Why this works
If a sentence can mean two things, someone will read the other one.
Write it challenges ask you for one or two lines. Fast rules catch the usual suspects (vague words, passive voice, "and/or", stray pronouns). Then an AI adversarial reader tries to misread you on purpose and shows the counterexample.
Break it challenges flip it: you read a loose spec and hunt for the corner cases, the way a model checker hunts for a bad trace.
Controlled languages
Restricted English where each sentence has one meaning.
- ASD-STE100
Simplified Technical English from aerospace: about 900 approved words, one meaning each, short active sentences.
- EARS
Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (Rolls-Royce): five sentence templates for requirements.
- Attempto Controlled English
English that a parser turns into first-order logic. If it parses, it has exactly one meaning.
- RFC 2119
MUST, SHOULD, MAY: keywords with exact meanings.
- Plain Language
US federal plain-language guidelines.
- Up-Goer Five
Explain hard things with the thousand most common words.
Formal specification
Thinking above the code: say what must always be true, then let a tool hunt for counterexamples.
- TLA+
Leslie Lamport's language for specifying systems; the TLC model checker finds counterexample traces.
- P
State-machine language from Microsoft for modeling distributed systems.
- Alloy
Lightweight formal methods: write a model, get an instant counterexample.
- Quint
TLA+ ideas with a modern, typed syntax.
- Dafny
A language whose compiler proves your code meets its spec.
- Learn TLA+
Hillel Wayne's free guide.
Structured thinking
Tools for seeing what an argument says, and what it quietly assumes.
- Toulmin model
Claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, rebuttal.
- Argdown
Markdown-like syntax for argument maps.
- Pyramid Principle
Barbara Minto: answer first, then group the support.
- BLUF
Bottom line up front, from military writing.
Prose linters
Automated checks like the rules in this app.
- Vale
A configurable prose linter with style packages.
- proselint
Checks drawn from great writers and editors.
- write-good
Flags passive voice, weasel words and more.