# Antislop-copywriting Human Guide ## What This Is For Copy and text skill for antislop. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for content production: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return. Use this as a human-readable version of the Antislop-copywriting agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions. ## When To Use This - Use this when you need a repeatable process for antislop-copywriting. - Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt. - Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact. ## When Not To Use This - Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer. - Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant. - Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review. ## What You Need Before Starting - The goal or business outcome you want. - The audience, customer segment, or market context. - Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance. - Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements. - A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like. ## Step-By-Step Workflow 1. State the job clearly: "Use the Antislop-copywriting guide to help me with..." 2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints. 3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output. 4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below. 5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed. ## Skill-Specific Guidance - Every pattern has the same shape: **The pattern**, **Why it reads as AI**, **Before** (the slop), **After** (the fix), with the governing core rule cited as R-XX. - Two rules apply to everything below: - **Do not over-sterilize.** Avoiding AI patterns is half the job. Copy with no voice is as obviously machine-made as copy full of AI tells (R-37). When a user supplies a voice, keep it. - The Delivery Gate in the core remains the gate. The "Copywriting Skill Checklist" at the end of this file is the copy-specific supplement to run alongside it. - **Why it reads as AI:** these words appear far more often in machine-written text. They signal intent to impress, not intent to inform, and they are the fastest way to mark a page as AI-generated. - **Rule:** R-16 (buzzwords), R-36 (no fabricated claims). - **The pattern:** "the future of X", "marking a pivotal moment", "a testament to", "revolutionizing", "a new era of". - **Why it reads as AI:** the claim has no evidence behind it, and the sentence reads the same no matter what the product does. It is ceremony where content should be. - **Rule:** R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5 (evidence over claims). - **The pattern:** "Trusted by thousands of teams", "industry-leading", "world-class", "loved by customers everywhere", with nothing named or verifiable. - **Why it reads as AI:** a trust claim without evidence is a confession. It fills the space a real customer name, a real number, or a real use case should occupy. - **Rule:** R-17 (data and numbers), R-18 (testimonials), R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5. ## Decision Points And Nuance The original skill emphasizes: How to use this skill, Tone & Voice, Empty AI Vocabulary, Significance Inflation, Empty Claims and Social Proof with No Evidence, Weasel Attributions, Persuasive Authority Tropes, Chatbot Closers, Fake-Candid Openers, Signposting Announcements. Use these questions to steer the work: - What is the intended audience or buyer? - What source material must be preserved? - What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion? - What examples represent the desired quality bar? - What should the assistant avoid? ## Common Mistakes - **Do not over-sterilize.** Avoiding AI patterns is half the job. Copy with no voice is as obviously machine-made as copy full of AI tells (R-37). When a user supplies a voice, keep it. - > This is our last chance to win this customer, and WE MUST ACT IMMEDIATELY before they choose a competitor. - > This is our last chance to win this customer. If we do not respond today, they will choose a competitor. - **Rule:** R-02 (text must feel natural and human). - **The pattern:** swapping synonyms to avoid repeating a word: "the protagonist faces a challenge, the main character must adapt, the central figure persists". - > The policy — announced without warning — affects thousands of workers. - > The policy, announced without warning, affects thousands of workers. - > You don't say "Netherlands, Europe" as an address — yet this mislabeling continues. ## Copy-And-Paste Prompt ```text Use the Antislop-copywriting human guide. My goal: [Describe the business outcome] Audience: [Describe who this is for] Context and source material: [Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy] Constraints: [Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items] Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result. ``` ## Final Checklist - [ ] The output matches the original goal. - [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer. - [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved. - [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit. - [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person. ## Source This guide was generated from the miqdadbadjuber/anti-slop skill entry for `antislop-copywriting`. ## Source Skill Notes These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic. # antislop-copywriting > Anti Slop: Rules for AI Coding Agents. Copy & Text