elements-of-style

Original：🇨🇳 Chinese

Translated

Strunk's Writing Rules for enhancing document quality. Applicable to all texts intended for human readers: documents, reports, comments, commit messages, etc.

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Sourcepenkzhou/swiss-army-knife-plugin

Added on2026-02-17

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add penkzhou/swiss-army-knife-plugin elements-of-style

SKILL.md Content (Chinese)

View Translation Comparison →

Writing Clearly and Concisely

Overview

William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you how to write clear, concise text.

Warning:

elements-of-style.md

consumes approximately 12,000 tokens. Only read the full content when writing or editing documents.

Use Cases

Use this skill when writing text for human readers:

Documents, READMEs, technical specifications
Commit messages, Pull Request descriptions
Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
Reports, summaries, or any explanatory text

If you're writing sentences for human readers, use this skill.

Usage Strategies

Lightweight Mode (for Haiku models and simple documents)

Refer directly to the rule summary below and apply the core principles:

Rule 10: Use the active voice
Rule 11: Make positive statements
Rule 12: Use specific, definite language
Rule 13: Omit needless words
Rule 16: Keep related words close
Rule 18: Place emphasis at the end of the sentence

Deep Mode (for Sonnet/Opus models and important documents)

When creating final reports or knowledge retention documents:

First generate a draft
Use the Read tool to read
```
elements-of-style.md
```
Check Section V (Commonly Misused Words and Expressions) item by item
Refine and finalize the draft

Constrained Context Strategy

When context is limited:

Independently complete the draft based on the rule summary
Dispatch a sub-agent with the draft and
```
elements-of-style.md
```
Have the sub-agent edit and polish the draft, then return the revised version

Rule Summary

Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)

Add 's to singular possessive nouns
Use a comma after each item in a series of three or more (except the last one)
Enclose parenthetical expressions in commas
Use a comma before the conjunction introducing a coordinate clause
Do not join independent clauses with a comma
Do not break sentences in two
A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject

Elementary Principles of Composition (Writing Principles)

Each paragraph should have a single topic
Begin paragraphs with a topic sentence
Use the active voice
State in positive form
Use definite, specific, concrete language
Omit needless words
Avoid a succession of loose sentences
Express coordinate ideas in similar form
Keep related words close
Keep summaries in the same tense
Place emphasis at the end of the sentence

Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

Refer to commonly misused words alphabetically (see

elements-of-style.md

for details)

Quick Reference for Core Principles

Principle	Explanation	Example
Active Voice	The subject performs the action	✓ "The test found 3 errors" ✗ "3 errors were found by the test"
Positive Statement	Avoid double negatives	✓ "Forgot" ✗ "Did not remember"
Omit Needless Words	Simplify expressions	✓ "Now" ✗ "At the present time"
Specific Language	Avoid abstraction and vagueness	✓ "Response time 200ms" ✗ "Good performance"
Emphasis at Sentence End	Conclude with key information	✓ "Most importantly, security"

Bottom Line

Writing for humans? Read

elements-of-style.md

and apply the rules. Short on tokens? Dispatch a sub-agent to use the full guide for editing.