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avoid-ai-writing

Audit and rewrite prose for repetitive, vague, or formulaic wording while preserving meaning, evidence, and the writer's voice.

Published by sickn33 ↗sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills

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avoid-ai-writing

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Use avoid-ai-writing to audit and rewrite [prose] for [audience], returning the quoted AI-writing patterns found, a natural rewrite, a summary of edits, and a second-pass audit; do not treat it as factual verification.

Required inputs

  • [prose]
  • [audience]

User-approved starter prompt based on a pinned source version; check current skill requirements before running. Task evidence ↗

SKILL.md

name: avoid-ai-writingdescription: "Audit and rewrite prose for repetitive, vague, or formulaic wording while preserving meaning, evidence, and the writer's voice."risk: nonesource: https://github.com/conorbronsdon/avoid-ai-writingdate_added: "2026-03-06"

Avoid AI Writing — Audit & Rewrite

Detects and fixes AI writing patterns ("AI-isms") that make text sound machine-generated. Covers 21 pattern categories with examples of plainer alternatives. The full upstream pattern catalog is not bundled in this AAS entrypoint; do not claim a complete 43-entry table is present.

When to Use This Skill

  • When asked to "remove AI-isms," "clean up AI writing," or "make this sound less like AI"
  • After drafting content with AI and before publishing
  • When editing any text that sounds like it was generated rather than written
  • When auditing documentation, blog posts, marketing copy, or internal communications for AI tells

What It Detects

21 pattern categories: formatting issues (em dashes, bold overuse, emoji headers, bullet-heavy sections), sentence structure problems (hedging, hollow intensifiers, rule of three), word/phrase replacements (43 entries like leverage→use, utilize→use, robust→reliable), template phrases, transition phrases, structural issues, significance inflation, copula avoidance, synonym cycling, vague attributions, filler phrases, generic conclusions, chatbot artifacts, notability name-dropping, superficial -ing analyses, promotional language, formulaic challenges, false ranges, inline-header lists, title case headings, and cutoff disclaimers.

Example

Prompt:

Audit this for AI writing patterns:

"In today's rapidly evolving AI landscape, developers are embarking on a pivotal journey to leverage cutting-edge tools that streamline their workflows. Moreover, these robust solutions serve as a testament to the industry's commitment to fostering seamless experiences."

Output: The skill returns four sections:

  1. Issues found — every AI-ism quoted (landscape, embarking, pivotal, leverage, cutting-edge, streamline, robust, serves as, testament to, fostering, seamless, Moreover, In today's rapidly evolving...)
  2. Rewritten version — "Developers are starting to use newer AI tools to simplify their work. These tools are reliable, and they're making development less painful."
  3. What changed — summary of edits
  4. Second-pass audit — re-reads the rewrite to catch any surviving tells

Limitations

  • These are editorial heuristics, not proof of AI authorship. Preserve factual claims, uncertainty, attributed quotations, code, identifiers, and the requested scope.

  • For audit-only requests, report findings without rewriting. Avoid replacing a precise technical term merely because it appears on a word list.

  • Does not detect AI-generated code, only prose

  • Pattern matching is guideline-based, not absolute — some flagged words are fine in context

  • The replacement table suggests alternatives but the best choice depends on context

  • Cannot verify factual claims or find real citations to replace vague attributions