AgentSkillsCN

writing-clearly-and-concisely

将斯特伦克那永不过时的写作法则，灵活运用于人类阅读的各类文本——无论是文档、commit信息、错误提示、说明文字、报告，还是UI文案。让您的文字表达更加清晰、有力，同时更具专业性与说服力。

SKILL.md
--- frontmatter
name: writing-clearly-and-concisely
description: Apply Strunk's timeless writing rules to ANY prose humans will read - documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Makes your writing clearer, stronger, and more professional.

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.

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 {baseDir}/elements-of-style.md and apply the rules.