Prose

This skill writes and reviews long-form text: posts, breakdowns, case studies and design notes. It explains each decision through the problem it solved and the options it beat, in plain sentences told by the person who did the work.

Facts are exact, the voice is the author's

A guess stated as fact, an uncited claim and an experience the author never described are findings every time. Style rules bend to the author's draft. Their tense and register stay, and so does their choice of I or we.

Interface labels, em dashes and ellipses belong to copy. Commit messages belong to ship.

Open on where you stand

The first paragraph says what the piece is about and where the author stands: they built it, rebuilt it, use it or noticed it. The problem it answers arrives by the end of that paragraph. A line on what the piece isn't is welcome.

A contents list, "In this post I'll cover" or a feature tour as the opener is prose-open-with-context.

Tell it in the first person

The author is in the piece. "I" covers their own work and "we" a team's, saying what they built, tried, saw and dropped. A breakdown nobody seems to have written is prose-first-person.

Each decision names what it beat

State the choice, then at least one option that was considered and why it lost. "The highlight is an inset pill" with nothing beside it is prose-show-the-alternatives.

The reason is what the choice does for the person using it. "This makes it feel snappy" is prose-reason-for-the-person.

Numbers, not adjectives

Where a value exists, write the value. "A really fast spring" is prose-specifics. Words like seamless, robust, powerful, blazing and delightful are prose-no-hype.

Sentences carry their reasons

A fact travels with its consequence in the same sentence, joined by so, but or because. A reason left for the next sentence, or for the reader to supply, is prose-link-the-reason.

There is no word limit. Length is judged by ear, and a sentence that needs a second read is split. A run of short sentences or fragments for emphasis is prose-no-fragment-runs.

Lists live in the sentence

A list of two to four items goes inside one sentence, after a colon. A row of fragments standing in for that sentence is prose-list-in-the-sentence.

When the items need explaining, each one carries its gloss in brackets: spacing (a scale someone chose and stuck to), type (a size and line height tuned together). Glosses split into separate sentences are prose-gloss-in-brackets.

Tell what happened

Process is told as what the author did, in the past tense: I'd record the screen, play it back slowly and rebuild it beside the recording. Present-tense advice with no account of doing it is prose-tell-what-happened.

Talk about the work, not at the reader

Describe what the thing does and what the author did. Address the reader as you only when they are about to act, such as trying a demo. A run of instructions to the reader is prose-fewer-you.

Admit the limits of your own work

Say in passing where the author's own work falls short, without apology: the first version is always close and always wrong. A piece about the author's own work that claims no limits is prose-admit-the-limits.

Delete throat-clearing such as "It's worth noting", "Let's dive in" and "Not just X, but Y". That is prose-no-filler.

Asides sit in brackets

An aside steps out of the argument for a moment: an admission, a credit or a joke. It sits in brackets, runs under 15 words and appears at most once a section. A gloss on a list item is not an aside.

An aside that carries the argument, or a second aside in one section, is prose-asides.

Footnotes hold asides as well as sources

A footnote can carry a personal aside: the caveat, the attempt that failed, the story behind a number. A caveat that breaks the main line moves to a footnote. Leaving it inline is prose-footnote-the-caveat.

Say how you know

Each fact says where it came from: inspected, measured, read in the source or quoted. A value with no method is prose-say-how-you-know.

A claim from someone else carries a footnote linking the original. "Navigation got 30% faster" with no link is prose-cite-claims.

Mark guesses as guesses

An inference reads as one: "I think", "my guess is", "the way I read it". A motive stated as fact is prose-mark-the-guess. A measured fact wrapped in "I believe" is prose-no-hedged-facts.

Never invent the author's experience

Writing for someone else, add no anecdote, feeling or attempt they did not describe. That covers asides, footnote stories, accounts of what happened and admitted limits. "At first I wondered why" is prose-no-invented-experience. Ask for the real moment or leave the line out.

Edit the words, keep the voice

Fix spelling, grammar and order in the author's draft. Rewriting their register into yours is prose-keep-the-voice.

Spelling is British

Running text uses British spelling: colour, behaviour, centre, grey, favourite, customise, recognise, organise and judgement. Code, CSS and API names, interface labels and quoted titles keep their own spelling. "Color" in a sentence is prose-british-spelling.

Show what has shape

A sequence of steps, a comparison or a set of values goes in a list, table or figure. Five shortcuts strung through one paragraph is prose-show-the-shape.

Captions say what happens

A caption under a demo or figure describes what happens in it, in order: the menu grows out of the button, the shadow arrives on the fourth frame and the content on the sixth. A caption that states the lesson is prose-caption-the-action.

End modestly

The last line of a piece is plain: what the work does for now, what is next or how the author feels about it. A punchline, an aphorism or a summary of the headings as the ending is prose-modest-ending.

The pair

Every check is a pair. The broken line sits beside the line that replaces it.

Reporting

Severity. HIGH is an invented experience, a guess stated as fact or an uncited claim. MEDIUM is a decision with no alternative, an adjective where a number exists, hype or filler. It is also an opener with no context, a breakdown with nobody in it or a rewritten voice. So is advice with no account of doing it, or own work with no limits. LOW is an unlinked reason, a fragment run, a list or gloss split into sentences or too much you. It is also an American spelling, an inline caveat, a misused aside, a lesson caption, prose that should be a table or a punchline ending.

Format. One finding per root cause:

file:line - [rule-id] what is wrong

Then a Rule | Count | Severity summary. Block when any HIGH remains, Approve otherwise. Never Approve a file you did not read. Mark every check you could not run as Not verified.