style-tellslisted

# Style tells Source: `points/ai-writing-rules.md` (em-dash rule), `points/core-rules.md` rule 5 (be shorter), `points/banned-jargon.md`, and Stephen King's *On Writing* (the adverb rule). ## What this skill does Three passes behind one skill. Each pass removes a different surface tell that flags writing as AI-generated, padded, or jargon-heavy: | Target | What it removes | When to run alone | |---|---|---| | **em-dashes** | em-dashes (—), double-hyphens (--), the "not just X — it's Y" construction | When the only problem is AI-flavored punctuation | | **adverbs** | empty intensifiers, -ly adverbs the verb already implies, sentence-starting adverbs | When the draft is bloated with qualifiers | | **jargon** | banned consultant words, AI-tell phrases, wordy substitutions | When the draft sounds corporate or AI-generated | Default `--target all` runs all three in order: jargon → adverbs → em-dashes. The order matters: jargon and adverbs often expose dashes that were holding bloated clauses together. ## How to invoke ``` /style-tells "draft text" /style-tells --target em-dashes "draft text" /style-tells --target adverbs "draft text" /style-tells --target jargon "draft text" /style-tells --target all "draft text" ``` Without `--target`, default to `all`. --- ## Target 1 — em-dashes In 2026 the em-dash is the **#1 AI tell**. Models love them. Humans use them sparingly. A draft with twelve em-dashes per page is a confession that an AI wrote it. ### Format limits | Forma