# Anti-AI Writing Style This is the list to ban AI writing in writing drafts. There are two kinds of signs of AI writing: words and phrases, and sentence patterns. Start with the words below. Then go pattern by pattern. --- ## Part 1: The Patterns These are structural habits that you will ban from writing. ### 1. Stacked Negation Fragments **Looks like:** "Not productively. Not to work on something else. You just stop directing the mind and let it be unoccupied." **The tell:** A row of short "Not X" sentences that rule things out before landing on a conclusion. Denial, denial, reveal. It sounds thoughtful, but it's defining something by what it isn't instead of just saying what it is. **Fix:** Say the thing directly. Cut the run-up. ### 2. Abstract Noun-Phrase Triplets **Looks like:** "A pull toward something you can't immediately explain. A thread that keeps returning. An interest that surfaces without invitation." **The tell:** Three vague nouns in a row (pull, thread, interest, signal, hunger), each one given its own little verb as if it has a will of its own. Sounds oracular. Says nothing concrete. **Fix:** Pick one concrete noun and one concrete verb. Cut the other two. ### 3. The Reframe Negation **Looks like:** "He wasn't describing genius. He was describing something available to anyone." **The tell:** One negation, one correction, structured like you'd guessed wrong and now get the real answer. Usually the reader never guessed wrong — the writer just needed a setup. **Fix:** Skip the setup. State the real point first. ### 4. The "Real X" Redefinition **Looks like:** "Preparation is the part we think we're doing. But real preparation is more specific than that." **The tell:** Takes a familiar word, concedes the obvious version, claims a deeper one — and the deeper one is almost always just as vague. It performs precision without supplying any. **Fix:** If you can't define the "real" version in concrete terms, you don't have one yet. Find the concrete version or cut the sentence. ### 5. The Reframed Discomfort **Looks like:** "The discomfort of following the pull isn't a sign you're going wrong — it's the becoming." **The tell:** A bad feeling gets relabeled as proof you're on the right track. The em-dash before the payoff does the heavy lifting a real argument should be doing. **Fix:** If the feeling is evidence of something, show the evidence. Otherwise don't claim it. ### 6. The Ventriloquized Simile **Looks like:** "He talks about it the way people talk about a country they've always meant to visit. Eventually. When things settle down. When he knows it'll be worth it." **The tell:** A comparison sets up, then the prose starts performing the voice of whatever it just compared the subject to — usually in trailing one-word fragments ("Eventually." "When."). **Fix:** Cut the comparison and the fragments. Describe the actual behavior. ### 7. The Announced Noticing **Looks like:** "What I've started to notice is what lives in that distance." **The tell:** The writer announces the act of noticing instead of just stating what was noticed. The frame draws attention to the observer, not the observation — which has to do all the work the frame implied it already did. **Fix:** Delete the announcement. Say what you noticed. ### 8. The Colon Drumroll **Looks like:** "Not fear exactly. Something more specific: the demand for a destination before you'll agree to move." **The tell:** A teaser phrase ("something more specific") followed by a colon that theatrically delivers the point. If the point is strong, it doesn't need a drumroll. **Fix:** Cut the teaser. Let the sentence after the colon stand alone. ### 9. The Em-Dash Correction **Looks like:** "...projects people did for fun — not because the fun motivated them harder, but because genuine curiosity tends to point toward what actually needs to exist." **The tell:** An em-dash introduces a "not because X, but because Y" correction mid-sentence, as if catching the reader's assumption in real time. One of these is fine. Several in a paragraph reads like a writer who won't let a claim land without hedging it. **Fix:** Pick the real reason. State it. Skip the fake one you're "correcting." ### 10. Definition by Foil **Looks like:** "Passion implies arrival — you already know what you love, you already feel the fire. Curiosity is earlier and quieter." **The tell:** A concept gets defined only by contrast with a different concept that was never actually the subject. Delete the foil and the definition collapses, because the subject was never described on its own terms. **Fix:** Describe the actual subject directly. If the definition needs the foil to survive, it isn't a definition yet. ### 11. The Atrophy Consequence **Looks like:** "It doesn't make a case for itself. It just returns. And if you keep dismissing it, you eventually stop hearing it — and you wonder why nothing you're doing feels like it's building toward anything real." **The tell:** Quiet declaratives build up, then pivot into a vague warning about what you'll lose if you don't listen. "You wonder why" is the signature move — it implies future confusion you caused yourself. Reads like observation, functions like a guilt trip. **Fix:** If there's a real cost, name it specifically. If you can't name it, cut the warning. ### 12. The Taxonomy Refusal **Looks like:** "It didn't fit a category. It wasn't networking. It wasn't building toward anything I could name." **The tell:** A string of "It wasn't X / it wasn't Y" sentences that deny categories without ever saying what the thing actually was. Implies the thing was too real to name. Usually it just avoids the work of naming it. **Fix:** Name it. If you genuinely can't, that's a sign the sentence needs more reporting, not more negation. ### 13. The Declared Crux **Looks like:** "This is the thing about curiosity that makes it hard to trust: it doesn't argue for itself. It just returns." **The tell:** The writer announces they've found the essential point before delivering it. The announcement performs intimacy and insight it hasn't earned yet. Test: if the line after the colon stands on its own, the setup was throat-clearing. **Fix:** Cut the announcement. Lead with the line that was going to follow it. ### 14. The Two-Fragment Contrast **Looks like:** "Not as failure. As structure." / "What you find there is not comfort. It's contact." **The tell:** Two short sentences — negate or relabel, then land the "real" version — with no connective tissue between them. The white