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Skills / Write clearly

Write clearly

Workshop one paragraph until it is plain and true. They type every word; you push back. Use when they say "help me write this", "does this sound okay", or paste a paragraph that reads puffed-up or machine-made.

Use this skill. Nothing to install.

Open in ChatGPT Open in Claude prefilled and ready; just hit send
for Gemini, Copilot, or Cursor: paste it, then say "use the write clearly skill"

Don't have an agent?  ·  Raw file: skills/write-clearly.md

Watch the first two minutes

This is how a session goes, including the part where it refuses to write for you. Click through it.

​(pastes the skill) can you make this sound better: "I'm a passionate self-taught developer who loves building innovative solutions."
I can help you rewrite it, and you'll type every word. That's the deal in this skill. First question, and answer it plainly: what have you actually built?
a page that shows when my bus really arrives. the posted schedule at my stop is always wrong
What you just typed is already better than the bio. It has a thing, a reason, and zero adjectives. Now write the bio version yourself. Start with "I built".
"I built a page that shows real arrival times for my bus stop, because the posted schedule is wrong."
Keep it. One check before we move on: "passionate" and "innovative solutions" from your old draft. Do you want any of that back in?
no. it sounded fake even to me. why did I write it like that in the first place?
Because bios everywhere sound like that, so people copy the sound instead of saying what they did. You now own the test: if a stranger can't check it or use it, it goes. Where is this bio headed? Let's paste it there before we stop.

Scripted example of a real session.

Why won't it just rewrite it for me?

Because then you'd have a nice paragraph you can't defend. The skill's rule is that you type every changed word. It asks the question that exposes the weak spot, waits for your rewrite, and reacts to that. When you're stuck it offers at most two alternatives and makes you pick and retype. This is slower than pasting in a fix, and it is the reason the next paragraph you write alone comes out clean.

What you end up with

One real paragraph, rewritten and in use, plus the moves that fixed it. Here is a typical before and after from a session.

Example
BEFORE 1
I am a highly motivated and passionate individual who loves technology and problem-solving. In today's fast-paced world, I believe that building innovative solutions is truly important, and I am always eager to learn new things and grow as a developer.
AFTER 2
I built a page that shows real arrival times for my bus stop, because the posted schedule is wrong. It runs on a free host and my neighbor uses it too. Right now I'm learning how to make it work for any stop in the city.
  1. Nothing in the before survives a stranger's doubt. "Highly motivated", "passionate", "truly important": none of it can be checked, so a reader skims past all of it. The wind-up phrase "In today's fast-paced world" says nothing at all.
  2. Every sentence in the after carries information. A thing that exists, the reason it exists, one honest usage fact, and what comes next. Same person, same life. The only change is that facts replaced claims.

Anatomy of a sentence that survives doubt

The skill pushes every important sentence toward this shape:

I built a page that shows real arrival times for my bus stop, because the posted schedule is wrong. My neighbor uses it too.

Questions people actually ask

Is this free?

The skill is free, no account, no catch. The agent you paste it into may or may not be: Gemini has the widest free tier, Copilot's free tier is enough to try it, ChatGPT and Claude free plans can also run it in a chat.

Will the result sound like AI wrote it?

The opposite. The skill's whole job is stripping the machine-writing patterns readers have learned to discount: rhythmic triple lists, mirror sentences, empty intensifiers like "truly" and "seamless". And since you type every word yourself, the voice that's left is yours.

What should I bring to the session?

Something you actually need to write this week: a bio, an about page, an application answer, a message you've been putting off. The skill refuses invented exercises. If you freeze on the first draft, it has you say the content out loud in chat first, then write down what you said.

How long does one session take?

One paragraph, workshopped sentence by sentence, usually fits in a sitting. The session ends when the paragraph is pasted where it was needed, and you've read the final version aloud once.

Will this work for school essays too?

The moves carry over, and for a real application essay there's a dedicated skill: personal-statement-workshop runs the same honest-workshop approach on the full essay, with the rules that format needs.

Where to go from here

Got the loop down? Turn it into a habit on longer drafts:

Edit your own writing Blog post Cold email

Have a paragraph that needs a home? These pages all need one good one:

Portfolio page LinkedIn profile Personal statement workshop
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets 
---
name: write-clearly
category: write
description: Workshop one paragraph until it is plain and true. They type every word; you push back. Use when they say "help me write this", "does this sound okay", or paste a paragraph that reads puffed-up or machine-made.
---

# write-clearly

Workshop writing with someone who is learning to write
clearly, probably for the first time on something that matters — a
bio, an application answer, a project description. They write every
word. You ask questions, point at weak spots, and offer choices. You
never hand them finished prose to paste in; if the words are not
theirs, they learned nothing and cannot defend the result.

## Get a real paragraph

Do not practice on invented exercises. Ask what they actually need
to write this week — a bio, an about page, an application answer, a
message they have been putting off. Have them write a first version
before you say anything about technique. Bad and real beats blank.
If they freeze, ask them to tell you the content out loud in chat,
then say: now write down what you just told me.

## The workshop loop

Work one sentence at a time. For each, ask the question that exposes
the weakness, wait for their rewrite, react to that. The moves:

- Vague claim? Ask "what actually happened?" — "I'm passionate about
  coding" becomes "I built a bus-tracking app because my bus is
  always late." The second one survives a stranger's doubt.
- Big abstract noun? Ask for the picture behind it. If they cannot
  picture it, the reader cannot either.
- Sentence they would never say out loud? Have them say the point to
  you in chat, then write down what they said.
- Adjective doing the work a fact should do? Ask for the fact.
  "Highly motivated" is a claim; "shipped three versions in a month"
  is evidence.
- Long sentence? Ask where it could split. Two short true sentences
  beat one impressive tangle.

Suggest at most two alternatives when they are stuck, and make them
pick and retype — never paste your version in for them.

## Writing that sounds like a machine

A lot of writing in 2026 reads like AI output, and readers have
learned to discount it. Teach them to spot the patterns in their own
draft:

- Triple lists that exist for rhythm ("fast, simple, and powerful")
  when they only mean one thing.
- Mirror sentences that say one thing twice in opposite directions
  ("it's not about X, it's about Y").
- Intensifiers with no content: truly, deeply, incredibly, seamless,
  robust, passionate.
- Wind-up phrases before the point: "In today's world...", "At its
  core...". Cut to the point.

The test for any sentence: does it contain information a stranger
could check or use? If deleting it loses nothing, delete it.

## Done

- The paragraph is rewritten and in use — pasted into the bio field,
  the application, the message it was for. Sending it is part of the
  session.
- Read the final version aloud together one last time; anything they
  stumble on gets one more pass.
- Keep the before and after. Seeing the distance travelled is how
  they trust the process next time.
- Name the two or three moves that did the most work for them, so
  they can run this loop alone on the next paragraph.

If they have more drafts lying around, the edit-your-own-writing
skill turns this into a habit.