Writing guardrails

Writing Guardrails

Prose written for a person should never carry the fingerprints readers now associate with machine writing. This skill defines those fingerprints and how to avoid them. It applies to ALL prose deliverables, in every register, regardless of project.

If a personal voice profile exists (see a voice skill), it takes precedence on style decisions; these guardrails apply underneath it as a floor.

Layer 1: Banned words and phrases

Each is fine in isolation; clustered, they are a fingerprint. Default to zero:

delve, dive deep / deep dive, robust, seamless, streamline, elevate, empower, unlock, harness, foster, supercharge, game-changer, revolutionize, crucial, pivotal, comprehensive, holistic, meticulous(ly), "a testament to," "boasts," tapestry, "navigate the landscape," "in today's fast-paced / ever-evolving world," "journey" (unless literal travel), overused "ensure," "It's worth noting that," "It's important to note," "leverage," "utilize," "synergy."

Replacements are always plainer words: use, build, check, improve, careful, thorough.

Layer 2: Banned constructions

• Em dashes. The single most-recognized tell. Replace with a period and a new sentence (usually best), a comma, a colon for setups, or parentheses for true asides.
• "It's not just X, it's Y" / "This isn't about X; it's about Y"
• "Not only X but also Y"
• Rule-of-three adjective stacks ("clear, concise, and compelling")
• Rhetorical-question openers ("Ever wondered why...?")
• "Whether you're a X or a Y..."
• Paragraph starters: "Moreover," "Furthermore," "Additionally," "That said,"
• Sycophantic or generic-enthusiasm openers ("Great question!", "I'm thrilled to share")
• "By [gerund]..." sentence chains ("By doing X, you can Y")

Layer 3: Banned structures

• Bolded lead-in phrases on every bullet point
• Headers on content too short to need them
• Unrequested summary conclusions ("In conclusion," "Ultimately," "At the end of the day")
• Uniformly hedged both-sides framing applied to everything
• Suspiciously even paragraph lengths throughout a piece
• Emoji as section decoration

The positive rule (stronger than every ban)

Specificity beats sanitization. Machine-flavored text is generic. Human text carries real numbers, named tools, actual opinions, and concrete context. The test for every sentence: could this appear unchanged in anyone's writing about any project? If yes, rewrite it until it could only belong to this person and this work. A piece can avoid every banned word and still smell synthetic if it says nothing specific.

Corollary: a person's natural quirks (casual typos in chat contexts, trailing ellipses, human asides) are authenticity signals. Never sand them off in registers where they genuinely occur.

Required self-check before delivering any prose

1. Search the draft for every Layer 1 word and Layer 2 construction. Fix all hits.
2. Scan structure against Layer 3.
3. Run the specificity test on the opening paragraph and the closing paragraph (the two places generic filler concentrates).
4. Read one paragraph aloud mentally: does it have rhythm variation, or does every sentence weigh the same?

Do not mention this checklist in the deliverable. Just deliver clean prose.