Good writing is a gift to everyone around you. Clear, concise communication means your readers spend less time decoding your words and more time acting on them. Here's how to write in a way that respects your reader's time and keeps us all from drowning in walls of text.
Why this matters
AI slop is real, and we can do better. The internet is full of bloated, padded writing generated (or at least inspired) by AI that optimizes for length over clarity. Don't add to it. When you write vague or wordy content, you're forcing your reader to run your writing through their own AI just to distill what you meant. That's inefficient for everyone and costs tokens once when you write it, and each time someone else has to run your writing through AI just to decode it.
Clear writing is a kindness. It's also faster, easier to find, easier to act on, and more accessible to people whose first language isn't English or who use assistive technology.
How to structure long-form content
Not everything needs to be read front to back. Use progressive disclosure: lead with the essential, then offer more for those who want it.
Layer | Format | Length cap |
|---|---|---|
TLDR | The elevator pitch. What is this and why does it matter? | 2-3 sentences |
High-level summary | The key points, decisions, or recommendations. | 2-3 paragraphs |
Detailed outline or doc | Full context, nuance, supporting info. | 1-2 pages |
Tips for tighter writing
Cut the filler. "In order to" → "to." "At this point in time" → "now." "Due to the fact that" → "because." Read your draft and delete anything that doesn't add meaning.
One idea per sentence. If you need a comma or a semicolon to connect two thoughts, consider whether they should be two sentences instead.
Front-load the point. Put the most important information first—in the document, in the section, and in the sentence. Don't make readers wade through context before getting to the answer.
Use plain words. "Help" not "assist." "Use" not "utilize." "Start" not "commence." Simpler words are faster to read and more accessible to non-native speakers.
Use active voice. "The team reviewed the proposal" not "The proposal was reviewed by the team."
Avoid sensory language. "Check the doc" not "see the doc." "Review the table" not "look at the table." Not everyone can see, and inclusive language is clearer language.
Prompting guidelines for AI-assisted writing
When you use AI to help you write, be specific about the standard you want to hold. Add instructions like:
"Make this clear, concise, and succinct. Remove filler words. Use plain language and active voice. Follow accessibility best practices."
If you wouldn't write it yourself, don't publish it just because an AI did. Read what you generate and edit it. Remember, even if AI wrote it, you still own it.
The goal isn't fewer words for their own sake—it's more signal per word. Your readers will thank you.
I wrote this with AI to prove my point. It only took me a few minutes because I wrote a longer prompt to tighten things up from the start. Then, I only had to do a bit of light editing, mostly to remove the pesky em dashes that AI loves so much. Here's my prompt:
"Help me write a company-wide post about being kind to your reader.Â
1. There's a lot of AI slop out there; don't add to it.
2. It's more efficient (and saves more tokens) if you clean up your writing than if everyone has to use their AI to distill your writing.
3. Tips for writing more succinctly, clearly, concisely, and accessibly. You can look at @helpdocs/.cursor/skills for ideas from our team.
a. Include tips about progressive disclosure, offering quick essential info first, then adding more context if a user decides to continue reading, like: first write a TLDR - that's the elevator pitch, then include an executive summary - a more detailed overview, then a detailed outline for those who want the nitty gritty. Make sure to add caps on everything to control the sprawl - TLDR should be 2-3 sentences, exec summary 2-3 paragraphs, detailed outline 1-2 pages.
b. Add prompting guidelines that can help tighten up your language, like "It should be clear, concise, succinct, and follow accessibility best practices."
The tone should be professional, but also friendly and helpful, not curt, nagging, or snarky. Pretend you're a technical writer arguing for best practices for clear, concise, succinct, accessible writing.
This should be 1 page max."
You can see that my prompt isn't perfect. But it was enough to guide AI away from producing a pile of slop. Step 3 of the prompt references the technical writing style guide that my team uses. We've built those into skills that we use every time we write with AI. It saves us from having to build that info into our prompt each time. You can build similar skills to achieve the same effect. Digital.gov has a great resource on writing better that you can build into your own skills.
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