spb/ultra-sharp-agent-skills Public

1<!--2Author: Simon-Pierre Boucher3Contact: contact@spboucher.ai4-->56# Examples — Editing and Proofreading House Style78## Contents9- Sentence-level pairs (pass 3)10- The hedge/intensifier cut list11- Complete worked example (four passes on one paragraph)12- Voice-preservation pairs13- Gotchas1415## Sentence-level pairs (pass 3)1617| ❌ Before | ✅ After |18|---|---|19| A decision was made by the committee to postpone the launch. | The committee postponed the launch. |20| We conducted an analysis of the results. | We analyzed the results. |21| It is important to note that costs have seen an increase. | Costs rose 12%. |22| There are three factors that determine pricing. | Three factors determine pricing. |23| The implementation of the migration was completed successfully. | The migration is done. |2425## The hedge/intensifier cut list2627Cut on sight unless load-bearing: *very, really, quite, rather, somewhat,28fairly, basically, essentially, actually, arguably, it seems that, I think29that* (in formal prose), *in order to* (→ to), *due to the fact that* (→30because), *at this point in time* (→ now), *each and every* (→ every).3132## Complete worked example — four passes on one paragraph3334**Original (87 words):**3536> It is worth noting that, over the course of the past several months, our37> team has been engaged in the process of evaluating a number of different38> options with respect to our hosting infrastructure. Basically, after a39> really thorough analysis was conducted, it was determined by the team that40> a migration to the new provider would potentially be capable of delivering41> significant cost savings. The security implications were also looked at.42> It is our belief that this migration should be undertaken in Q4.4344- **Pass 1 (structure):** recommendation last → moves first.45- **Pass 2 (paragraph):** one idea = "migrate in Q4 because it saves money46  and is secure"; evaluation history is background, compresses to a clause.47- **Pass 3 (sentences):** passives → active; "engaged in the process of48  evaluating" → "evaluated"; cut *basically, really, potentially, it is our49  belief that*.50- **Pass 4 (mechanics):** "significant cost savings" has no number — flag:51  `[verify: how much?]`.5253**Edited (34 words, −61%):**5455> We should migrate to the new hosting provider in Q4. After evaluating four56> options over three months, the team found it saves [verify: how much?] per57> year and passed our security review.5859## Paragraph-level example (pass 2 — first-sentence skim test)6061**❌ Fails the skim test** (first sentences: "There are several things to62consider." / "Another point is worth mentioning." / "Finally, some context."):63the skim yields nothing.6465**✅ Passes** — first sentences alone tell the story:6667> Migrating in Q4 costs less than waiting. […]68> The security review found no blockers. […]69> The one real risk is the December code freeze. […]7071If the skim summary and the document's argument differ, either the first72sentences are weak (fix them) or the paragraphs argue something the document73doesn't claim (restructure — back to pass 1).7475## Voice-preservation pairs7677**❌ Voice flattened (over-edit):**78- Author: "Look — nobody wakes up excited about expense reports."79- Editor rewrite: "Expense reporting is generally considered tedious."8081**✅ Voice kept, clarity edited:**82- Author: "Look — nobody wakes up excited about expense reports, and that's83  precisely the exact reason we automated every single part of it end-to-end."84- Edit: "Look — nobody wakes up excited about expense reports. That's why we85  automated all of it." *(rhythm kept, redundancy cut)*8687## Gotchas8889- **Editing quotes** — never touch quoted speech beyond bracketed90  clarifications; flag suspected transcription errors instead.91- **The 10–20% cut on already-tight text** — if a text genuinely resists92  cutting, say so; the target is a heuristic, not a quota to fake.93- **"Passive voice is always wrong"** — no: "The suspect was arrested"94  beats "Officers arrested the suspect" when the actor is irrelevant. Cut95  passives that hide accountability, keep passives that focus correctly.96- **Consistency traps for pass 4:** e-mail/email, USD 5k/$5,000/5 000 $,97  Oxford comma on/off, capitalized job titles. Pick the file's dominant98  convention and enforce it; don't import your own.99- **Grammar-checker artifacts** — mechanical tools flag long correct100  sentences and miss wrong numbers. Pass 4 is human judgment plus101  verification, not a spell-check transcript.102