Stop Slop

Remove AI writing patterns from prose. Use when drafting, editing, or reviewing text to eliminate predictable AI tells.

When Invoked

User asks to "make this sound more natural", "fix AI-sounding", "clean up", or "rewrite"
Any text generation task — apply rules to output before presenting
Editing or reviewing any prose output
Building prompts or system messages

Core Rules

Cut filler phrases. Remove throat-clearing openers, emphasis crutches, and all adverbs.
Break formulaic structures. Avoid binary contrasts, negative listings, dramatic fragmentation, rhetorical setups, false agency.
Use active voice. Every sentence needs a human subject doing something. No passive constructions. No inanimate objects performing human actions.
Be specific. No vague declaratives. Name the specific thing. No lazy extremes ("every," "always," "never").
Put the reader in the room. "You" beats "people." Specifics beat abstractions.
Vary rhythm. Mix sentence lengths. Two items beat three. End paragraphs differently. No em dashes.
Trust readers. State facts directly. Skip softening, justification, hand-holding.
Cut quotables. If it sounds like a pull-quote, rewrite it.

Quick Checks

After writing any prose, verify:

Any adverbs? Kill them.
Any passive voice? Find the actor, make them the subject.
Inanimate thing doing a human verb? Name the person.
Sentence starts with a Wh- word? Restructure it.
Any "here's what/this/that" throat-clearing? Cut to the point.
Any "not X, it's Y" contrasts? State Y directly.
Three consecutive sentences match length? Break one.
Paragraph ends with punchy one-liner? Vary it.
Em-dash anywhere? Remove it.
Vague declarative? Name the specific implication.
Narrator-from-a-distance? Put the reader in the scene.
Meta-joiners ("The rest of this essay...")? Delete.

Phrases to Remove

Throat-Clearing Openers

Any "here's what/this/that" construction is throat-clearing. Cut and state the point directly.

"Here's the thing:"
"Here's what [X]"
"Here's this [X]"
"Here's that [X]"
"Here's why [X]"
"The uncomfortable truth is"
"It turns out"
"The real [X] is"
"Let me be clear"
"The truth is,"
"I'll say it again:"
"I'm going to be honest"
"Can we talk about"
"Here's what I find interesting"
"Here's the problem though"

Emphasis Crutches

These add no meaning. Delete them.

"Full stop." / "Period."
"Let that sink in."
"This matters because"
"Make no mistake"
"Here's why that matters"

Business Jargon

Replace with plain language.

Avoid	Use instead
Navigate (challenges)	Handle, address
Unpack (analysis)	Explain, examine
Lean into	Accept, embrace
Landscape (context)	Situation, field
Game-changer	Significant, important
Double down	Commit, increase
Deep dive	Analysis, examination
Take a step back	Reconsider
Moving forward	Next, from now
Circle back	Return to, revisit
On the same page	Aligned, agreed

Adverbs

Kill all adverbs. No -ly words. No softeners, no intensifiers, no hedges.

Specific offenders: "really" · "just" · "literally" · "genuinely" · "honestly" · "simply" · "actually" · "deeply" · "truly" · "fundamentally" · "inherently" · "inevitably" · "interestingly" · "importantly" · "crucially"

Filler phrases to cut: "At its core" · "In today's [X]" · "It's worth noting" · "At the end of the day" · "When it comes to" · "In a world where" · "The reality is"

Meta-Commentary

Remove self-referential asides. The essay should move, not announce its own structure.

"Hint:" · "Plot twist:" / "Spoiler:" · "You already know this, but"
"But that's another post" · "X is a feature, not a bug" · "Dressed up as"
"The rest of this essay explains..." · "Let me walk you through..."
"In this section, we'll..." · "As we'll see..." · "I want to explore..."

Telling Instead of Showing

Announce difficulty or significance rather than demonstrating it. Cut: "This is genuinely hard" · "This is what leadership actually looks like" · "actually matters"

Vague Declaratives

Sentences that announce importance without naming the specific thing. If a sentence says something is important/deep/structural without showing the specific thing, cut it or replace it with the specific thing.

Structures to Avoid

Binary Contrasts

False drama by stating something isn't X to reveal it is Y. Patterns: "Not because X. Because Y." · "The answer isn't X. It's Y." · "Not X. But Y." · "isn't X, it's Y" · "doesn't mean X, but actually Y" · "not just X but also Y"

Fix: State Y directly. Drop the negation entirely.

Negative Listing

Building through negation before revealing the truth ("Not a X... Not a Y... A Z.").

Fix: State Z immediately. The reader doesn't need the runway.

Dramatic Fragmentation

Sentence fragments for manufactured profundity: "[Noun]. That's it. That's the [thing]." · "X. And Y. And Z."

Fix: Complete sentences. Trust content over presentation.

Rhetorical Setups

Announcing insight rather than delivering it: "What if [reframe]?" · "Here's what I mean:" · "Think about it:" · "And that's okay."

Fix: Make the point. Let readers draw conclusions.

False Agency

Giving inanimate things human verbs. Name the human instead:

"a complaint becomes a fix" → Someone fixed it.
"a bet lives or dies in days" → Someone kills the project or ships it.
"the decision emerges" → Someone decides.
"the culture shifts" → People change behavior.
"the data tells us" → Someone reads it.
"the market rewards" → Buyers pay.

Passive Voice

Passive voice hides the actor and drains energy. Find the actor. Put them at the front.

Wh- Sentence Starters

What, When, Where, Which, Who, Why, How openers — restructure. Lead with the subject or verb.

Rhythm Anti-Patterns

Three-item lists — use two items or one instead
Every paragraph ends punchily — vary endings
Em-dashes — remove. Use commas or periods.
Staccato fragmentation — don't stack short punchy sentences
"Not always. Not perfectly." — hedging disguised as reassurance

Word Anti-Patterns

Lazy extremes: "every," "always," "never," "everyone," "everybody," "nobody" — false authority. Use specifics.
Adverbs (see above)

Scoring Rubric

Rate 1–10 on each dimension after drafting:

Dimension	Question
Directness	Statements or announcements?
Rhythm	Varied or metronomic?
Trust	Respects reader intelligence?
Authenticity	Sounds human?
Density	Anything cuttable?

Below 35/50: revise.

Before/After Examples

Throat-clearing + Binary: "Here's the thing: This isn't easy because of X. Let that sink in." → "Building products is hard. Technology is manageable. People aren't."

Business jargon: "fast-paced landscape, lean into discomfort, navigate uncertainty with clarity" → "Move faster. Your competition is."

Dramatic fragmentation: "This unlocks something. Speed. Quality. Cost." → "Speed, quality, cost—pick two."

Rhetorical scaffolding: "What if I told you the best teams optimize for learning?" → "The best teams optimize for learning, not productivity."

Core pattern: Remove the speaker's scaffolding (hedges, rhetorical questions, permission phrasing) and deliver the idea directly.

Vietnamese AI-Tell Patterns

When scanning Vietnamese content, also flag these machine-translation tells: "trong thời đại ngày nay", "trong cuộc sống bận rộn", "đừng ngần ngại", "đừng bỏ lỡ cơ hội này", "hãy cùng khám phá", "đỉnh cao của chất lượng", "giải pháp toàn diện", "đột phá", "tiên phong". These are the Vietnamese equivalents of English AI-slop. For full Vietnamese register and platform conventions, see skills/vietnamese-language/.

stop-slop

SKILL.mdskills/stop-slop/SKILL.md