Anti-AI Writing Guide

1# Anti-AI Writing Style Guide
2 
3A checklist for writing that sounds like a person, not a language model. The goal is prose that's direct, conversational, and trustworthy, with none of the rhythmic and lexical tells that scream "generated."
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7## Start here
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9- **Don't spam short sentences.** Avoid a steady drumbeat of clipped 3-to-6-word sentences. Don't stack three or four fragments to build rhythm ("Important emails buried. Drafts that sound nothing like us. Labels on the wrong threads."). Don't lean on parallel declaratives ("You don't lose access. You don't get locked out. Nothing changes."). Fold the list into flowing prose, usually one sentence with commas or a semicolon. A single short sentence for emphasis now and then is fine; the problem is *frequency* and *stacking*.
10- **Use apostrophes/contractions most of the time.** Write the way people talk: "you're," "it's," "don't," "isn't," "that's," "you've," "won't," "we're," "you'll." Stiff expanded forms ("It is," "You are," "You will") read as robotic. The only exception is genuine emphasis where the full form carries weight ("You do not get that time back"), or formal legal/policy text.
11- **Never use the "It's not X. It's Y." reframe.** This and its cousin "X isn't just Y. It's Z." are the classic LLM reframe structure and a dead giveaway. State the point directly instead.
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15## Sentence rhythm and structure
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17- **No one/two-word punch sentences.** "Off." "Period." "Gone." "Full stop." "Done." LLMs love dropping a single dramatic word as its own sentence for emphasis. Real writers don't. Use bold or rewrite directly.
18- **No dramatic negation lists.** "Not 'reduce' them. Not 'set to deliver quietly.' Off." Stacking quoted rejections before a punchy payoff is pure theater.
19- **No "That's where… / That's why… / That's the…" tacked-on payoffs.** Short demonstrative payoff sentences glued to the end of a paragraph ("That's the flywheel." "That's what gets talked about.") read as choppy. Fold the point into the preceding sentence with a comma or relative clause. Same for "It's the…" / "This is the…" payoffs.
20- **No "This sounds X, but hear me out" setups.** The fake-objection-then-convince move. Just make the point.
21- **Vary sentence length.** Mix long, flowing sentences with the occasional short one. Uniform medium-length sentences are as robotic as uniform short ones.
22- **Don't open sentences with transition adverbs on a loop.** "Moreover," "Furthermore," "Additionally," "Notably," "Consequently" starting sentence after sentence is a tell. Connect ideas with "and," "but," "because," "so," or just let them stand.
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25 
26## Word choice
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28- **Avoid the AI vocabulary.** These words are overrepresented in generated text: *delve, leverage, utilize, robust, seamless, elevate, unlock, empower, navigate (figuratively), landscape, realm, tapestry, testament, boasts, nestled, bustling, vibrant, crucial, pivotal, foster, garner, myriad, plethora.* Prefer the plain word: "use" not "utilize," "strong" not "robust," "smooth" not "seamless."
29- **"Real" is not a synonym for "significant" or "actual."** "The Real Problem," "What's Really Going On," "The Real Gap" are crutches for false authority. Name the thing directly.
30- **Don't flag your own honesty.** Phrases like "the honest part," "the honest framing," "honestly," "to be honest," "I'll be straight with you," or "real talk" announce sincerity instead of earning it. Just say the thing. If a point is a caveat or a risk, state the caveat directly without a label.
31- **Drop "real" and "genuinely" as intensifying adjectives/adverbs.** "a real difference," "real results," "genuinely helpful," "genuinely care," "a genuine game-changer." These lean on the word to manufacture sincerity instead of earning it. If something is helpful, show how; the reader decides whether it's genuine.
32- **Cut empty intensifiers.** "incredibly," "truly," "extremely," "really," "simply," "just." They add words, not meaning.
33- **Cut filler-importance phrases.** "X is key," "X is crucial," "X is essential." Show why it matters instead of asserting that it does.
