Checklists

Read the finished draft with its sources beside it. A checked box means you examined the passage and its evidence. It does not mean the sentence sounded plausible.

Use the checks that fit the surface. A button has no paragraph rhythm to review; a long explanation has no excuse for losing its subject.

Every piece

• The opening answers a real question or establishes a relevant situation.
• The reader can identify the object, action and consequence without guessing.
• Each paragraph develops the explanation, evidence or decision.
• Sentence shape follows the thought; repeated fragments or balanced phrases have a purpose.
• Concrete details come from evidence or a clearly labeled fictional example.
• Conditions, timing, uncertainty and negation retain their meaning.
• Names, numbers, quotations, labels, identifiers and versions match their sources.
• Application and reader actions have accurate subjects; fonts and files remain data.
• Shared nouns identify their application where needed.
• New headings use sentence case; exact labels retain their original case.
• Punctuation clarifies the sentence; dashes are spaced where used in house prose.
• The ending supplies a needed fact, check or action without a ceremonial extra paragraph.
• A second pass checks what a reader would infer, as well as what each sentence literally says.
• Expressive wording can be traced to a useful observation, relationship or supplied voice; it has not been added merely to make the text busier.

Marketing

• The situation is recognizable without invented customer feelings or pressure.
• A benefit connects to a supported mechanism.
• Evidence earns the strength and scope of the claim.
• Relevant price, eligibility, limits and deadlines appear before the decision.
• The swap and negation tests exposed empty praise without removing useful facts.
• Any surprise comes from the material, rather than a fabricated obstacle or result.
• Humor targets a predicament or pretension, and survives a literal-truth check.
• The copy makes sense without the joke; the joke needs no explanation afterward.
• Customer stories and quotations have provenance.
• The call to action accurately describes the next step.
• No invented urgency, scarcity, social proof or guarantee remains.

Technical

• The section's purpose is clear: procedure, reference, concept or troubleshooting.
• Prerequisites and warnings precede the actions they govern.
• Each action is easy to track, with exact labels and a clear target.
• Outcomes and the final success condition let the reader check progress.
• Recovery follows supported behavior; unknown causes remain unknown.
• An analogy maps a specific relationship and states any consequential limit.
• Steps, warnings and recovery stay literal.
• A longer explanatory sentence keeps its subject and condition clear.
• Commands and examples were run in the declared environment, or their untested status is recorded.
• The ending supplies verification or a necessary next task.

Neutral

• The opening states the subject or concrete change.
• Useful detail and natural rhythm supply interest without a sales claim.
• An aside answers a likely question without interrupting the main relationship.
• A before-and-after comparison has evidence for both states.
• Fixes preserve the observed symptom, scope and uncertainty.
• Limitations, price, licensing, compatibility, security and migration stay plain.
• Warmth comes from attention to the reader's situation; their feelings are not invented.

Before it goes to translation

• Each pronoun has a clear referent.
• Conditions and subjects survive the sentence's length.
• Dense noun phrases have been unpacked where needed.
• Instructions retain literal meaning; images and jokes have a usable factual reading.
• Necessary meaning does not depend on a pun, cultural reference or English word order.
• If, when and while preserve their distinct intended meanings.
• Whole messages preserve placeholder syntax, reordering and plural behavior.
• Approved terminology, proposed translations and protected spellings remain distinct.

Record the repair

A useful review note identifies a passage and a change: “Moved the overwrite warning before the command; kept the longer sentence because it ties the exception to the result.”

Avoid verdicts such as “more human” or “less robotic.” They give the next editor nothing to check. Name the unsupported claim, delayed condition, vague noun or repeated pattern, then inspect the repaired passage again.