Checklist

How Clean Language checks the result.

Review finished prose against these questions. It works as a standalone editing checklist too, whether or not you use the skill.

This is the actual guidance the skill uses. This page presents the skill's quality checklist. Read the exact source, qa-checklist.md, on GitHub.

Accuracy

  • Did the rewrite preserve every material fact, name, date, figure, qualification, and commitment?
  • Did the revision introduce any owner, figure, date, risk, cause, or action that the source does not contain? If so, remove it or flag it as missing.
  • Did any stylistic change alter technical, legal, contractual, policy, or standards meaning?
  • Are assumptions and uncertainty labelled accurately?

Directness

  • Does the first sentence contain the answer, decision, finding, request, or purpose?
  • Can any introductory sentence be removed without loss?
  • Is the required action explicit?
  • Is an intensifier or connector such as "highly relevant" or "aligns closely with" standing in for a direct statement?

Ownership and consequence

  • Does the text identify who owns the action or decision when relevant?
  • Does it name the actual impact, risk, cost, dependency, or failure mode that the source supports, and flag any the source leaves unstated rather than inventing one?
  • Does it avoid vague statements of importance?

Natural language

  • Does the cadence vary without becoming theatrical?
  • Are fragments, one-line conclusions, and rhetorical contrasts used sparingly?
  • Does the text sound like a competent person wrote it for this audience?
  • Could a polished phrase here appear unchanged in thousands of executive messages? Make it specific or remove it.
  • Does the message sound like the writer, not a generic executive voice?

Density

  • Can any word, sentence, paragraph, heading, or repetition be removed?
  • Are bullets or tables being used because they improve comprehension rather than because they are conventional?
  • Does each paragraph do one identifiable job?
  • Does each topic list connect to a decision, question, or request, rather than only cataloguing subjects?

Tone

  • Is the language calm, exact, and appropriately blunt?
  • Did the draft avoid unrequested praise, reassurance, apology, or enthusiasm?
  • Did it avoid negative-to-positive framing that weakens the finding?

Mechanics

  • Use Oxford English and -ize spellings.
  • Avoid em dashes unless the user or source requires them.
  • Use punctuation and capitalization consistently.
  • Preserve channel-specific formatting requirements.
  • Do not end with an optional offer or generic engagement prompt.
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