Writing Conventions

Living set of writing conventions that apply everywhere: vault notes, email, Google Docs, Slack, personal notes, and output from AI agents back to me. Medium-specific rules live in their own notes and link back here. Keep this short; if a rule only applies to one medium, it goes in that medium’s note.

Rules

1. No em dashes. Use a comma, a colon, or split the sentence. Em dashes read as disconnected thoughts.
2. Natural over formal. Conversational prose, nothing stiff, templated, or AI-sounding. Write like a person talking to a person.
3. Shorter wins. Sent drafts tend to be about 40% shorter than the first pass with the same content. Cut preamble, restated points, and hedging.
4. Lead with the point. First sentence carries the answer or the ask. Context comes after, if at all.
5. Say it once. One clear ask or claim, no stacked justification, no repeating it in different words.
6. Don’t recite the reader’s own material back to them. They know what they wrote.
7. Don’t manage how they respond. No “a one-line reply is fine” or interpreting their policies for them. Describe what’s wanted and let them apply their own rules.
8. Minimal formatting. Headers, bullets, and tables only when the content is multifaceted enough that they help. Plain prose otherwise.
9. Link what’s verifiable. Products, tools, docs, places: include the URL.
10. Every word should add something. No filler, no cliche phrases, no throat-clearing.

By medium

• Email: Professional Email Tone holds the email-specific rules and the edit log.
• Vault notes: vault README.md conventions govern structure (note types, frontmatter, tags). These rules govern the prose inside.
• Slack: rule 3 and 4 dominate. One message, point first, no headers.
• Google Docs: same as vault notes for prose; formatting only where a reader needs to scan.
• AI agent output to me: rules 1, 3, 4, and 8. Short by default, expand only when asked. Too much information reads as saying a lot without saying much.

Edit log

Record corrections here when a draft gets edited for a reason that’s general rather than medium-specific. Medium-specific corrections go in that medium’s note.

2026-09-06 - Created

Pulled the general principles out of Professional Email Tone (no em dashes, natural over formal, shorter wins, say it once, don’t recite, don’t manage replies) and added the ones already in use for AI output (lead with the point, minimal formatting, every word adds something).