Description
Seven editing heuristics: nominalization, expletives, preposition cascades, weak verbs, redundancy, hedges, jargon.
Every editor develops intuition for what makes prose weak. This framework codifies that intuition into seven heuristics that catch 90% of readability issues before they reach a reader. SIN 1 — NOMINALIZATION (Zombie Nouns) Verbs turned into nouns add words without adding meaning. 'Make a decision' → 'decide'. 'Conduct an investigation' → 'investigate'. 'Provide a recommendation' → 'recommend'. Scan every instance of: make a ___, conduct a ___, perform a ___, have a ___, take a ___. Replace the noun with the verb. Sentence shortens by 2-4 words instantly. SIN 2 — THERE IS / IT IS (Expletive Openers) 'There are three reasons why the system failed' → 'The system failed for three reasons'. 'It is important to note that' → delete the frame, state the thing. Count openers. If >2 per page, half of them are padding. Remove 'there is/are', 'it is/was', 'this is', 'that is' — the sentence always survives. SIN 3 — PREPOSITION CASCADES More than two prepositions in a row causes the reader to forget the subject. 'The analysis of the data from the study of patients in the trial' → 'The trial's patient-data analysis.' Use possessive ('s) or compound modifiers to flatten the cascade. Limit: max 2 prepositions per noun phrase. SIN 4 — WEAK VERBS + ADVERBS 'He ran quickly' → 'He sprinted'. 'She spoke loudly' → 'She shouted'. 'The system failed completely' → 'The system collapsed'. Every adverb is a sign the verb is wrong. Pick a stronger verb and delete the adverb. Exceptions: 'barely' (already implies a close miss), 'almost' (tension setup). SIN 5 — REDUNDANT PAIRS 'Each and every', 'first and foremost', 'advance planning', 'past history', 'end result', 'true facts', 'basic fundamentals'. One word carries the meaning. Delete the other. If both seem necessary, the concept is not clear enough. SIN 6 — HEDGE STACKING 'It seems like it might possibly be somewhat correct.' Delete every hedge. If the statement is true, state it. If uncertain, state the degree of uncertainty once: 'Based on the sample, there is a 72% probability the estimate is correct within ±3%.' One precise statement beats five vague qualifiers. SIN 7 — JARGON WHEN SIMPLER WORDS EXIST 'Utilize' → 'use'. 'Leverage' → 'use'. 'Optimize' → 'improve' or 'speed up'. 'Facilitate' → 'help' or 'enable'. 'Commence' → 'start'. 'Terminate' → 'end'. 'Subsequent' → 'next'. 'Incentivize' → 'motivate'. Jargon signals in-group membership at the cost of clarity. Evergreen rule: if a simpler word says the same thing, the simpler word wins. EDITING PASS — Apply all seven sins to the provided text. Flag each sin with its number. Suggest the fix. Count total words removed. Target: 20% word reduction without losing information. OUTPUT: Edited text with sin annotations, word count before/after, which sin eliminated the most words.
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