name: writing-clearly-and-concisely description: Apply Strunk's writing rules to any prose humans will read—documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Makes your writing clearer.

Writing Clearly and Concisely

Overview

William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.

NOTE: elements-of-style.md is now condensed to ~1,400 tokens while preserving all essential rules.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

• Documentation, README files, technical explanations
• Commit messages, pull request descriptions
• Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
• Reports, summaries, or any explanation
• Editing to improve clarity

If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.

How to Use

Three reference levels depending on context:

1. Ultra-fast lookup: quick-reference.md (~300 tokens) - All rules on one page
2. Complete guide: elements-of-style.md (~1,400 tokens) - Full examples and technical writing guidance
3. Test examples: ../../../examples/writing-examples.md - 100+ before/after examples

Choose based on available context and complexity of writing task.

All Rules

Section II: Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)

1. Form possessive singular by adding 's
2. Use comma after each term in series except last
3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
4. Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
5. Don't join independent clauses by comma
6. Don't break sentences in two
7. Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject

Section III: Elementary Principles of Composition

1. One paragraph per topic
2. Begin paragraph with topic sentence
3. Use active voice ⭐
4. Put statements in positive form ⭐
5. Use definite, specific, concrete language ⭐
6. Omit needless words ⭐
7. Avoid succession of loose sentences
8. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
9. Keep related words together ⭐
10. Keep to one tense in summaries
11. Place emphatic words at end of sentence ⭐

⭐ = Most impactful for technical writing

Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

Alphabetical reference for usage questions

Bottom Line

Writing for humans? Read elements-of-style.md and apply the rules.