de-ai-proselisted

## The rule Readers can tell when a machine wrote the text, and it costs trust the same way sloppy code does. After you write any prose a person will read, read it back once and cut the tells. Plain words, varied sentences, say the thing instead of announcing you're about to say it. ## Tells to cut - Signposting sentences: "Here's the thing.", "That's the point.", "This is the important part.", "By the end you'll know what, why, and how." - Closers like "That's it." or "And that's all there is to it." - Em-dash overuse as the default connector. The constant em-dash rhythm is a fingerprint. - Parallel triads everywhere ("a texture, a config, a script"), over-balanced sentences, the list-of-three cadence. - Arrow constructions in prose ("write one function -> the whole thing appears"). - A table for everything; bold sprinkled on every other phrase as decoration. - Cutesy section names and peppy filler ("the payoff", "the ones that bite"). - Paragraphs that are all the same length and shape. Too tidy. ## How to apply Plain, varied sentences. Some short. Let one run long and a little uneven, like a person typing. Say it directly instead of signposting it. Use em-dashes rarely. Prefer periods, commas, "and". Vary connectors. Keep bold for genuinely key terms, not decoration. Drop a table where a sentence reads more naturally. Read it back and ask: "would a tired engineer writing this actually phrase it this way?" If it sounds like a polished AI explainer, flatten it. ## B