Apply Strunk's timeless writing rules to ANY prose humans will read—documentation, commit messages, error messages, explanations, reports, or UI text. Makes your writing clearer, stronger, and more professional.
68
53%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
94%
1.02xAverage score across 3 eval scenarios
Passed
No known issues
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./tests/ext_conformance/artifacts/agents-mikeastock/skills/writing-clearly-and-concisely/SKILL.mdQuality
Discovery
50%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
The description communicates a reasonable sense of purpose—applying Strunk-style writing principles to various prose types—but lacks concrete action verbs describing what the skill actually does (e.g., trimming wordiness, eliminating passive voice). It also lacks an explicit 'Use when...' clause, which weakens its ability to serve as a reliable selection trigger. The use of second person ('Makes your writing') is a minor voice issue.
Suggestions
Add an explicit 'Use when...' clause with natural trigger phrases like 'Use when the user asks to improve, edit, tighten, or review prose, or mentions writing clarity, conciseness, or style.'
Replace vague outcome language ('clearer, stronger, more professional') with specific concrete actions such as 'eliminates unnecessary words, converts passive voice to active, simplifies sentence structure, enforces parallel construction.'
Switch from second person ('Makes your writing') to third person ('Makes writing clearer') to align with the expected voice convention.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Names the domain (writing improvement) and lists several content types (documentation, commit messages, error messages, etc.), but the actual actions are vague—'makes your writing clearer, stronger, and more professional' is aspirational rather than describing concrete actions like 'removes unnecessary words, converts passive voice to active, tightens sentence structure.' | 2 / 3 |
Completeness | The 'what' is partially addressed (apply Strunk's writing rules to prose), but there is no explicit 'Use when...' clause or equivalent trigger guidance. The list of content types implies when to use it, but this is not an explicit trigger statement, which caps this at 2 per the rubric guidelines. | 2 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Includes some useful trigger terms like 'documentation', 'commit messages', 'error messages', 'UI text', 'writing', and 'Strunk', but misses common natural phrases users would say like 'edit my writing', 'improve prose', 'writing style', 'concise', 'wordiness', or 'grammar'. The reference to 'Strunk' is niche and most users wouldn't naturally invoke it. | 2 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | The reference to 'Strunk's writing rules' provides some distinctiveness, but the broad scope ('ANY prose humans will read') and generic terms like 'documentation' and 'reports' could overlap with general editing, documentation, or code review skills. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
57%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This skill is well-organized as a navigation layer pointing to a detailed reference file, with a useful subagent strategy for token-constrained contexts. However, it lacks concrete before/after examples of applying the rules, making it more of a table of contents than actionable guidance. The 'when to use' section over-explains contexts that Claude can infer.
Suggestions
Add 1-2 concrete before/after examples showing a rule being applied (e.g., passive→active voice, omitting needless words) so Claude can act without reading the full 12k-token reference.
Remove or drastically shorten the 'When to Use This Skill' section—Claude doesn't need a bullet list of prose contexts to understand 'writing for humans'.
Add a brief verification step to the workflow, such as 'Re-read the output checking rules 10, 11, 12, 13 specifically' to create a feedback loop.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | Mostly efficient but has some redundancy—the 'When to Use This Skill' section over-explains with a bullet list of obvious contexts, and the 'Bottom Line' section repeats what was already said. The bold callout 'If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill' is unnecessary given Claude's intelligence. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | The subagent dispatch strategy is a concrete, actionable pattern, and the rule list provides a useful reference index. However, the skill lacks concrete before/after examples of applying the rules, and the actual guidance is 'read elements-of-style.md'—delegating actionability to another file rather than providing executable guidance inline. | 2 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The limited context strategy provides a clear 3-step workflow, but the primary workflow ('read the file and apply the rules') is vague with no validation or feedback loop. There's no guidance on how to verify the writing has improved or what 'applying the rules' looks like in practice. | 2 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The skill is well-structured as an overview that clearly points to `elements-of-style.md` for the detailed content, with an explicit token cost warning. The reference is one level deep and clearly signaled, and the SKILL.md itself serves as a concise navigation layer. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 9 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
metadata_version | 'metadata.version' is missing | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
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Table of Contents
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