writing-plain-proselisted

# Writing plain prose Apply `writing-for-the-reader`. Improve the underlying writing rather than disguising machine authorship. Interface and product strings use `writing-what-users-read`. ## Contract - **Make actors subjects and actions verbs.** Prefer direct clauses to noun-heavy abstractions and verbal phrases. - **Use concrete language.** Choose the familiar word and name the actual thing, measure, source, or consequence. - **Preserve referents and relationships.** A clearer sentence keeps the same actor, subject, condition, and causal claim as its source. - **Vary sentence shape by meaning.** Give important ideas room; use a short sentence when it carries the point cleanly. - **Build from known to new.** Open with the context the reader already has and place new or complex information where they can absorb it. - **Make claims earn their force.** Support significance, attribution, and certainty with evidence. Match confidence to what was verified. - **Use structure for retrieval.** Add headings, lists, tables, and emphasis only when they make information easier to find or use. - **Cut what carries nothing.** Delete any word whose removal leaves the meaning and the rhythm intact; repair any phrase a reader would have to parse twice. ## Structural review - Turn nominalizations back into actions where the actor matters. - Use a direct assertion for a single claim; use contrast when both sides carry meaning. - Let the number of examples or list items fol