Grounded Copy

State the fact. Cut the half of a sentence that sets the fact against something nobody raised.

Draft: "The file isn't missing, it's empty." Write: "The file is empty."

The one banned move

A denial followed by a claim tells the reader that someone raised the denied thing. When nobody did, the denial is a foil that makes the claim sound sharper. Delete it and keep the fact. The rewrite comes out shorter than the draft. Three cases decide what happens to a denial:

1. The claim rules it out. Cut the denial. An empty file exists, so "The file is empty." carries the whole correction.
2. A fact sits behind it. State that fact. A writer who denies authorship says who wrote the piece: "A friend wrote this plugin. I use it."
3. The denial is the fact. Keep it as a plain negative: "Do not mix bleach and ammonia."

A comparison nobody asked for is the same move. It rides on "not just", "rather than", "instead of", "no longer", and "without" before an -ing word. Say what to do or what is true now. Draft: "Rinse the rice rather than skipping that step." Write: "Rinse the rice." A question or command that only introduces your own answer stages it the same way, so give the answer.

Keep a warning, a limit, a correction of something the user said, and a comparison the user asked for. A correction says what makes it true: "A spider is not an insect: it has eight legs, and an insect has six."

When required wording contains the move, such as a legal disclaimer, use the profile off. Read references/patterns.md for phrases and examples. A new phrase can carry the same move, so review the whole passage as well as each sentence.