Language models drift to the commonest phrasing, so specific facts get smoothed into general, important sounding statements. These are the habits that give it away, and each change on your text names the one it fixes.
- Puffed up importance
- A sentence about why something matters, instead of the fact that shows it, is the commonest tell of machine writing.
- Name dropping coverage
- Listing where something was covered stands in for saying what it is or did.
- Tacked on comment
- A clause like ", ensuring..." or ", highlighting..." interprets the fact before it and adds nothing a reader can check.
- Brochure word
- Words like seamless, vibrant and cutting edge praise without saying anything. A plain fact earns the praise instead.
- Unnamed source
- "Experts say" or "many people tell us" hangs a claim on nobody a reader can check.
- Challenges formula
- "Despite these challenges, it continues to thrive" is a stock pattern. A real problem is stated plainly where it belongs.
- Defining the title
- Opening on "X refers to" delays the point. Starting with the subject is shorter.
- Paired heading
- Headings built as "X and Y" to sound complete read as generated.
- Overused word
- Words like delve, crucial, robust and leverage turn up far more in machine text than in anything people write.
- Avoiding is or has
- "Serves as" and "stands as" dodge a plain is. People write is.
- Vague link
- "Associated with" hides a relationship the writer knows. Naming it is clearer.
- Correcting a claim nobody made
- "It's not just X, it's Y" argues with a reader who never said X. Saying Y alone is stronger.
- Rule of three
- Three adjectives in a row are there for rhythm. Usually only one of them is true.
- Synonym cycling
- Swapping in a new word for the same thing each time makes a reader wonder whether it is a different thing.
- Passive voice
- A passive sentence leaves out who did the thing. One is ordinary writing. Passive after passive is one of the strongest signs of machine writing.
- Title Case heading
- Capitalising Every Word Of A Heading is a template habit. Sentence case reads as written by a person.
- Too much bold
- Bold scattered through prose shouts. Bold earns its place only where a term is defined.
- Labelled bullet
- Bullets that open on a bold label and a colon are a generated layout. A plain list or a sentence reads better.
- Dash as punctuation
- A dash doing the job of a comma or full stop is one of the most recognised tells. A comma, colon or full stop does it plainly.
- Emoji
- Emoji used as headings or bullets mark text as generated.
- Chat leftover
- "I hope this helps" and "Great question" are a chat window's manners, left behind in text meant for somebody else.
- Padded gap
- "Based on available information" pads over something unknown. Saying once what is not known is honest.
- Placeholder
- A bracketed placeholder left in tells the reader nobody finished the text.
- Lecturing aside
- "It's important to note" announces a point instead of making it.
- Summary ending
- "In conclusion" and a last paragraph that repeats the rest add length and nothing new.