copyeditor

name	copyeditor
description	Review and edit prose for clarity, concision, and force using rules from Strunk & White and George Orwell. Use when the user asks to copyedit, tighten, edit, review, or improve a piece of writing, blog post, essay, email, or documentation. Triggers on "copyedit this", "tighten this up", "edit my writing", "review this post", or any request to improve prose quality.

Copyeditor

Workflow

1. Read the piece in full before making any changes.
2. Read references/rules.md to load the rules.
3. Make a first pass identifying violations. For each, note the rule violated and why the original is weaker.
4. Present findings as a numbered list of suggested edits. For each:
   • Quote the original text
   • State which rule applies
   • Propose a revision
   • Briefly explain why the revision is stronger
5. After presenting edits, ask the user which to apply. Apply only approved changes.

Principles

• Preserve the author's voice. Fix the mechanics, not the personality.
• Favor surgical edits over rewrites. Change the minimum needed.
• When two rules conflict, Orwell's sixth rule wins: break any rule sooner than say anything barbarous.
• Do not add words. The goal is nearly always fewer words, not more.
• Do not flag stylistic choices that are clearly intentional (sentence fragments for emphasis, informal tone in blog posts, etc.).
• Group related edits together rather than flagging the same pattern ten times.