The contrast reframe
"It's not X, it's Y." Invents a weak idea just to knock it down.
Fix: Delete the rejected half. Say the real point directly.
Unlocked
01 · TELL
02 · TELL
03 · TELL
04 · TELL
05 · TELL
06 · TELL
07 · TELL
08 · TELL
09 · TELL
10 · TELL
11 · TELL
12 · TELL
01 · THE FULL CHECK
02 · QUICK
03 · MAKE IT A SKILL
04 · PREVENTION
The twelve tells
You can't always name them, but you can smell them. Here they are, named, with what to do instead.
The puffery
Pivotal. Significant. A testament to. It declares importance instead of showing it.
Fix: State the fact. Let one specific detail show why it matters.
The tacked-on -ing
"...marking a significant shift." Fake analysis bolted onto the end of a sentence.
Fix: Cut it, or give the point its own sentence and a real argument.
The thesaurus shuffle
The platform, the solution, the tool, the offering, all in one paragraph.
Fix: Pick the right word and use it again. Humans repeat words.
The ta-da
"Here's the kicker." "The best part?" Fanfare for a point that should stand on its own.
Fix: Delete the fanfare. Usually "But" does the whole job.
The therapy voice
"You're not alone." "You're not imagining it." Reassurance nobody asked for.
Fix: Inform or challenge. Don't soothe.
Everything in threes
Three adjectives, three examples, three bullets, every single time.
Fix: Use the number the point needs. Often it's one.
The hollow connector
Additionally. Furthermore. Moreover. It's worth noting that.
Fix: Delete it. If the logic falls apart, the logic needed work.
The dash
Long dashes used as dramatic pauses, three to a paragraph.
Fix: A comma, a full stop, or a new sentence.
The tidy ending
Every thread resolved, every section the same length, a neat summary at the end.
Fix: Be lopsided. Go deep where it matters. Cut the summary.
The ghost citation
"Studies show." "Experts agree." No name, no year, no link.
Fix: Name the source or cut the claim.
The fake casual
"Look." "Let's be real." Every sentence four words long.
Fix: Vary the rhythm. Follow a long sentence with a short one.
And the words. Delve, seamless, elevate, unlock, harness, leverage, robust, tapestry. The test is simple: if you wouldn't say it out loud in a meeting, it goes.
Use it in five steps
- Give Claude your voice first. The check strips what isn't you; a voice document adds what is. The free plugin in the Starter Pack builds it with you: tuitiv.ai/free/setup.
- Write the draft however you normally do. With Claude, without it, dictated in the car. The check doesn't care where the draft came from.
- Paste prompt 01 with your draft underneath. Read the change list, not just the result. If it changed something you meant, put it back and say why. It'll respect that for the rest of the chat.
- Read it out loud once. Anything you stumble over, a reader will too.
- Make it a skill. Run prompt 03 once. From then on it's /sound-human and your draft.
The prompts
01 is the full check. 02 is the quick one. 03 makes it a skill. 04 stops most of the tells being written in the first place.
The Sound Human check
Paste with your draft underneath. Twelve tells fixed, nothing else touched.
Read the draft below as my editor, not my writer. Check it for these twelve AI tells and fix only those: 1. "Not X, it's Y" contrasts. Delete the rejected half; say the real point directly. 2. Puffery: pivotal, significant, a testament to. State the fact instead. 3. "-ing" phrases tacked onto the end of sentences as fake analysis. Cut them. 4. Rotating synonyms for the same thing. Use one word consistently. 5. Fanfare: "here's the kicker", "the best part?". Delete it. 6. Reassurance nobody asked for: "you're not alone". Delete it. 7. Automatic groups of three. Use the number the point needs. 8. Hollow connectors: additionally, furthermore, moreover, it's worth noting. Delete them. 9. Long dashes used as pauses. Replace with a comma, a full stop or a new sentence. 10. A closing summary that repeats the piece, or suspiciously even sections. Cut the summary. 11. Unnamed sources: "studies show", "experts agree". Flag them for me to source or cut. 12. Stock casual openers and uniformly short sentences. Vary the rhythm. Also remove any word I wouldn't say out loud in a meeting (delve, seamless, elevate, unlock, harness, leverage, robust, tapestry). Keep my sentences exactly as they are unless they break a rule above. Add nothing. Don't "improve" anything else. Give me the clean version first, then a list of every change you made and which rule it broke. Draft: [paste your draft here]
The 30-second version
For emails and short posts, when you haven't got time for the full list.
Read this back as my editor, not my writer. Strip every AI tell: dashes used as pauses, groups of three, "not X but Y" contrasts, rhetorical questions before a reveal, any sentence that summarises the paragraph above it, and any word I wouldn't say out loud. Keep my sentences exactly as they are unless they break one of those rules. Add nothing. Show me what you changed. [paste your draft here]
Turn it into /sound-human
Run once, straight after you've used prompt 01. After this it's a forward slash.
Turn the Sound Human check we just used into a skill called sound-human. When I run it, it should take whatever draft I give it, apply the twelve rules exactly as written, keep my voice file in mind if there's one in this project, return the clean version first and the change list second, and never add new content. Save it so I can run it with /sound-human.
Stop the tells at source
Paste into your global instructions (Settings, then General, then instructions for Claude) so fewer tells get written in the first place.
When you write anything for me: no long dashes; no "it's not X, it's Y" contrasts; no groups of three unless the content really has three; no hollow connectors (additionally, furthermore, moreover); no summary paragraph at the end; no words I wouldn't say out loud (delve, seamless, elevate, unlock, harness, leverage, robust). Vary sentence length. Name sources or don't make the claim.
Downloads
When it's not quite right
It changed things I meant
Say so in the same chat: "I meant the three examples, put them back." The rules are defaults, not law. If it keeps happening, add your exceptions to the bottom of prompt 01.
It still sounds a bit generic
The check takes the tells out; it can't put you in. That's the voice document's job. Once Claude has your voice, run the check after the draft, not instead of it.
It made it much shorter
Usually a good sign. If you need the length, ask it to restore specific points, not to "add more".
Will this get past AI detectors?
That's not what it's for, and I wouldn't rely on it. It's for readers. People switch off the moment writing smells machine-made, and this is how you keep them reading.