The famous writing advice from Scott Adams:

The Day You Became A Better Writer – by Scott Adams

I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.

Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple.

Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.

Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy” when you can write “He was happy.” You think the word “very” adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.

Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”

Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence to this post. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.

Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.

Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball” quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.” Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work”?)

That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You’re welcome.

Capturing it here because both of Scott’s blogs aren’t alive now - the Dilbert.com one and the typepad one.

Afterthought

I created a custom LLM command that would re-write what you wrote in a file based on Scott’s advice from above.

Introducing… the /scottify custom command!

Here’s how to set it up:

You can set this up in any LLM provider. But I’ll explain for Claude Code.

Step 1: Create a file ~/.claude/commands/scottify.md with the following content:

---
description: "Rewrite your words using the famous writing advice from Scott Adams"
---

Re-write the contents of the file "@$1.ext" using the guidelines below into a new file in
the same path with name "$1-scottified.ext".  
(So if the input file is `blog_posts/how-to-cook-carrots.md`, then your output will be
`blog_posts/how-to-cook-carrots-scottified.md`)

The guidelines:

- retain any front-matter as such.

- if the file has a title, either as a standalone line at the top, or in the
front matter, rewrite it with these title-specific guidelines:
  - Make it about the reader (Eg: "The day i became a better parent" becomes "The day u became a better parent".
  - Make it about the most important topic covered in the post as a pain-point, or
  as something the reader would want/desire.

- rewrite the main content using the following guidelines
  - first priority is to make the writing clear and persuasive. Both require making
  the writing simpler.
  - Simpler means getting rid of extra words. Eg: "He was very happy" to "He was happy". "very" doesn't add anything. Prune your sentences.
  - Simpler also means a good argument in 5 sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a 100 sentences. Don't fight it.
  - make the writing humorous. But don't try too hard. Humor writing is also about writing simply. But it's also about the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”
  - The first sentence should be an attention grabber. It should make the reader curious, and want to read the next sentence.
  - Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart
  - rewrite all passive voice writing to active voice. “the boy hit the ball” is better than “the ball was hit by the boy”.

Step 2: Restart Claude Code. Now you have the /scottify command available for you. Here’s how to use it: Whatever content you want to “scottify”, put it in a file, let’s say “my-article.txt”, and then in Claude Code, run /scottify my-article.txt. After a few seconds, the scottified article will be available in a new file my-article-scottified.txt.

You want to see example of how it will work?
I tried it on one of my blog posts.