Sloppy Syntax

llm writing

A personal collection of totally radioactive syntax often generated by LLMs.

Stale Rhetorical Devices

  • Contrastive negation, i.e. any variation on: “It’s not X – it’s Y”.
  • Unnecessary meta-commentary (“So here’s the question,” “here’s the interesting part”)
  • “The math is simple”
  • Developing ideas in essays via anaphora
  • Obvious alliteration

SEO and Algorithm Gamification

  • New markdown headings that interject prose that already flows well
  • Posts consisting of individual sentences separated by more than one new line
  • Emojis as punctuation
  • Emojis in markdown headings
  • Ending pieces with “The Bottom Line”; superfluous summary pontification
  • Calls-to-action outside of a marketing context

Sloppy Syntax

  • Em dashes (other than rare occurrences)
  • Bolded text

Phrases I’d never use

  • AI assistant
  • pair programmer