Use Orwell's writing rules to eliminate the "AI voice" in coding agents
davemccollough · x · 2026-07-21
Developers often complain about the "AI voice" (e.g., overusing em dashes and words like "delve") in outputs from tools like Claude Code. Instead of banning these words one by one, it's more effective to provide the AI with a comprehensive writing system in your global config (e.g., CLAUDE.md).
The post suggests copy-pasting George Orwell's six rules for writing from 1946—such as "never use a long word where a short one will do" and "if it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out"—to make generated READMEs and PR descriptions sound more natural and concise.
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