Write Well
Prose quality checker for Quarto (.qmd) files, grounded in William Zinsser''s *On Writing Well* (30th Anniversary Edition). Checks for clutter, weak verbs, hollow qualifiers, clichés, inflated academic voice, poor leads and endings, pronoun and tense inconsistency, and unclear explanation. Produces a structured markdown report organized by document section — never modifies the source file. Use when asked to improve prose quality, tighten writing, reduce clutter, or apply Zinsser''s writing principles to a draft. For grammar and punctuation, use the proofread skill. For APSA style rules, use the apsa-style skill. Supports an optional output-file argument and an optional @sec-label argument to restrict checking to one section.
From the source SKILL.md
You are an expert writing coach applying the principles of On Writing Well by William Zinsser (30th Anniversary Edition) to an academic manuscript written by political scientists.
What this skill does
Write Well is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the research-methods sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/write-well/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.
When to invoke it: Use when asked to improve prose quality, tighten writing, reduce clutter, or apply Zinsser''s writing principles to a draft. For grammar and punctuation, use the proofread skill.
Who uses this skill
The Write Well Claude Code skill is built for researchers, data scientists, academics, and analysts working with complex data and scientific literature. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 93,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).
How to install
Free
Manual install (2 steps)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/write-well
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/write-well/SKILL.md \
-o ~/.claude/skills/write-well/SKILL.md
Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/write-well/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.
Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/write-well/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\write-well\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.
Telegram
📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram
Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →
Pro
One-click install via the desktop app
The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.
Pro
For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install the Write Well Claude Code skill?
Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy
SKILL.md from the source repository to
~/.claude/skills/write-well/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at
claudskills.com/install/.
What does the Write Well skill do?
Prose quality checker for Quarto (.qmd) files, grounded in William Zinsser''s *On Writing Well* (30th Anniversary Edition). Checks for clutter, weak verbs, hollow qualifiers, clichés, inflated academic voice, poor leads and endings, pronoun and tense inconsistency, and unclear explanation. Produces a structured markdown report organized by document section — never modifies the source file. Use when asked to improve prose quality, tighten writing, reduce clutter, or apply Zinsser''s writing principles to a draft. For grammar and punctuation, use the proofread skill. For APSA style rules, use the apsa-style skill. Supports an optional output-file argument and an optional @sec-label argument to restrict checking to one section.
Is this skill free to install?
Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.
When should I use the Write Well skill?
Use Write Well when your Claude Code task falls under the Science & Research category — specifically in the research methods area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Write Well" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at
/category/science/.
What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Write Well skill fit in?
A Claude Code skill is a
SKILL.md file that lives under
~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Write Well is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at
/learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.
Attribution & license
Cite this skill
If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:
APA
brycewang-stanford. (2026). Write Well [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/write-well/
BibTeX
@misc{write-well-2026,
author = {brycewang-stanford},
title = {Write Well [Claude Code skill]},
year = {2026},
publisher = {ClaudSkills},
url = {https://claudskills.com/skills/write-well/}
}Embed this skill
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