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Prose Quality Checks

This document defines plain-language checks for prose quality. Treat these as writing standards, not tool instructions.

Core Check Families​

Tier A: Mandatory Everywhere​

  • Inclusive and respectful language
  • Acronyms defined on first meaningful mention
  • Heading sentence case and no end punctuation in headings
  • Consistent spacing and punctuation basics
  • Terminology consistency across a document

Tier B: Mandatory Except Strict Academic/Science Contexts​

  • Prefer contractions when they improve natural clarity in non-formal contexts
  • Limit first-person and first-person-plural overuse
  • Prefer Oxford comma for list clarity
  • Replace heavy semicolon chains with simpler sentence structure
  • Keep dash and hyphen usage consistent
  • Keep sentence lengths varied and generally short-to-medium

Tier C: Advisory​

  • Ellipsis restraint
  • Selective substitutions for overly complex wording
  • Stylistic choices that may be intentionally bent for voice

Additional Clarity Checks​

Rule: Avoid Passive Voice When Agent Matters​

Description: Use active voice when responsibility or action ownership is important. Negative example: "The policy was changed last week." Positive example: "The operations team changed the policy last week."

Rule: Remove Weasel Language​

Description: Cut words that weaken claims without adding evidence. Negative example: "This is probably maybe one of the best approaches." Positive example: "This approach reduced onboarding time by 32% in our pilot."

Rule: Avoid Wordy Phrases​

Description: Prefer shorter equivalents unless nuance is required. Negative example: "At this point in time" Positive example: "Now"

Rule: Prevent Repetition Blind Spots​

Description: Check for accidental duplicated words and repeated clauses. Negative example: "The the main takeaway is..." Positive example: "The main takeaway is..."

E-Prime Policy​

E-prime style checks are advisory only. Do not force awkward rewrites just to eliminate every to-be verb.