Rewrite until it stops sounding like AI wrote it

---
name: rewrite-until-it-sounds-human
description: "A diagnostic-then-edit pass that names the specific tells in a draft — the tricolons, the hedges, the empty transitions — and fixes them without flattening your voice. Use when the user asks for help with writing tasks like writing, editing, voice."
license: CC-BY-4.0
metadata:
  source: https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/rewrite-until-it-sounds-human
  author: "Rony"
  version: "1.8"
---

# Rewrite until it stops sounding like AI wrote it

A diagnostic-then-edit pass that names the specific tells in a draft — the tricolons, the hedges, the empty transitions — and fixes them without flattening your voice.

## Inputs to collect first

Ask the user for anything below that they have not already given you. Do not
invent values for these.

- `DRAFT` — The text to fix. Works best under 800 words. (e.g. Paste your draft here.)
- `VOICE` — Two or three writers, publications, or samples that sound like you want to sound. (e.g. Plain and direct, like a good internal memo. No jokes, no metaphors.)
- `AUDIENCE` — Who reads it and what they already know. (e.g. Engineering managers who have read a hundred of these.)

## Instructions

Two tasks, in order. Do not skip the first.

**Task 1 — Diagnose.** Read the draft below and list every specific place it
reads as machine-written. For each, quote the exact phrase and name the pattern.
Look for:
- Three-item lists where two items would do
- Hedges that remove all commitment ("can help you", "may be able to", "often")
- Transitions that carry no information ("moreover", "in today's fast-paced")
- Abstract nouns doing work a verb should do ("the implementation of")
- Sentences that restate the previous sentence in different words
- Grand closing paragraphs that summarise rather than land
- Uniform sentence length — real writing varies hard

If a passage is already good, say so and leave it alone. Do not manufacture
problems.

**Task 2 — Rewrite.** Produce a clean version that fixes everything in Task 1
while keeping the author's actual voice.

VOICE TARGET: {{VOICE}}
AUDIENCE: {{AUDIENCE}}

Rules for the rewrite:
- Keep every fact, number, and claim. Change none of them.
- Cut length by 15–30%. If you can't, say why.
- Vary sentence length deliberately. Short sentences carry the important parts.
- Prefer the concrete noun to the category ("Postgres", not "the database layer").
- Keep any sentence where the author's personality shows, even if it's slightly awkward.
- No em-dash pileups, no rhetorical questions used as transitions.

End with a two-line note on what you changed most and one thing the author
should decide themselves.

DRAFT:
{{DRAFT}}

## Notes from people who use this

- The diagnosis is the reusable part. After ten drafts you stop making those mistakes and stop needing the prompt.
- If the rewrite loses your voice, the VOICE field was too abstract. Paste 200 words of your own writing instead of adjectives.
- Never accept the rewrite wholesale. Take the cuts, keep your own sentences where they were already fine.

---

Rewrite until it stops sounding like AI wrote it · by Rony · v1.8
From PromptsBuddy — https://promptsbuddy.com/prompts/rewrite-until-it-sounds-human
Licensed CC BY 4.0.

Every prompt is also available at /prompts/rewrite-until-it-sounds-human/skill.md — see all install options.