Method
Score the draft before you improve its tone.
I mark a failure in the margin and leave the sentence alone until the set of marks is complete. Repair is allowed to touch only what a mark named. The six checks below are the score. The tags are the shorthand I write beside a line.
| # | Check | Question | A fail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Source of record | Can a reader name the system, packet, or document this sentence depends on? | A confident claim with no record behind it. |
| 2 | Load-bearing words | Do the nouns and verbs that carry the action match the record? | “Updated” or “aligned” where the record says installed, retired, or abandoned in place. |
| 3 | Fake precision | Is every number, date, unit, and tolerance present in the source? | A station, diameter, or date added because it makes the paragraph look like GIS. |
| 4 | Followability | Could someone do the next action from this text alone? | A verb with no object, no tool, and no stop. |
| 5 | Audience | Is this written for the person who will use it? | Mapper detail in a coordinator note, or a coordinator status where a mapper needed an attribute. |
| 6 | Leftover AI | Does any sentence exist only to sound finished? | Phrases that cannot be checked against a packet. |
Draft, label, repair
- 01
Draft
The model writes, or a person does. I do not edit yet. I keep the draft visible so the marks have something to point at.
- 02
Label
I mark the margin with the tag that names the failure. If two tags apply, I write both. I do not rewrite the line in my head and call that a score.
- 03
Repair
I change the marked span. A softer rhythm that no check required stays as it was. Polish without a mark is how a second error gets in.