34- **Cut hedging filler.** "It's worth noting that," "It's important to note," "needless to say," "as you may know." Delete and start with the actual point.
35- **Don't over-hedge.** Stacking "can," "may," "might," "could" so nothing is stated plainly is a tell. Commit to claims you can stand behind.
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39## Openers and closers
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41- **No throat-clearing openers.** "In today's fast-paced world," "In the world of X," "In an era of," "Let's dive in," "Let's explore." Start with something concrete.
42- **No conclusion-restating.** "In conclusion," "Ultimately," "At the end of the day," "All in all" wrap-ups that just summarize what you already said. End on the strongest concrete point.
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45 
46## Constructions to avoid
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48- **Compulsive rule-of-three.** "Fast, reliable, and secure." Triads everywhere read as machine rhythm. Break the pattern; sometimes two items or four is more honest.
49- **"Whether you're X or Y."** The catch-all audience sweep. Pick your actual reader and write to them.
50- **"From X to Y."** "From startups to enterprises," "from onboarding to offboarding." Sweeping ranges that say nothing specific.
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53 
54## Punctuation
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56- **No em dashes. Ever.** Use commas, periods, or rewrite the sentence.
57- **No mid-sentence colons for drama.** Colons introduce lists or sections, not dramatic mid-sentence pauses. Use a semicolon or rewrite.
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60 
61## Names and examples
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63- **Don't pair a Western first name with an Asian last name** (or any mismatched "diverse-sounding" combo) in fake/example names.
64- **Banned fake names:** "Sarah Chen," "Mike Tanaka," "Mike Torres." Approved set:
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66  Emily Carter, Daniel Kim, Sofia Ramirez, James Miller, Chloe Park, Lily Klein, Ethan Brooks, Isabella Torres, Ravi Patel, Hannah Foster, Marcus Bennett, Grace Lee, Jacob Reed, Natalie Hayes, Adrian Flores, Maya Singh, Samuel Price, Olivia Ward, Leah Morgan, Gabriel Martinez.
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70## Voice and emphasis
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72- **Direct, conversational, second-person.** Write like a real person explaining something to a friend. No filler, no fluff.
73- **Fun but professional and trustworthy.** Not try-hard. Avoid superlatives ("revolutionary," "game-changing") and hollow claims ("powered by cutting-edge AI").
74- **Bold for key terms and emphasis. Italic only for callout subtitles.**
75- **Reference real, concrete concepts** (e.g., the Framing Effect, Sunk Cost Fallacy) to build authority instead of vague appeals. Do not overdo this, however; use it very sparingly, only when it would naturally flow with the rest of the text.
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78 
79## Purpose and stance
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81- **Don't shill the product.** This writing exists to be useful on its own, not to funnel readers into a sale. Lead with help the reader can act on whether or not they ever buy anything. If the product comes up, it's because it's genuinely relevant to the point, not because every section needs a pitch.
82- **Be authentic and helpful first.** Write to actually solve the reader's problem. Earn trust by being right and clear, not by selling.
83- **Be empathetic to the difficulty of running a small business.** The reader might run a retail boutique, an HVAC company, a salon, a one-person shop. They're stretched thin, wearing every hat, making decisions with imperfect information. Acknowledge that reality without condescending to it. Don't pretend their problems are simple, and don't lecture. Meet them as a knowledgeable peer who respects how hard the work is.
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86 
87## Quick self-check before publishing
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891. Read it aloud. Does any stretch sound like a drumbeat of short sentences? Fix the rhythm.
902. Search for em dashes, "It's not… it's…," "That's why/where," and the AI vocabulary list. Remove.
913. Are contractions used naturally throughout? If it reads stiff, loosen it.
924. Did you open with throat-clearing or close with a restated summary? Cut both.
935. Count your rule-of-three triads. If there are several, vary them.
946. Is every claim either stated plainly or honestly hedged, with no filler-importance padding?
957. Does any section read like a pitch? If you stripped the product out, would the piece still be genuinely useful? It should be.