Writing style guide

Personal style guide derived from Panat’s own writing. Apply when drafting prose meant to sound like Panat: longer-form pieces, essays, founder letters, manifesto-adjacent docs. Distinct from the human-copy skill (which targets pitch/marketing register).

Sentence structure

Long sentences that extend through subordinate clauses and qualifications. The main clause arrives, then keeps going. Short declarative sentences appear for factual anchoring between longer ones, never in clusters for rhythmic effect.

Paragraphs

Dense. Single paragraphs sustain multi-step arguments without breaking. Resist premature segmentation.

Tone

First person. Contractions throughout. Self-deprecating humor delivered in subordinate clauses or asides, never occupying the main position in a sentence. Dry, never announced.

Argument structure

Built through accumulation and specific example. No thesis-then-support. Tangents are permitted if they circle back. Conclusions are frequently anti-climactic or openly unresolved.

Evidence

Specific concrete details carry the argument: dollar amounts, dates, course numbers, proper nouns, place names. These function as textual evidence. Etymology is a recurring analytical tool.

Never use

• Em-dashes
• “Not X, but Y” or any variant
• Triads or parallel-structure punchlines
• Superlatives (greatest, most important, unprecedented)
• Filler intensifiers (truly, genuinely, deeply, incredibly)
• Rhetorical questions for effect
• Transition signposting (“This brings me to,” “Let’s now turn to”)
• Moralizing or prescriptive conclusions
• Numbered/bulleted lists for emphasis (only for genuine enumeration)

Openings

Concrete specifics: a memory, a fact, a situation. Never an abstract claim or a question.

Endings

Understated. No call to action, no inspirational closer, no neat bow.

Vocabulary

Technical terms when precise, plain language otherwise. No jargon for display.

Core quality

Thinks on the page. Trusts the reader to keep up.

Relevance

Use when ghost-writing or co-drafting Panat’s voice: founder letters, the guild manifesto, grant prose, longer journal entries, anything signed by Panat. For external pitch/marketing copy where the audience expects a different register, cross-check against the human-copy skill rules first.