The tell inventory

The catalog, ordered by damage. Fix from the top down. Structural findings mean rewriting sentences and merging paragraphs, and that happens before any surface fix, or the surface work gets overwritten.

Quoted specimens are examples of what to remove, never patterns to imitate.

1. Structural tells (fix first, always)

The contrast flip. "This isn't X. It's Y." / "It's not about X, it's about Y." The single most recognizable machine move. Fix: state the claim directly. "It's not about volume, it's about targeting" becomes "Targeting decides this; volume never did."

Negative parallelism. "No fluff. No filler. Just results." Fix: one plain sentence about what the thing does.

Triads. Three parallel items in every list, every sentence, every section. Models default to three. Fix: cut to two or extend to four, and vary across the piece.

Uniform rhythm. Every sentence the same length, every paragraph the same depth, every section the same shape. Fix: run one long sentence, then a fragment. Merge two paragraphs. Let one section run twice as long as its neighbor.

The staircase. Every sentence its own paragraph, line after line, engineered for fake momentum. Fix: merge into real paragraphs and keep one single-line break where the emphasis is earned.

The rhetorical question opener. "Ever wondered why your emails get ignored?" Fix: open with the claim or the number the question was hiding.

The summary close. "The bottom line?" / "At the end of the day" / a conclusion restating the intro. Fix: end on the most specific thing in the piece, then stop.

Over-signposting. "In this post, I'll cover…" / "Let's dive in" / "Let's break it down." Fix: delete the announcement and start covering it.

The inclusivity sweep. "Whether you're a founder, a marketer, or a sales leader…" Fix: name the one reader the piece is for.

The range sweep. "From strategy to execution, from awareness to conversion…" Fix: pick the one thing the piece actually addresses.

Fake dialogue. "You might be thinking…" / "I know what you're going to say." Fix: state the objection as an objection and answer it.

False gatekeeping. "Here's what nobody tells you" / "The secret nobody talks about." Fix: if the insight is real, it survives without the costume.

One-word-sentence drama. "Powerful. Simple. Free." Fix: one real sentence with a verb.

"Let that sink in." Fix: delete. If the line lands, it needs no instruction.

2. Punctuation and typography

• Em dashes, the long horizontal dash and its double-hyphen stand-in. The single loudest tell. Fix: period, comma, colon, or parentheses. The sentence almost always improves.
• En dashes used as pause punctuation. Same fix.
• Semicolons in casual copy. Humans writing feed posts and emails rarely reach for them. Fix: split the sentence.
• Ellipsis as drama. "And then… everything changed." Fix: delete the ellipsis; keep or cut the sentence on its own merits.
• Quotation marks around ordinary phrases for fake emphasis, as in the "secret sauce." Fix: remove the quotes or replace the phrase.
• Title Case Headers On Everything. Fix: sentence case.

3. The slop lexicon

Cut on sight, or replace with the plain verb:

delve, dive in, deep dive, unpack, unlock, unleash, elevate, empower, leverage (as a verb), robust, seamless, streamline, supercharge, game-changer, revolutionize, transform (without an object that changed), landscape, realm, tapestry, testament, beacon, navigate, embark, journey, thrive, foster, harness, "in today's fast-paced world," "in the ever-evolving landscape of," "let's face it," "here's the thing," "the best part?," "spoiler alert," "pro tip," "it's important to note," "it's worth noting," "arguably," "moreover" and "furthermore" as paragraph glue, "folks."

The rule underneath the list: any phrase that appears in everyone's AI drafts belongs to no one's voice. Apply that test to words not on the list yet.

Do not treat this as find-and-replace. A word on the list is a prompt to check the sentence, and the sentence is usually the problem.

4. Content-level tells

Hedging stacks. "Arguably one of the most important…" Fix: commit or cut.

Both-sides mush. Perfectly symmetrical pros and cons with no stance. Fix: take the position the author actually holds and give the tradeoff honestly.

Invented specificity. Round numbers and composite anecdotes the source material never contained. Fix: trace to source or cut. A flagged gap beats a fabricated fact.

Unverifiable superlatives. "The best," "the largest," "industry-leading." Fix: replace with a checkable claim that survives a hostile reader. "The largest community" dies to one counterexample; a dated, verifiable "longest-running" survives.

Generic hypotheticals. "Imagine a SaaS company struggling with churn…" Fix: use the real example from source material, or none.

"Studies show" with no study. Fix: name it or lose it.

Advice with no cost. Recommendations where nothing is traded off. Fix: state what the approach costs. Cost is what makes advice credible.

No lived detail. No time, place, name, or number anywhere in the piece. Fix: the specificity pass. If nothing lived can be added, question whether the piece should ship.

5. Voice tells

• Written-out forms where a person contracts: it is, do not, cannot, they are. Fix: contract them. Humans contract by default; the formal expansion reads as machine politeness.
• Relentless positivity, exclamation inflation, motivational-poster closers. "Now go build something amazing!" Fix: end on substance.
• Apology hedges and permission-seeking. "I hope this helps," "Just my two cents." Fix: delete. Public copy asserts.
• Explaining the joke, or flagging humor before making it. Fix: trust the reader or cut the joke.
• Register drift. Essay formality in a feed post, feed punchiness in a long essay. Fix: match the channel's register end to end.

What is not a tell

Flagged by careless passes, usually fine:

• Correct parallelism inside a single list. Only the repetition across sections is a tell.
• Bullets in general.
• Long sentences.
• The word "however."
• Any construction the author's fingerprint documents as genuine.