strunk-writing-quality

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• NOTICE.md
• SKILL.md
• report-writing-style.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Strunk Writing Quality

Apply William Strunk Jr.'s principles from _The Elements of Style_ to improve any piece of prose. This skill enforces clarity, concision, and vigor through specific, actionable rules.

For reports, research write-ups, guidance, documentation and summaries, use [references/report-writing-style.md](references/report-writing-style.md).

## Philosophy

**Good writing is clear, concise, and vigorous.** Every rule exists to serve the reader. Strunk's core tenets:

1. **Clarity above all** — The reader must understand exactly what the writer means
2. **Every word must tell** — Vigorous writing is concise; omit needless words
3. **Reader service** — Every construction should aid comprehension and engagement
4. **Mastery before deviation** — Learn the rules thoroughly before breaking them; any violation must be purchased with "compensating merit"
5. **Form serves meaning** — Punctuation, formatting, and spelling carry semantic weight
6. **Consistency with authority** — Follow established conventions unless context demands otherwise

The mature writer knows the rules well enough to break them with purpose and payoff.

## Core Principles

### 1. Be Concise

**Vigorous writing is concise.** A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.

| Bloated                    | Concise              |
| -------------------------- | -------------------- |
| the question as to whether | whether              |
| there is no doubt but that | no doubt / doubtless |
| used for fuel purposes     | used for fuel        |
| he is a man who            | he                   |
| in a hasty manner          | hastily              |
| owing to the fact that     | since / because      |
| in spite of the fact that  | though / although    |

**Avoid:** "the fact that" in all its forms. Replace with direct nouns or verbs:

- "the fact that he had not succeeded" → "his failure"
- "the fact that I had arrived" → "my arrival"

**Cut redundant words:** If a word adds no meaning, remove it.

- "Acts of a hostile character" → "Hostile acts"
- "A member of the student body" → "A student"
- "He possessed great courage" → "He had great courage"

### 2. Use the Active Voice

The active voice is usually more direct, vigorous, and concise than the passive.

- **Active:** "I shall always remember my first visit to Boston."
- **Passive:** "My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me."

**When passive is appropriate:**

- When the receiver of the action should be the subject
- When the performer is unknown or unimportant
- When making a particular word the sentence subject serves the paragraph's focus

**Avoid double passives:**

- Fault: "He has been proved to have been seen entering the building."
- Fix: "It has been proved that he was seen to enter the building."

**Avoid weak existentials:**

- Fault: "There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground."
- Fix: "Dead leaves covered the ground."

### 3. Put Statements in Positive Form

Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating language. Tell the reader what _is_, not just what _is not_.

| Negative                      | Positive             |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------- |
| not honest                    | dishonest            |
| not important                 | trifling             |
| did not remember              | forgot               |
| did not pay attention to      | ignored              |
| He was not very often on time | He usually came late |

**When negation works:**

- Antithesis: "Not charity, but simple justice."
- Negative words other than _not_: "The sun never sets upon the British flag."

### 4. Keep Related Words Together

Word position is the principal means of showing relationship.

- **Subject and verb:** Do not separate with a phrase that can be transferred to the beginning
  - Weak: "Wordsworth, in the fifth book of The Excursion, gives a minute description of this church."
  - Better: "In the fifth book of The Excursion, Wordsworth gives a minute description of this church."

- **Relative pronouns:** Should immediately follow their antecedents
  - Weak: "There was a look in his eye that boded mischief."
  - Better: "In his eye was a look that boded mischief."

- **Modifiers:** Must come next to the word they modify
  - Weak: "He only found two mistakes."
  - Better: "He found only two mistakes."

### 5. Express Co-ordinate Ideas in Similar Form

Parallel construction requires that expressions of similar content and function be outwardly similar.

- Weak: "Science was taught by the textbook method, while now the laboratory method is employed."
- Strong: "Science was taught by the textbook method; now it is taught by the laboratory method."

**Correlative expressions** (_both...and, not...but, not only...but also_) must be followed by the same grammatical construction:

- Weak: "It was both a long ceremony and very tedious."
- Strong: "The ceremony was both long and tedious."

### 6. Place the Emphatic Words at the End

The most prominent position in a sentence is the end. Place the logical predicate — the new element — there.

- Weak: "Humanity has hardly advanced in fortitude since that time, though it has advanced in many other ways."

From iurysza/agent-skills, MIT.

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