Meredith Medland Claude / Skills

A Claude Skill

Write Like
a Human.

You can almost always tell when AI wrote something. The em dashes everywhere, the phrases no actual human says out loud.

I built a small skill that catches it. Fourteen rules, across two passes. It pulls the robot tells out and leaves the actual person on the page.

Saves as write-like-a-human-SKILL.md. Drop it into Claude, then tell Claude to follow it.

What it takes out

delve leverage — em dash Let's dive in game-changer quietly most people miss this

Why skills matter in Claude

A skill is a set of instructions you save once, so Claude follows it every time without you re-explaining. Your standards travel with you.

i.

You stop repeating yourself

Without a skill, you paste the same rules into every new chat and hope they stick. With one, Claude reads it up front and applies it on its own. The teaching you did once keeps working.

ii.

Your voice becomes the default

New to Claude, a skill is the difference between hoping it sounds like you and knowing it will. If you already use Claude, it is how a one-off instruction turns into a standard you can count on.

iii.

It runs in two passes

The first pass strips the loud structural tics: em dashes, the reflex to group everything in threes, throat-clearing openers, recap endings. The second catches the quieter word-level tells like delve, leverage, and win framing.

iv.

It is portable

The skill is one plain file. Hand it to a teammate, drop it into a project, or move it to another tool. The rules go where you go, and anyone can read exactly what they do.

Using it takes about a minute

  1. Download or copy the skill from the buttons above.
  2. Add it to Claude as a skill, or paste it into a project's instructions.
  3. Ask Claude to follow it on anything you write or edit.
  4. Read what comes back. The robot voice is gone, and your voice is still there.

Read the rules

Fourteen in total. Open a pass to see what each one catches.

Pass 1. The seven structural tics Loud tells▸
  1. 01No em dashes
    Zero, anywhere. Use a comma, period, parentheses, or colon. If a sentence only works with one, rewrite it.
    Wrong: worth it — when the team shows up.   Right: worth it. Especially when the team shows up.
  2. 02No "it's not X, it's Y"
    Also kill "less about X, more about Y." Make the point straight.
  3. 03Break the rule of three
    Stop grouping everything in threes. Use one word, or two, or four. Vary the count on purpose.
  4. 04No empty openers
    Cut "Great question," "Absolutely," "I'd be happy to help." The first real sentence is the opener.
  5. 05No performative enthusiasm
    One exclamation point at most, usually none. Cut amazing, incredible, fantastic, thrilled, delighted.
  6. 06No "Let's" openers
    No "Let's dive in," "Let's break this down," "Let's explore." Just start.
  7. 07No recap closers
    Do not restate the body at the end. Close on the last real point or a clean next step.
Pass 2. The seven vocabulary and narrator tells Quiet tells▸
  1. 01Tell-words
    Replace every time: delve, foster, elevate, unlock, multifaceted, robust, seamless, crucial, pivotal, cutting-edge, and their cousins. Use plain, specific language instead.
  2. 02Corporate jargon
    Cut or replace: "at the end of the day," "circle back," "move the needle," "leverage," "synergy," "best practices," "thought leader." Say what you mean.
  3. 03"Win" framing
    Drop "the win here is," "win-win," "big win." Name the actual result. Not "the win is better retention," but "retention rose 12%."
  4. 04The "quietly" narrator voice
    Cut spy-thriller staging: "quietly," "behind the scenes," "under the radar," "without fanfare." State the fact and let the reader judge.
  5. 05Hedge stacking and scene-setting
    One hedge per sentence at most. Two or more (might, could, possibly, potentially) means rewrite it direct. Delete a paragraph's throat-clearing first line.
  6. 06Abstract container words
    Cut empty vessels: "that distance is where the value lives," and vague uses of "space," "opportunity," "gap." Test: can you answer "to do what, exactly"?
  7. 07"Most people" positioning
    Drop the unnamed wrong crowd: "most people miss this," "what most people get wrong." Make the claim directly, with something verifiable behind it.