--- title: "writing-clearly-and-concisely by obra · skilld" canonical_url: "https://skilld.dev/gh/obra/the-elements-of-style" meta: 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… From obra/the-elements-of-style." "og: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… From obra/the-elements-of-style." "og:title": "writing-clearly-and-concisely by obra" "twitter: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… From obra/the-elements-of-style." "twitter:title": "writing-clearly-and-concisely by obra" --- ` [All skills](https://skilld.dev/skills) [![obra avatar](https://skilld.dev/_img/avatar?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Fobra.png%3Fsize%3D96)](https://skilld.dev/gh/obra) # **/writing-clearly-and-concisely** [@6099c50](https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style/commit/6099c505c2a8eb066f3777f83a97d9d828f7954c "Your agent reads SKILL.md at commit 6099c50") by [Jesse Vincent](https://skilld.dev/gh/obra)· [obra](https://skilld.dev/gh/obra)/ [the-elements-of-style](https://skilld.dev/gh/obra/the-elements-of-style)·590 stars 78 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. - 2 files - 71.5 KB - Updated last year - [GitHub](https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style/blob/6099c505c2a8eb066f3777f83a97d9d828f7954c/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.md "View SKILL.md on GitHub") - [1 warning](#third-party-checks "Third-party checks: 1 warning · 5 checks · Risk SAFE") ## SKILL.md 2.2 KB **≈61** tokens always: the name and description. **≈485** when used: this file. **≈18k** more on demand in 1 file. ## 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 8. One paragraph per topic 9. Begin paragraph with topic sentence 10. **Use active voice** 11. **Put statements in positive form** 12. **Use definite, specific, concrete language** 13. **Omit needless words** 14. Avoid succession of loose sentences 15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form 16. **Keep related words together** 17. Keep to one tense in summaries 18. **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. Source: [SKILL.md on GitHub](https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style/blob/6099c505c2a8eb066f3777f83a97d9d828f7954c/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.md) ## Third-party checks
1 warning16d5 checks · Risk SAFE - Gen Agent Trust Hub16d This skill provides Strunk's classic writing guidelines for improving prose clarity. It consists entirely of informational Markdown documentation and contains no executable code or network operations. - Socket16d No alerts - Snyk16d Risk: LOW · No issues - Runlayer7mo 2/2 files flagged - ZeroLeaks5mo Score: 93/100 · 2 sections analyzed
## Provenance [Signed by skilld at 6099c50.](https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style/commit/6099c505c2a8eb066f3777f83a97d9d828f7954c "6099c505c2a8eb066f3777f83a97d9d828f7954c") This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions. Last checked against GitHub 2 months ago. Steadyupdated last year ## README badge ![README badge for obra/the-elements-of-style](https://skilld.dev/b/obra/the-elements-of-style?theme=light&label=0) ## Related skills - - - - - -