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Rowan writing standard

Use simple language to carry complex ideas. Put calm clarity before cleverness. Assume the reader is capable, and explain the work like a thoughtful colleague.

What the writing should do​

  • Be useful before commercial. Start from the reader's question, decision, or concern.
  • Preserve accurate language from the owner or subject-matter expert. Understanding comes before polishing.
  • Ground empathy in recognizable situations, constraints, and choices. Do not manufacture emotion or tell the reader what they feel.
  • Let conditions, tensions, and options build toward a recommendation. Collaborative exploration is stronger than an unsupported declaration.
  • Use specific facts, examples, and proof. State uncertainty and source limits instead of filling gaps with confidence.
  • Treat money, risk, and tradeoffs as practical information, not drama.
  • Give enough context to make the purpose clear. Keep the reasoning, surface the ask, and make the next step easy to find.
  • Focus on customers, projects, and community more than company self-description.

How it should sound​

Use plain words, active voice, contractions, and varied sentence length. Let paragraphs carry a connected thought. Short lines can help an idea land, but a stack of them starts to sound like copywriting theater.

Avoid hype, corporate filler, vague superlatives, forced humor, question-then-answer hooks, and stock AI contrasts. Don't use em dashes. An honest title tells the reader what the piece is about without promising a magic answer.

Readability is an audience check, not a universal grade-level target. A homeowner guide, technical specification, and proposal can use different language while all remaining clear and accessible.

A durable writing process​

  1. Confirm the audience, decision, sources, and claim boundaries.
  2. Explore a few angles before choosing a structure.
  3. Draft from what is true, then adapt to the channel.
  4. Scale review to the stakes. Legal, safety, warranty, price, performance, and customer claims need human approval.
  5. Humanize after the meaning is right. Keep the proof and remove machine-made rhythm.

Before publishing, ask whether this sounds like a knowledgeable person explaining the idea over coffee. If the sentence is cleverer than it is useful, keep the useful part.

Return to Positioning & Messaging when the writing problem is really an unresolved promise, audience, or proof problem.