skill > Part of the antislop system. Read together with `antislop.md` (the core). This skill deep-dives the copy and text concern: headlines, CTAs, tone, value propositions, and the patterns that make AI-written prose easy to spot. It references core rules by number and never duplicates or renumbers them. Load it when the task writes or edits marketing copy, product copy, landing-page text, or any prose meant for people to read. ## How to use this skill - Load together with `antislop.md` whenever the task is copy or text work. The core holds the mechanism (the purpose test, the three tiers, the Delivery Gate) and the hard bans (R-02, R-15, R-16, R-17, R-18, R-36, R-38). This skill holds copy-specific depth that the core does not. - Every pattern has the same shape: **The pattern**, **Why it reads as AI**, **Before** (the slop), **After** (the fix), with the governing core rule cited as R-XX. - Two rules apply to everything below: - **Never invent facts** (R-17, R-36, R-38). A rewrite adds no fact, name, number, date, quote, or citation that is not in the source text or supplied by the user. Specificity comes from the source or the user, not from the rewrite. If a sentence needs real detail to work, ask for it or write the plain version without it. - **Do not over-sterilize.** Avoiding AI patterns is half the job. Copy with no voice is as obviously machine-made as copy full of AI tells (R-37). When a user supplies a voice, keep it. - The Delivery Gate in the core remains the gate. The "Copywriting Skill Checklist" at the end of this file is the copy-specific supplement to run alongside it. ## Tone & Voice ### Empty AI Vocabulary - **The pattern:** verbs and abstract nouns stacked to sound impressive without saying anything: *unlock, elevate, empower, delve, showcase, testament, landscape (abstract), journey, robust, game-changer, next-level, seamless, cutting-edge, revolutionary*. - **Why it reads as AI:** these words appear far more often in machine-written text. They signal intent to impress, not intent to inform, and they are the fastest way to mark a page as AI-generated. - **Before:** > Unlock the power of seamless collaboration to elevate your team's journey to the next level. - **After:** > Work with your team in one shared space. - **Rule:** R-16 (buzzwords), R-36 (no fabricated claims). ### Significance Inflation - **The pattern:** "the future of X", "marking a pivotal moment", "a testament to", "revolutionizing", "a new era of". - **Why it reads as AI:** the claim has no evidence behind it, and the sentence reads the same no matter what the product does. It is ceremony where content should be. - **Before:** > Our platform is marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of team productivity, ushering in a new era of work. - **After:** > Our platform cuts the time your team spends on status meetings. - **Rule:** R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5 (evidence over claims). ### Empty Claims and Social Proof with No Evidence - **The pattern:** "Trusted by thousands of teams", "industry-leading", "world-class", "loved by customers everywhere", with nothing named or verifiable. - **Why it reads as AI:** a trust claim without evidence is a confession. It fills the space a real customer name, a real number, or a real use case should occupy. - **Before:** > Trusted by thousands of teams worldwide. Industry-leading technology loved by customers everywhere. - **After:** > Used by the support teams at [customer names, only if real]. If there are no real customers to name, cut the claim entirely. - **Rule:** R-17 (data and numbers), R-18 (testimonials), R-36 (no fabricated claims), C-5. ### Weasel Attributions - **The pattern:** "Experts say", "industry observers", "people report", "leading analysts believe", with no one named. - **Why it reads as AI:** the attribution exists to make an unsourced claim feel authoritative. If the authority is real, name it; if not, the claim does not get a costume. - **Before:** > Experts say this approach dramatically improves conversion. - **After:** > [Name the source or cut the sentence. Example with a real source: "In a 2024 study by [named firm], this approach improved conversion by [real figure]."] - **Rule:** R-36, C-5. ### Persuasive Authority Tropes - **The pattern:** "at its core", "the real question is", "what really matters", "fundamentally", "the deeper issue", "the heart of the matter". - **Why it reads as AI:** these phrases pretend to cut through noise to a deeper truth, then restate an ordinary point with extra ceremony. - **Before:** > At its core, what really matters is whether your team can move faster. - **After:** > Whether your team can move faster depends on how quickly you can merge changes. - **Rule:** R-36. ### Chatbot Closers - **The pattern:** "I hope this helps!", "Let me know if you have any questions", "Would you like me to expand on this?", "You're welcome!". - **Why it reads as AI:** these are conversation artifacts, not copy. They appear when model chat output is pasted straight into a deliverable. - **Before:** > Here is an overview of our pricing. I hope this helps! Let me know if you'd like me to break down any tier. - **After:** > Here is our pricing. The Starter tier includes three seats and community support. - **Rule:** R-36. ### Fake-Candid Openers - **The pattern:** "Honestly?", "Let's be honest", "Here's the thing", "Real talk", as a theatrical pause before an ordinary point.