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writing-clearly-and-concisely

writing-clearly-and-concisely

github.com/obraProductivity6072.1k installsUpdated 11w ago
Repository

About writing-clearly-and-concisely

A writing skill based on The Elements of Style that guides drafting and editing prose for human readers. It covers grammar, composition, and concise wording across documentation, messages, and explanations.

Key features

  1. 01Grammar and punctuation guidance
  2. 02Composition principles
  3. 03Active, specific wording
  4. 04Advice for cutting needless words

Use cases

  1. 01Editing technical documentation
  2. 02Writing commit and pull request messages
  3. 03Improving UI copy and error messages

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

$npx skills add https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style --skill writing-clearly-and-concisely

After installing, type/writing-clearly-and-conciselyin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Bundled fileselements-of-style.md

Details

From the project README

Writing Clearly and Concisely

Overview

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

WARNING: elements-of-style.md consumes ~12,000 tokens. Read it only when writing or editing prose.

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.

Limited Context Strategy

When context is tight:

  1. Write your draft using judgment
  2. Dispatch a subagent with your draft and elements-of-style.md
  3. Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision

All Rules

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
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
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. Low on tokens? Dispatch a subagent to copyedit with the guide.

Comments

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