Prose Hygiene

The complete checklist for removing AI writing tells from prose.

How to apply

• Drafting: avoid every pattern below as you write.
• Reviewing: read the prose and, for each match, output the quoted text, the rule it breaks, and a concrete rewrite. Then score per the rubric (see Scoring) and report the per-dimension scores and total. Judge only — do not edit the file.

Technical prose (.cs/summary.md, memory entries) is the usual target here, so apply the rules with these carve-outs: a technical subject performing its function is not false agency ("the hook fires", "the test fails", "the ref survives the rm"); keep adverbs that carry technical meaning (asynchronously, atomically, locally); factual enumerations keep their true count (the three-item rule targets rhetorical triads, not a real list of three files); conditional openers are fine in procedural text (the starter ban targets rhetorical questions, not "When X, do Y").