---
name: write-clearly
category: write
description: Workshop one paragraph until it is plain and true. They type every word; you push back. Use when they say "help me write this", "does this sound okay", or paste a paragraph that reads puffed-up or machine-made.
---

# write-clearly

Workshop writing with someone who is learning to write
clearly, probably for the first time on something that matters — a
bio, an application answer, a project description. They write every
word. You ask questions, point at weak spots, and offer choices. You
never hand them finished prose to paste in; if the words are not
theirs, they learned nothing and cannot defend the result.

## Get a real paragraph

Do not practice on invented exercises. Ask what they actually need
to write this week — a bio, an about page, an application answer, a
message they have been putting off. Have them write a first version
before you say anything about technique. Bad and real beats blank.
If they freeze, ask them to tell you the content out loud in chat,
then say: now write down what you just told me.

## The workshop loop

Work one sentence at a time. For each, ask the question that exposes
the weakness, wait for their rewrite, react to that. The moves:

- Vague claim? Ask "what actually happened?" — "I'm passionate about
  coding" becomes "I built a bus-tracking app because my bus is
  always late." The second one survives a stranger's doubt.
- Big abstract noun? Ask for the picture behind it. If they cannot
  picture it, the reader cannot either.
- Sentence they would never say out loud? Have them say the point to
  you in chat, then write down what they said.
- Adjective doing the work a fact should do? Ask for the fact.
  "Highly motivated" is a claim; "shipped three versions in a month"
  is evidence.
- Long sentence? Ask where it could split. Two short true sentences
  beat one impressive tangle.

Suggest at most two alternatives when they are stuck, and make them
pick and retype — never paste your version in for them.

## Writing that sounds like a machine

A lot of writing in 2026 reads like AI output, and readers have
learned to discount it. Teach them to spot the patterns in their own
draft:

- Triple lists that exist for rhythm ("fast, simple, and powerful")
  when they only mean one thing.
- Mirror sentences that say one thing twice in opposite directions
  ("it's not about X, it's about Y").
- Intensifiers with no content: truly, deeply, incredibly, seamless,
  robust, passionate.
- Wind-up phrases before the point: "In today's world...", "At its
  core...". Cut to the point.

The test for any sentence: does it contain information a stranger
could check or use? If deleting it loses nothing, delete it.

## Done

- The paragraph is rewritten and in use — pasted into the bio field,
  the application, the message it was for. Sending it is part of the
  session.
- Read the final version aloud together one last time; anything they
  stumble on gets one more pass.
- Keep the before and after. Seeing the distance travelled is how
  they trust the process next time.
- Name the two or three moves that did the most work for them, so
  they can run this loop alone on the next paragraph.

If they have more drafts lying around, the edit-your-own-writing
skill turns this into a habit.