Wikipedia Human Style Writing

Wikipedia Human Style Writing

Write and revise prose so it does not carry the tell-tale signs of AI-generated

text, using the patterns catalogued in Wikipedia's

Signs of AI writing.

The full pattern catalogue lives in references/ai-writing-tells.md — consult it

whenever you need the specific words-to-watch lists, examples, or the era-by-era

"AI vocabulary" breakdown.

Operating principles

• Signs, not sins. Every pattern below can appear in good human writing. The

giveaway is density and mechanical repetition, not a single instance. Target

clusters, not isolated words.

• Fix the cause, not the symptom. Most tells are surface markers of a deeper

problem: vagueness, puffery, or unsupported claims. Restore the specific fact or

cut the empty claim — don't just swap the flagged word and leave hollow content.

• Preserve the truth and the voice. Never invent or drop facts, figures,

quotes, dates, or sources. Keep the author's meaning, stance, and legitimate

emphasis. Do not "de-AI" a draft into corporate blandness.

• Descriptive, not prescriptive. These words and shapes are overused, not

banned. Use judgment over find-and-replace.

Workflow

• Read the whole draft first; note the core message, key facts, and the intended

voice and audience.

• Sweep the draft against the tell categories in references/ai-writing-tells.md,

looking for clusters.

• Revise each cluster by fixing the underlying issue:
• Replace generic praise with the specific, concrete fact

(regression-to-the-mean: "a revolutionary titan of industry" → the actual

achievement).

• Cut empty significance/legacy flourishes and trailing "-ing" analysis clauses.
• Restore plain is/are/has in place of "serves as / stands as / boasts /

features".

• Name a real source or delete a vague attribution ("experts argue", "observers

have noted").

• Break up mechanical rule-of-three lists, "not just X but Y" parallelisms, and

templated "Challenges / Future prospects" wrap-ups.

• Remove promotional/travel-brochure tone ("vibrant", "nestled", "rich tapestry",

"seamless").

• Thin out an over-dense cluster of era-specific "AI vocabulary" words.
• Clean the formatting tells: sentence-case headings (not Title Case), sparing

boldface (not bold lead-in: on every list item), varied punctuation instead

of space-surrounded em-dash overuse, no emoji-as-bullets, no stray markdown or

copy-pasted smart-quote residue, and no "In conclusion / In summary" filler.

• Re-read against the original to confirm no meaning, fact, or nuance drifted.

Guardrails

• Do not add, remove, or alter facts, numbers, quotes, or citations to make text

"sound less AI".

• Do not strip emphasis or specificity that the source genuinely supports.
• Do not flatten a distinctive human voice into neutral mush — the goal is natural,

specific, human prose, not blandness.

• One or two flagged words are usually fine; don't over-correct isolated hits.

Output

Return the revised prose first, copy-ready. When a review was requested, or when

useful, follow it with a short bulleted list of the notable tells you found and how

you addressed them.

Reference

• references/ai-writing-tells.md — the full field guide: every tell category with

words-to-watch, examples, the era-by-era AI-vocabulary breakdown, and formatting

tells. Read the relevant section whenever you need detail beyond the summary above.