Writing axes

Every document serves one reader making one decision. Route any writing or review task through four gates: reader, goal, axis, and whether to write at all. Then apply the rules for the axis in play.

Axis rules live in references/. The verified source library behind them lives in references/sources/. Cite sources from those files, never from memory.

The four gates

Run them in order. Each answer constrains the next.

Gate 1: who is the reader?

One person, at one moment. Resolve five things:

• What they already know. This sets the vocabulary and what can go unexplained.
• What they are about to do. This sets what the text must equip them for.
• What they are deciding. This produces the axis (Gate 3).
• Who else will see it. Email gets forwarded, papers get excerpted into review notes, READMEs get skimmed by people the author never pictured. Design for the furthest plausible reader.
• Their relationship to the writer, and whether this text changes it.