How do I install writing-clearly-and-concisely?

Run `npx skills add https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style --skill writing-clearly-and-concisely` in your terminal. You need to have run `npx skills init` once in your project first.

Which agent frameworks does writing-clearly-and-concisely support?

writing-clearly-and-concisely works with any agent framework supported by the Skills registry, including Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Codex, and Gemini CLI.

Is writing-clearly-and-concisely free to use?

Yes. writing-clearly-and-concisely is free to install and use. It is available from the open explainx.ai skill registry published by obra.

Where can I read ratings and reviews for writing-clearly-and-concisely?

Community ratings and review text appear on this explainx.ai skill page below the description. Reviews use a 1–5 scale and may include short written feedback from signed-in members.

Productivity

writing-clearly-and-concisely▌

obra/the-elements-of-style · updated Apr 8, 2026

$npx skills add https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style --skill writing-clearly-and-concisely

summary

Apply Strunk's timeless writing rules to improve clarity and professionalism across all prose.

›Covers 18 core rules spanning grammar, punctuation, composition principles, and common usage mistakes
›Emphasizes active voice, positive framing, concrete language, and ruthless word elimination as key clarity drivers
›Designed for documentation, commit messages, error messages, UI copy, reports, and any prose humans will read
›Includes token-efficient subagent dispatch pattern: write a dra

skill.md

Writing Clearly and Concisely

Overview

William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly.

WARNING: elements-of-style.md consumes ~12,000 tokens. Read it only when writing or editing prose.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill whenever you write prose for humans:

Documentation, README files, technical explanations
Commit messages, pull request descriptions
Error messages, UI copy, help text, comments
Reports, summaries, or any explanation
Editing to improve clarity

If you're writing sentences for a human to read, use this skill.

Limited Context Strategy

When context is tight:

Write your draft using judgment
Dispatch a subagent with your draft and elements-of-style.md
Have the subagent copyedit and return the revision

All Rules

Elementary Rules of Usage (Grammar/Punctuation)

Form possessive singular by adding 's
Use comma after each term in series except last
Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
Comma before conjunction introducing co-ordinate clause
Don't join independent clauses by comma
Don't break sentences in two
Participial phrase at beginning refers to grammatical subject

Elementary Principles of Composition

One paragraph per topic
Begin paragraph with topic sentence
Use active voice
Put statements in positive form
Use definite, specific, concrete language
Omit needless words
Avoid succession of loose sentences
Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
Keep related words together
Keep to one tense in summaries
Place emphatic words at end of sentence

Section V: Words and Expressions Commonly Misused

Alphabetical reference for usage questions

Bottom Line

Writing for humans? Read elements-of-style.md and apply the rules. Low on tokens? Dispatch a subagent to copyedit with the guide.

general reviews

Ratings

4.5★★★★★10 reviews

★★★★★Shikha Mishra· Oct 10, 2024
writing-clearly-and-concisely is among the better-maintained entries we tried; worth keeping pinned for repeat workflows.
★★★★★Piyush G· Sep 9, 2024
Keeps context tight: writing-clearly-and-concisely is the kind of skill you can hand to a new teammate without a long onboarding doc.
★★★★★Chaitanya Patil· Aug 8, 2024
Registry listing for writing-clearly-and-concisely matched our evaluation — installs cleanly and behaves as described in the markdown.
★★★★★Sakshi Patil· Jul 7, 2024
writing-clearly-and-concisely reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.
★★★★★Ganesh Mohane· Jun 6, 2024
I recommend writing-clearly-and-concisely for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.
★★★★★Oshnikdeep· May 5, 2024
Useful defaults in writing-clearly-and-concisely — fewer surprises than typical one-off scripts, and it plays nicely with `npx skills` flows.
★★★★★Dhruvi Jain· Apr 4, 2024
writing-clearly-and-concisely has been reliable in day-to-day use. Documentation quality is above average for community skills.
★★★★★Rahul Santra· Mar 3, 2024
Solid pick for teams standardizing on skills: writing-clearly-and-concisely is focused, and the summary matches what you get after install.
★★★★★Pratham Ware· Feb 2, 2024
We added writing-clearly-and-concisely from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.
★★★★★Yash Thakker· Jan 1, 2024
writing-clearly-and-concisely fits our agent workflows well — practical, well scoped, and easy to wire into existing repos.