Rewrite text for clarity

Turn dense, jargon-heavy text into something a reader understands on the first pass — without dropping a single fact.

When to use it

When text is correct but impenetrable — written by someone close to the material for a reader who is not.

What it prevents

A rewrite that is smoother but now says less. The instruction to keep every concrete step is what stops the model trading facts for flow — the most common way a “clearer” version quietly loses information.

The prompt

Rewrite the paragraph below to be clearer and shorter, without losing any facts.

### Audience
Customers reading a help article who want the answer, not the backstory.

### Context
The original was written by an engineer and assumes the reader knows the internal term "sync token". They do not.

### Requirements
- Length: Under 80 words.
- Output format: Two short paragraphs, plain sentences, no headings.
- Keep every concrete step; cut every sentence that does not change what the reader does.
- Replace "sync token" with a plain-language description on first use.
- Avoid: the passive voice, and any sentence opening with "Basically" or "Simply".

### Example of the wanted output
To reconnect, open Settings and tap Reconnect. Your data reappears within a minute.

### Paragraph
"""
The synchronization process, which is predicated upon the sync token, may under certain circumstances become invalidated, thereby necessitating manual reconnection by the end user.
"""

Why each part is there

Every section of that prompt exists because a specific failure happens without it. These are the checks it passes, and what each one is protecting you from:

• States a concrete task — why this matters
• Avoids vague language — why this matters
• Specifies an output format — why this matters
• Gives context or audience — why this matters
• Avoids dangling references — why this matters
• Includes an example — why this matters
• Separates data from instructions — why this matters
• Avoids over-aggressive phrasing — why this matters
• Defines what a good answer looks like — why this matters

How to adapt this one

Swap the paragraph and, more importantly, name the jargon the reader will not know — that one instruction does most of the work. Keep the hard length cap; clarity edits fail long, expanding to explain rather than cutting. And keep a concrete audience, because “clearer” means something different for a customer than for a colleague.

The mistake this prompt avoids

Asking to “make it clearer” with no constraints and getting a confident rephrase that reads well and drops a caveat you needed. Clarity is not a vibe the model can optimise; it is a set of decisions — this length, this reader, keep these facts. Name them, or the model picks for you.

A variation

Editing your own writing rather than someone else's? Ask the model to first list what it would cut and why, before it rewrites. Seeing the proposed cuts as a list lets you veto the one that removes something load-bearing — a straight rewrite hides those decisions inside prose you then have to reverse-engineer.

Check your version

Once you have adapted it, run it through the checker. The same nine checks that graded this page will grade yours, free and in your browser — paste it in, or build one from scratch by answering a few questions.