space is doing the work argument should be doing. **Fix:** If either fragment were a full sentence, the trick would stop working. That's the tell. Write the full sentence instead. ### 15. The Abstracted Effect Clause **Looks like:** "...generous with his time in a way that makes the April sentence easy to forget." **The tell:** Instead of showing a trait in action, the sentence describes the trait's effect in an explanatory tail. It tells you the impact without ever showing the thing that caused it. **Fix:** Show the specific moment. Cut the clause that explains its effect instead. --- ## Part 2: The Words and Phrases Faster to catch than the patterns above, and worth removing immediately. ### Banned vocabulary If one of these shows up, replace it with something plainer and more specific: delve, realm, harness, unlock, tapestry, paradigm, cutting-edge, revolutionize, intricate, intricacies, showcasing, crucial, pivotal, surpass, meticulously, vibrant, unparalleled, underscore, leverage, synergy, innovative, game-changer, testament, commendable, meticulous, highlight, emphasize, boast, groundbreaking, align, foster, showcase, enhance, holistic, garner, accentuate, pioneering, trailblazing, unleash, versatile, transformative, redefine, seamless, optimize, scalable, robust, breakthrough, empower, streamline, frictionless, elevate, adaptive, effortless, data-driven, insightful, proactive, mission-critical, visionary, disruptive, reimagine, unprecedented, intuitive, leading-edge, synergize, democratize, accelerate, state-of-the-art, dynamic, immersive, predictive, transparent, proprietary, integrated, plug-and-play, turnkey, future-proof, paradigm-shifting, supercharge, enduring, interplay, valuable, captivate. ### The negative-parallelism trap: "it's not X, it's Y" This is the single most common AI tell. **Banned shapes:** - "It's not just X, it's Y" - "Not X. Y." - "This isn't about X, it's about Y" - "X isn't just Y, it's Z" - "More than X, it's Y" - "Isn't just X. It's Y." **Sneakier versions that still count:** - "Rather than simply X, it Y's" - "While some might see this as X, it's actually Y" - "What looks like X is actually Y" **Why it's banned:** The sentence sounds like it's saying something precise, but X and Y are usually near-synonyms, so nothing was actually clarified. Rhetorical-question versions ("Is this just X? No — it's Y") and whole paragraph or section headings built on this shape (a sub-head that negates, then a body that affirms) are banned for the same reason. **The fix:** Delete the negated half entirely. State the real claim once. The only exception is a genuine factual correction — when readers really did believe X and X is really false (e.g., "This isn't a tax. It's a fee set by the county, not the state.") — not a rhetorical setup invented to sound insightful. ### Banned phrase shapes (weak verb dodges) Replace these with a plain, direct verb: | Instead of | Use | |---|---| | serves as / stands as / marks a / represents a / boasts a / features a / offers a | is, has | | plays a role in | causes, changes, affects | | helps to / aims to / seeks to | [just use the plain verb — "helps to improve" → "improves"] | ### Dead openings, transitions, and bait Cut these on sight — they signal filler, not content: - **Openings:** "In today's fast-paced world," "In the ever-evolving landscape of," "As we navigate," "In an era where," "It's no secret that," "Picture this:," "Let's face it," - **Transitions:** "That said," "With that in mind," "At the end of the day," "When all is said and done," "Needless to say," "It goes without saying," - **Bait:** "You won't believe what happened next," "Here's the kicker," "But here's the thing," "And that's just the beginning" ### Analogy and metaphor Default to none. Most AI writing reaches for a comparison instead of doing the work of being specific. Before using one, it should pass all of these: 1. It clarifies something genuinely hard to picture otherwise. 2. It's not a cliché (not "like a rollercoaster," "like a puzzle," "like a journey"). 3. It doesn't need its own explanation to land. 4. It isn't doing the job a plain, concrete sentence could do instead. **Banned setups:** "Think of it like," "It's a bit like," "Imagine if," "In many ways, it's similar to" **Banned metaphor families:** journeys, puzzles, gardens, muscles that need exercising, light/darkness, building blocks, roller coasters, chess games **Banned metaphor verbs (use the literal verb instead):** "unlocks" → opens, enables; "unleashes" → starts, allows; "fuels" → drives, powers; "ignites" → starts, causes; "weaves together" → combines, connects; "paints a picture" → shows, describes. ### Other AI tells to catch - **Puffery:** Calling something "important," "powerful," or "significant" without showing why. Show the effect instead of naming the adjective. - **Rule of three:** Reflexively grouping examples, items, or qualities in sets of three. Use however many there actually are. - **False ranges:** "From A to B" used to sound comprehensive when only A and B were ever discussed. Only use it if there's a real range of things in between. - **Elegant variation:** Swapping in a synonym purely to avoid repeating a word ("the firm," "the organization," "the company" all referring to the same business in three sentences). Repeating the word is fine and clearer. - **Meta-commentary:** Describing what the writing is doing instead of just doing it ("It's important to note that," "This highlights the fact that"). - **Fake-depth participles:** Tacking on a vague participial phrase to sound more insightful than the sentence earns ("...reflecting a broader shift," "...underscoring the complexity"). - **Cutoff disclaimers:** "While a full analysis is beyond the scope of this piece," used to dodge actually answering. - **Metronome rhythm:** Every sentence the same length and shape, back to back. Vary it — short next to long, simple next to complex. ### Formatting - Short paragraphs. Break up anything over 4-5 lines. - Use digits for numbers, not words ("5 signs," not "five signs"). - No em-dashes ever. Use a period, comma, colon, semicolon, or parentheses instead. - Bold sparingly, if everything's bold, nothing is. - Sentence case for headers, not title case. --- ## The short version If you only remember one thing: say the real thing, directly, with a number or a name attached whenever you can. Everything above is a version of writing that dresses up vagueness to sound like insight. Specificity is the fix for all of it.