Aggressively shorten a piece of writing to what earns its place, and strip the AI tells.
Why it works: Removal-first framing and the cut list separate this from a gentle clarity pass; naming the AI tells targets the exact filler models add by default.
This is a message template. Fill in the blanks below, then paste it into the chat.
Cut the following text to the shortest version that keeps its meaning and my voice. Bias hard toward removal: assume every word is guilty until it earns its place.
What I wrote:
[paste your writing here]
What it’s for: [context, e.g. “landing page”, “Slack message”, “docs intro”]
Hard constraints: [anything that must stay: a key phrase, a required claim, a length target]
Please:
Cut filler, hedging, and throat-clearing first (“it’s worth noting,” “in order to,” “very”)
Delete or rewrite any sentence that doesn’t actually say something
Strip AI tells: em dashes, “delve,” “moreover,” rule-of-three padding
Keep my voice and tighten it; don’t replace it with yours
Show the cut version, then list what you removed and why. If a passage is already tight, say so instead of cutting just to look busy.