Agent Skills

writing-clearly-and-concisely

William Strunk Jr.'s Elements of Style (1918) in markdown format for AI agents

Installation
CLI
npx skills add https://github.com/obra/the-elements-of-style --skill writing-clearly-and-concisely

Installez cette compétence avec la CLI et commencez à utiliser le flux de travail SKILL.md dans votre espace de travail.

Dernière mise à jour le 4/23/2026

The Elements of Style - Claude Code Plugin

A Claude Code plugin providing William Strunk Jr.'s The Elements of Style (1918) as a reference skill for clear, precise writing.

Purpose

This plugin gives Claude access to Strunk's foundational writing guidance when working on documentation, user-facing text, or any prose that needs clarity and proper style.

What's Inside

The plugin provides:

  • Skill: writing-clearly-and-concisely - Guidance on when and how to use Strunk's rules
  • Reference: Complete 1918 text with all rules, examples, and usage guidance (~12,000 tokens)

The reference contains:

  1. Elementary Rules of Usage - Seven fundamental grammar and punctuation rules
  2. Elementary Principles of Composition - Eleven rules for clear, effective writing
  3. Words and Expressions Commonly Misused - An alphabetical guide to usage pitfalls

Usage

Once installed, Claude will automatically use the writing-clearly-and-concisely skill when appropriate. The skill:

  • Warns about the 12,000-token reference size
  • Lists all rules at a glance
  • Suggests dispatching a subagent for copyediting when context is limited
  • Only loads the full reference when actively writing or editing prose

Source

This text is in the public domain. The original 1918 edition by William Strunk Jr. was obtained from Project Gutenberg and converted to clean markdown format.