Write Concisely
Strunk's Elements of Style, distilled into a Claude skill. This applies the 1918 classic's grammar and composition rules to whatever you're writing. The skill emphasizes the heavy hitters: active voice, positive statements, concrete language, cutting needless words, and putting punch at sentence end. It's the full public domain text, so you get detailed explanations and examples for each rule. Use it when you're writing docs, READMEs, or anything humans need to understand quickly. Fair warning: Strunk is prescriptive and occasionally dated, but the core advice about clarity and brevity still cuts through modern verbosity like nothing else.
- skills.sh installs
- 1.4K
- GitHub stars
- 1.8K
- last updated
- Aug 21, 2026
Install
$ npx -y skills add neolabhq/context-engineering-kit --skill write-concisely --agent claude-codeInstalls into .claude/skills of the current project.
Files
Writing Clearly and Concisely
Overview
William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) teaches you to write clearly and cut ruthlessly. Apply these rules to task that requested by user.
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
The Elements of Style (1918)
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- Repository
- github.com/neolabhq/context-engineering-kit
- Category
- Documentation
- First seen
- Jun 3, 2026
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