antislop-copywriting

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SKILL.md (first lines)

---
name: antislop-copywriting
description: "Copy and text skill for antislop. Use when writing or editing prose: headlines, tone, CTAs, and anti-AI-writing patterns. Load with the core."
allowed-tools: Read Write Edit Glob Grep
---
# antislop-copywriting

> Anti Slop: Rules for AI Coding Agents. Copy & Text skill

> Part of the antislop system. Read together with `antislop.md` (the core). This skill deep-dives the copy and text concern: headlines, CTAs, tone, value propositions, and the patterns that make AI-written prose easy to spot. It references core rules by number and never duplicates or renumbers them. Load it when the task writes or edits marketing copy, product copy, landing-page text, or any prose meant for people to read.

## How to use this skill

- Load together with `antislop.md` whenever the task is copy or text work. The core holds the mechanism (the purpose test, the three tiers, the Delivery Gate) and the hard bans (R-02, R-15, R-16, R-17, R-18, R-36, R-38). This skill holds copy-specific depth that the core does not.
- Every pattern has the same shape: **The pattern**, **Why it reads as AI**, **Before** (the slop), **After** (the fix), with the governing core rule cited as R-XX.
- Two rules apply to everything below:
  - **Never invent facts** (R-17, R-36, R-38). A rewrite adds no fact, name, number, date, quote, or citation that is not in the source text or supplied by the user. Specificity comes from the source or the user, not from the rewrite. If a sentence needs real detail to work, ask for it or write the plain version without it.
  - **Do not over-sterilize.** Avoiding AI patterns is half the job. Copy with no voice is as obviously machine-made as copy full of AI tells (R-37). When a user supplies a voice, keep it.
- The Delivery Gate in the core remains the gate. The "Copywriting Skill Checklist" at the end of this file is the copy-specific supplement to run alongside it.

## Tone & Voice

### Empty AI Vocabulary

- **The pattern:** verbs and abstract nouns stacked to sound impressive without saying anything: *unlock, elevate, empower, delve, showcase, testament, landscape (abstract), journey, robust, game-changer, next-level, seamless, cutting-edge, revolutionary*.
- **Why it reads as AI:** these words appear far more often in machine-written text. They signal intent to impress, not intent to inform, and they are the fastest way to mark a page as AI-generated.
- **Before:**
  > Unlock the power of seamless collaboration to elevate your team's journey to the next level.
- **After:**
  > Work with your team in one shared space.
- **Rule:** R-16 (buzzwords), R-36 (no fabricated claims).

### Significance Inflation

- **The pattern:** "the future of X", "marking a pivotal moment", "a testament to", "revolutionizing", "a new era of".
- **Why it reads as AI:** the claim has no evidence behind it, and the sentence reads the same no matter what the product does. It is ceremony where content should be.
- **Before:**
  > Our platform is marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of team productivity, ushering in a new era of work.
- **After:**
  > Our platform cuts the time your team spends on status meetings.
- **Rule:** R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5 (evidence over claims).

### Empty Claims and Social Proof with No Evidence

- **The pattern:** "Trusted by thousands of teams", "industry-leading", "world-class", "loved by customers everywhere", with nothing named or verifiable.
- **Why it reads as AI:** a trust claim without evidence is a confession. It fills the space a real customer name, a real number, or a real use case should occupy.
- **Before:**
  > Trusted by thousands of teams worldwide. Industry-leading technology loved by customers everywhere.
- **After:**
  > Used by the support teams at [customer names, only if real]. If there are no real customers to name, cut the claim entirely.
- **Rule:** R-17 (data and numbers), R-18 (testimonials), R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5.

### Weasel Attributions

- **The pattern:** "Experts say", "industry observers", "people report", "leading analysts believe", with no one named.
- **Why it reads as AI:** the attribution exists to make an unsourced claim feel authoritative. If the authority is real, name it; if not, the claim does not get a costume.
- **Before:**
  > Experts say this approach dramatically improves conversion.
- **After:**
  > [Name the source or cut the sentence. Example with a real source: "In a 2024 study by [named firm], this approach improved conversion by [real figure]."]
- **Rule:** R-36, C-5.

### Persuasive Authority Tropes

- **The pattern:** "at its core", "the real question is", "what really matters", "fundamentally", "the deeper issue", "the heart of the matter".
- **Why it reads as AI:** these phrases pretend to cut through noise to a deeper truth, then restate an ordinary point with extra ceremony.
- **Before:**
  > At its core, what really matters is whether your team can move faster.
- **After:**
  > Whether your team can move faster depends on how quickly you can merge changes.
- **Rule:** R-36.

### Chatbot Closers

- **The pattern:** "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if you have any questions", "Would you like me to expand on this?", "You're welcome!".
- **Why it reads as AI:** these are conversation artifacts, not copy. They appear when model chat output is pasted straight into a deliverable.
- **Before:**
  > Here is an overview of our pricing. I hope this helps! Let me know if you'd like me to break down any tier.
- **After:**
  > Here is our pricing. The Starter tier includes three seats and community support.
- **Rule:** R-36.

### Fake-Candid Openers

- **The pattern:** "Honestly?", "Let's be honest", "Here's the thing", "Real talk", as a theatrical pause before an ordinary point.
- **Why it reads as AI:** a person being honest usually just says the thing. The pause-and-reveal is manufactured intimacy.
- **Before:**
  > Is it worth the price? Honestly? It depends on how often you'll use it.
- **After:**
  > Whether it is worth the price depends on how often you'll use it.
- **Rule:** R-36.

### Signposting Announcements

- **The pattern:** "Let's dive in", "Here's what you need to know", "In this article we'll explore", "Without further ado".
- **Why it reads as AI:** announcing what you are about to do instead of doing it is meta-commentary. It slows the reader and gives the text a tutorial-script feel.
- **Before:**
  > Let's dive into how caching works in Next.js. Here's what you need to know.
- **After:**
  > Next.js caches data at multiple layers, including request memoization, the data cache, and the router cache.
- **Rule:** R-36.

### All-Caps Emphasis

- **The pattern:** a whole sentence, clause, or phrase in ALL CAPS inside a paragraph to shout emphasis: "The launch is ready and WE NEED TO MOVE NOW before the window closes."
- **Why it reads as AI:** caps-as-emphasis is a blunt instrument the model reaches for to manufacture urgency instead of writing emphasis into the sentence. In long text it reads as shouting, and it flattens the real peaks by making everything loud.
- **Before:**
  > This is our last chance to win this customer, and WE MUST ACT IMMEDIATELY before they choose a competitor.
- **After:**
  > This is our last chance to win this customer. If we do not respond today, they will choose a competitor.
- **Rule:** R-36. (R-06 covers uppercase labels with wide tracking as a design choice; this pattern is the prose case: caps inside a paragraph doing the emphasis work.)
- **Not a ban:** a genuine headline, a deliberately shouted line in a voice that shouts, or a single all-caps word used once as an accent can keep its caps. The tell is caps used sentence after sentence to do the emphasis the words should do. Minimize, do not strip every cap.

### Actorless Passive

- **The pattern:** the passive voice with the actor deleted: "the decision was made to sunset the free tier", "the pricing page has been updated", "mistakes were made".
- **Why it reads as AI:** the model does not know who acted, so it writes around it. The team that shipped the thing does know, and says so. Deleting the actor also quietly removes accountability from the sentence, which is why the shape survives in corporate copy and nowhere else.
- **Before:**
  > The pricing page was updated to reflect the new tiers.
- **After:**

From vedangvatsa/Web3-Jobs, MIT.

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