's to...", any recap, any optimistic bow. End on a wedge, a punchline, an honest admission, or just stop.
• Paragraph asymmetry: no three consecutive paragraphs with the same sentence count. Mix 1-sentence with 3-4-sentence paragraphs. Overall shape lopsided: two long blocks + one short, never n equal headed sections. On social: one thought per line.
• Lists: 2 or 4 items over 3 or 5. Items unequal in length and grammar. No bold-header-plus-explanation per item. No alliterative "three pillars" names.

Statistical tells

• Burstiness: sentence lengths must spike and drop. At least one sentence of 6 words or fewer per ~120 words. Flag any draft where most sentences sit in one 10-word band. Over 25 words: read aloud, split unless the length earns it.
• Predictability: hide a sentence's last word; if a reader could guess it, swap for the surprising concrete one. Kill stock collocations: "vibrant community", "invaluable insights", "seamless experience", "actionable takeaways", "meaningful impact".
• Hedging cap: max 1 hedge per 300 words (might, perhaps, potentially, arguably, "tends to", "can help", "it seems"). Never two in one sentence. No both-sides shrug: pick a side.
• Specificity: every "many people / various companies / several leaders / significant growth" becomes a number, name, or date, or gets cut. Never invent one.
• Honest negativity: things that sucked stay sucked. No silver linings, no "blessing in disguise". "I don't know" is allowed.
• One messy detail: too-clean examples are a tell. "Inherited 30 microservices and almost no docs" beats the perfectly illustrative version.

Calibration

AI-smooth (kill):

In today's rapidly evolving software landscape, effective code review is more important than ever. By fostering a culture of constructive feedback, teams can unlock significant improvements. In conclusion, code review is not just a process, but a mindset.

Human:

Our code reviews took 4 days. Not because the code was hard. Because nobody wanted to go first.

One change: reviews not picked up by lunch bounce back, author ships behind a flag. Average now: 7 hours. Two people hated it and said so in the retro. First honest retro all year.

What NOT to do

No evasion tricks: no homoglyphs, no invisible or zero-width characters, no deliberate typos or planted mistakes, no paraphrase-spinning. They break copy, search, and screen readers, and they're dishonest. If a draft only passes because of a trick, it failed. The honest version of imperfection is not over-editing: fragments, starting with And or But.

Self-verification before delivery

Grep (each must be zero or fixed):

1. — or –
2. Any banned word from the table
3. Any banned phrase or transition
4. In today's|In an era|As someone who|Have you ever|Let me share|I recently had
5. In conclusion|To sum up|I'd love to hear|What strategies|Here's to
6. [Mm]any |[Vv]arious |[Ss]everal + plural noun
7. Hedges over 1 per 300 words
8. Parens not wrapping a citation or URL
9. Decorative emojis

Judgment (pass/fail, all must pass):

10. Burstiness: lengths jump, at least one ultra-short sentence, no clustering
11. Paragraphs uneven; lists (if any) unsymmetric
12. Opens mid-story with a specific; ends with no recap, no bow
13. No guessable endings or stock collocations; one messy real detail present
14. A side is picked; negatives stay negative
15. Read-aloud passes

Below 15/15: fix and re-run, or tell the user exactly which check failed and why it stays.