ylj-writing-style
Use when revising prose to match The Yale Law Journal (YLJ) house style — clear, generalist-legible legal writing with a disciplined footnote-to-text balance. It governs voice and readability; it does not format citations (ylj-sources-and-bluebook) or sequence the argument (ylj-argument-structure).
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ylj-writing-style --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Writing Style (ylj-writing-style) YLJ prose is read by a **generalist legal audience**: scholars in other fields, judges, clerks, and practitioners. The house standard is clear, confident legal writing where the **text carries the argument** and footnotes carry the support. This skill polishes voice and readability; citation form lives in `ylj-sources-and-bluebook` and structure in `ylj-argument-structure`. ## When to trigger - The argument is sound but the prose is dense, hedged, or jargon-heavy - A subfield reader follows it but a generalist editor would stall - The footnotes have swallowed the argument (text is thin, footnotes are essays) - Final polish pass before submission or before the Forum's faster turnaround ## House-style priorities 1. **Text-first.** The argument must be followable from the text alone; footnotes support and elaborate but never *hide* a step the reader needs. If a key move lives only in a footnote, promote it. 2. **Generalist legibility.** Define terms of art on first use; don't assume the reader lives in your doctrine. A clerk in a different field should follow the through-line. 3. **Plain, confident voice.** Prefer the active voice and concrete subje
- When to trigger
- House-style priorities
- Sentence and paragraph craft
- The footnote-to-text balance (a YLJ pressure point)
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the ylj-writing-style skill do?
Use when revising prose to match The Yale Law Journal (YLJ) house style — clear, generalist-legible legal writing with a disciplined footnote-to-text balance. It governs voice and readability; it does not format citations (ylj-sources-and-bluebook) or sequence the argument (ylj-argument-structure).
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ylj-writing-style --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.