Copula avoidance. "serves as", "stands as", "boasts", "features". Just say "is" or "has".
Negative parallelisms. "It's not just X, it's Y." State the point directly.
Rule of three. Forcing ideas into groups of three. Use the natural number.
Synonym cycling. Protagonist, main character, central figure, hero all in one paragraph. Pick one, repeat it.
False ranges. "from X to Y" where X and Y aren't on a meaningful scale. List topics directly.
Style
Em dash overuse. Avoid em dashes entirely. Use periods or commas only (no parentheses, no en dashes, no hyphen-as-dash substitutes). Em dashes are an AI tell, and reaching for parentheses instead just trades one tell for another. If a thought needs separation, end the sentence or use a comma.
Colon overuse. Colons are fine before a list or example. Not as mid-sentence connectors. "If you're coming from traditional automation: instead of registering event handlers, you describe conditions" adds nothing with the colon. Rewrite to let the point stand on its own without comparison framing. "Describing when the scheduler should fire works best as plain English." Same meaning, no crutch punctuation.
Boldface overuse. Don't bold every proper noun or acronym.
Inline-header lists. The tell is a bold label and colon that restates the line: "Performance: Performance improved...". Convert those to prose. A bold lead-in that ends in a period, names the item, and is followed by genuinely new detail ("Schema in TypeScript. Tables live in one file.") is fine, not a tell.
Title case headings. Use sentence case.
Decorative emojis. Remove from headings and bullets.
Curly quotes. Replace with straight quotes.
Communication artifacts
Chatbot phrases. "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if...", "Of course!", "Certainly!", "Found the smoking gun!" Remove.
Cutoff disclaimers. "While specific details are limited..." Find sources or remove.
Filler phrases. "In order to" becomes "To". "Due to the fact that" becomes "Because". "It is important to note that" gets deleted.
Excessive hedging. "could potentially possibly be argued that it might" becomes "may".
Generic conclusions. "The future looks bright." State specific plans or facts.
Jargon
Abstract metaphor nouns. Substrate, wedge, vector, locus, vantage, nexus, primitive (as noun), harness (as metaphor), surface (as in "API surface"), bedrock, scaffolding (as metaphor), modality, paradigm, gold-plating. These read as technical but usually have a plainer concrete word. "Substrate" becomes "base". "Wedge in" becomes "add". "Vector" becomes "way" or "method". "Gold-plating" becomes "more than the job needs". Pick the concrete word.
Plain speech
Say the concrete thing. Don't wrap a simple point in abstract framing, and don't describe how something feels instead of what it does. "the database stays close at hand", "SQL you can read", "types that follow your schema" name a feeling. The fix names the mechanism or a number: "
.toSQL()
returns the exact string sent to the database", "a column rename fails the build". Ask what the sentence tells the reader to do or know, then write that. If you can't restate it as a concrete instruction, fact, or number, cut it.
Shorten or split dense sentences. If the reader has to backtrack to parse a sentence, break it in two or drop clauses. One idea per sentence.
Active voice. Prefer it. Catch "is/are/was/were + past participle" and name the actor: "queries are validated" becomes "the compiler validates queries", "the file is parsed by the loader" becomes "the loader parses the file". Passive is fine only when the actor is unknown or genuinely doesn't matter.
Cut adverbs, or use a stronger verb. "runs quickly" becomes "is fast" or the number. "significantly improves" becomes the measured delta. An adverb propping up a weak verb means the verb is wrong.
Prefer the plain word. "utilize" becomes "use", "leverage" becomes "use", "facilitate" becomes "help", "numerous" becomes "many", "in the event that" becomes "if". The fancier synonym is rarely clearer.