Writing Pitfalls

Universal bad-writing patterns that human authors and editors fall into, independent of AI. This skill is the human-source counterpart to synthesis-content-quality (which catches AI-generation patterns) and the negative complement to synthesis-writing-craft (which carries positive principles).

Binding rules

1. Identify a pattern by its function, not its surface form. The same words can be a pitfall in one venue and right in another, so calibrate by venue, audience and intent.
2. The fix is some version of: trust the reader, drop the defense, state the substance plainly.
3. Every edit names the defect it repairs (pattern 23). Keep a strong sentence when a change has no demonstrable gain.
4. Prose cues do not establish authorship. Classify the pattern, explain its effect and revise; never turn a style cue into a claim that a human or a model wrote it.
5. Keep the two root causes apart. Human-source patterns are fixed here; AI-generation patterns go to synthesis-content-quality. Merging them obscures both fixes.
6. One high-confidence indicator means a craft failure whoever wrote it; three or more medium ones warrant revision, five or more substantial revision.
7. Read the families, not just the hits: a cluster names the underlying problem more clearly than any single indicator.

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