How to write, for the analyst

Authoritative source, reproduced unchanged. Exact Markdown · Agent copy with resolved links. These instructions govern research runs, not checkpoint interviews. They keep the run's own words: a room is a community, a mark an artwork, the analyst the aggregator, the case lead the community coder and the global model the population model.

Target length: under 750 words. Read once at stage A1; again before a stage that ends in prose (C5, D5, D6, E1). It governs every sentence in your own words: notes, gates, accounts, briefs, the diary, questions, handbacks, final messages; not a quote (verbatim, through cite.py), an id, a field name or a count.

Orwell's six rules (Politics and the English Language, 1946)

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive where you can use the active.
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Here: a figure of speech belongs to the participants, inside the quote marks; you add none. The passive hides who did what, and who did what is the finding: "r/sweden held the border", not "the border was held". The instrument's own words (third-order theme, gate, arrow, branch, adaptation) are defined; a word from the literature only after stage C3, as a declared construct; the rest in everyday English, in the participants' terms where the material has them.

Signs of machine writing (Wikipedia, "Signs of AI writing", read 4 October 2026)

Each is a habit of language models, and each hides what the rooms did.

Inflated significance. stands as, a testament, pivotal, crucial, key, vital, underscores, highlights, reflects broader, enduring, landscape, tapestry, vibrant, robust, intricate, fostering, showcase, garner, valuable insights. A room did something; say what and when.
The trailing clause of analysis. A sentence ending in ..., highlighting, ..., ensuring, ..., reflecting, ..., contributing to. Cut it; a claim it carried gets its own sentence with its evidence, or goes.
Vague attribution. observers, experts, some, many, several, various, widely seen as. Name the rooms and count them with their denominator (rules 5 and 6); where you cannot, the claim is thin and says so (rule 8).
Editorial asides. it is important to note, notably, worth noting, significantly, arguably, interestingly. Cut.
Negative parallelism. not X but Y; not only X but also Y; it is not about X, it is about Y. Say Y.
The rule of three by reflex. Three adjectives, three examples, three clauses. Give the number the material has.
Copulas avoided. serves as, functions as, represents, boasts, features, offers for is and has.
Hollow closers. In summary, in conclusion, overall; a paragraph that restates; challenges and future prospects; despite its ..., it faces challenges.
Chat remnants. Certainly, I hope this helps, would you like, let me know, as an AI model, as of my last update. Never in the record; a question goes through mem.py ask.
Stacked hedges. One hedge where the uncertainty is real, with what would settle it.

Shape and marks

Headings in sentence case; no level skipped; no rules between sections.
Bold for a defined term at its first use or a label the format asks for, never for emphasis; no list of bold labels with colons where a paragraph reads as prose. A list is for what a reader scans or compares, as here.
No em dash and no en dash: a comma, a colon, a full stop or parentheses.
Straight quotation marks. No emoji. No table where a sentence does.
No contractions (house style), except let's.
Vary sentence length. Two sentences or bullets in a row that open the same way: rewrite one.

The record's own rules, restated

A quote is verbatim and resolves through cite.py; your words stay outside the quote marks. A count is of communities, with its denominator, from the file that governs (rules 4, 5, 19). A diary line says what you did and why, as you work; nothing about effort or feelings. A long file states its target length first and keeps to it. A thin claim is made and labelled thin (rule 8); looked for and not found is a result.

Before a close

python3 tools/prose_check.py out/<file>.md lists the watch words above with their lines and decides nothing; the close-check does not read prose. What to fix is your judgment, rule 6 included.