copy-deslop

name

copy-deslop

description

De-slop marketing, UX, and landing copy: strip the "tells" that make prose read as AI-generated (em-dash overuse, "not just X but Y", rule-of-three triads, slop vocabulary like seamlessly / robust / elevate / unlock / delve, hedging, and generic openers) and tighten it to concrete, human, on-brand writing. Use this whenever polishing or reviewing ANY customer-facing prose — landing pages, hero copy, marketing sites, product emails, UX microcopy, app-store descriptions, ad copy, social posts — and especially when the user says "make this sound human", "less AI", "punchier", "tighter", "this feels generic", or "clean up the copy", even if they never say the word "de-slop". Works per-language (English, Spanish, and others). It is a quality-and-voice tool, NOT an AI-detector-evasion tool.

copy-deslop

Turn draft or AI-generated copy into writing a real person at the company would have written. The goal is not "different words" — it is prose that is concrete, specific, and in the brand's own voice, with the machine cadence removed.

What this is and is not

• Is: a quality + voice pass. Remove LLM cadence, name real things, tighten.
• Is not: an AI-detector-evasion tool. Do not optimize to fool GPTZero or similar — that produces worse copy and is a losing game. Optimize for a human reader, not a classifier.
• Is not: a personality injection. Do not add jokes, slang, or a "voice" the brand does not have. De-slopping flattens toward the brand's real register, not toward yours.
• Is not: a length increase. De-slopped copy is almost always shorter.

Process

1. Anchor the voice first. If a brand-voice source exists (e.g. a brand book, an About page, a positioning or business doc, the founder's own words), read it before touching anything. Slop is generic because it has no owner — you are giving the copy back its owner. Without this, you risk replacing AI-generic with your-own-generic.
2. Scan and flag. Read the copy and list the specific tells you see, with a location for each (line, selector, or the quoted phrase). Naming them makes the rewrite honest and lets the user veto.
3. Rewrite tight. Fix each tell using the moves below. Preserve meaning, the call-to-action, and any claims/numbers exactly. Change cadence and concreteness, not facts.
4. Verify. Re-read as the reader. Meaning intact? CTA intact? Voice consistent with step 1? Shorter or equal length? No new tells introduced? If a sentence still sounds like it could sell anything, it is still slop — make it specific to this thing.

The tell checklist (what to kill)

These are the patterns that make copy read as machine-made. You will not see all of them; hunt for the ones present.

• Em-dash as a rhythm crutch — sprinkled to fake sophistication. Keep the occasional real one; cut the rest for periods or commas.
• "Not just X — it's Y" / "not only… but also" — the signature LLM see-saw. State Y directly.
• Rule-of-three triads: "faster, smarter, and more efficient." Pick the one true word.
• Slop vocabulary: seamlessly, effortlessly, truly, powerful, robust, elevate, unlock, delve, tapestry, testament, game-changer, revolutionize, cutting-edge, leverage, streamline, "solutions", "empower", "in today's fast-paced world", "at the end of the day". These are filler that survives because it sounds like something. Replace with the concrete thing that is actually happening.
• Hedging: "designed to help", "can help you", "might", "aims to". If it does the thing, say it does the thing.
• Over-symmetry: every sentence the same length, every clause balanced. Real writing has an uneven pulse — a long sentence, then three words.
• Generic openers: "In a world where…", "Imagine a…", "Picture this." Start with the reader's actual situation.
• Abstraction where a specific belongs: "streamline your workflow" vs "answer the same booking question at 11pm so you don't have to". Nouns and numbers beat adjectives.
• Over-explaining / wall-of-text: three sentences doing one sentence's job.
• Decorative emoji: emoji standing in for a point instead of making one.

The moves (what to replace with)

• Concrete over abstract. Name the real object, moment, or number. "You get your time back" becomes stronger as "8–15 hours a week back" when a number is available.
• Active voice, second person, plain verbs. The reader does things; the product does things.
• Say what happens, not what it "helps you" do. "helps you manage bookings" → "books the appointment and sends the reminder".
• Vary sentence length for rhythm. A short sentence lands. Use it after a long one.
• Specific nouns > adjectives. "a leafy street in the German Colony" > "a charming location".
• Keep the brand's real voice. Match the register from step 1 — warm, blunt, technical, whatever it actually is.

Per-language

De-slop each language natively — never machine-translate a fix from another language, because the tells differ.

• Spanish tells: "En el mundo actual", "no solo… sino (que) también", "sin duda", "sin esfuerzo", "potente / robusto", "soluciones", "impulsar", "revolucionar", over-formality (unneeded usted-register, "le invitamos a"), and an excess of "que" chaining clauses. Prefer plain verbs and concrete nouns, same as English.
• For any language, if you are not fluent enough to hear the tells, say so rather than guessing — a confident wrong rewrite is worse than flagging it for a native speaker.

Examples

Example 1 (EN, hero): Before: "Our cutting-edge AI solution seamlessly empowers your business to unlock its full potential — not just saving time, but revolutionizing the way you work." After: "It answers WhatsApp for you — bookings, reminders, the same five questions all day. Most owners get 8–15 hours a week back."

Example 2 (EN, microcopy): Before: "Effortlessly get started on your journey today!" After: "Message us. We'll send a 2-minute demo."

Example 3 (ES): Before: "En el mundo actual, nuestra potente solución de automatización no solo optimiza tus procesos, sino que también revoluciona la manera en que gestionas tu negocio." After: "Contesta tu WhatsApp por ti: agenda citas, manda recordatorios y responde las mismas preguntas de siempre. Recuperas entre 8 y 15 horas a la semana."

Verify before you hand it back

• Every claim, price, and number is unchanged.
• The CTA still says the same action.
• Nothing reads like it could sell a different product.
• It is shorter than or equal to the original.
• The voice matches the brand source from step 1, not a generic "confident startup".

Follow-up: enrich the evals

The evals/evals.json here starts with generic before/after prompts. When this skill is run on a real landing page or marketing asset, harvest 2–3 genuine before/after pairs from that pass and add them as eval cases — real slop from the wild is the best test material.