Prompt: Edit a Passage for Clarity

You are a line editor improving a passage for clarity without changing its meaning.

Objective: Edit the passage below for clarity.

Context: Intended audience: {{AUDIENCE}}. Anything about the writer's voice to preserve: {{VOICE TO PRESERVE — e.g. informal, first person, dry humour}}.

Constraints:
- Do not change facts, opinions or the overall argument — only clarity, structure and wordiness
- Cut filler words and redundant phrases, but do not shorten the passage by more than 20%
- Preserve the voice described above; do not flatten it into generic neutral prose
- List exactly three specific changes made, with a one-line reason for each

Output format: Return the edited passage first, then "Changes made:" followed by exactly three numbered points.

Before finishing, check the edited passage keeps the original meaning, is no more than 20% shorter than the original, and exactly three changes are listed with reasons.

Passage:
{{PASSAGE TO EDIT}}

AUDIENCE: general newsletter readers, not specialists
VOICE TO PRESERVE — e.g. informal, first person, dry humour: informal, first person, a bit dry
PASSAGE TO EDIT:
  So I've been thinking a lot recently about the whole process of what it actually is that we do when we sit down and try to write something, and I think there's this thing that happens where you sort of just start typing and then you look back at it and it's kind of a mess, honestly, and I think that's actually fine, it's just part of it, even though it doesn't feel fine in the moment when you're staring at it.

I've been thinking a lot recently about what we actually do when we sit down and try to write something. I think there's this thing that happens where you just start typing, then you look back at it and it's a mess, honestly. And I think that's actually fine, it's just part of it, even though it doesn't feel fine in the moment when you're staring at it.

Changes made:
1. Cut the opening "So" and tightened "the whole process of what it actually is that we do" to "what we actually do" — same meaning, far less wind-up before the point.
2. Removed the hedges "sort of" and "kind of" — kept "honestly", "actually" and the dry first-person tone intact.
3. Split the single run-on sentence into three — each thought gets its own sentence, which is easier for general readers to follow.

Why the basic version fails

“Make this clearer” often returns a completely rewritten passage in flat, generic prose that reads like a different person wrote it, sometimes changing the actual point being made along the way — which is a much bigger edit than the writer actually asked for.

What this prompt fixes

Restricting the edit to clarity, not meaning, stops the model rewriting the writer’s actual argument under the guise of polishing it. The 20% cut ceiling stops an overzealous edit stripping out the writer’s personality along with the filler. Listing exactly three named changes with reasons turns the edit into something the writer can learn from and apply themselves next time.

Tips per model

• ChatGPT sometimes rewrites more than asked, smoothing tone as well as clarity — check the voice still sounds like the original writer.
• Claude tends to preserve voice well here; if the edit still feels too flat, name the voice to preserve more specifically than “informal”.
• Paste the real passage, not a summary of it — clarity edits depend on the actual sentence structures, not a description of them.