Revises prose to match The Yale Law Journal house style: clear, generalist-legible legal writing with disciplined footnote-to-text balance.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/yale-law-journal-skills:ylj-writing-styleThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
YLJ prose is read by a **generalist legal audience**: scholars in other fields, judges, clerks, and
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.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
| 40% of the page is footnote | Promote argument to text; cut footnote essays to cites + key qualifier |
| The reader must read footnotes to follow the argument | Move the load-bearing reasoning up into the text |
| A footnote runs longer than its paragraph | Split: keep the cite; relocate substance or delete |
| Stacked see also with no parentheticals | Trim; add explanatory parentheticals only where they earn space |
【Voice】active + confident? generalist-legible? Y/N
【Text-first】argument followable without footnotes? Y/N
【Footnote balance】any footnote dwarfing its paragraph? fixed? Y/N
【Length】within track cap? Y/N
【Next】ylj-placement-strategy (where/when to submit) → ylj-submission
../../resources/worked-examples/01-introduction.md — a dense intro rewritten for generalist legibility../../resources/official-source-map.md — YLJ length / style factsnpx claudepluginhub brycewang-stanford/awesome-journal-skills --plugin yale-law-journal-skillsShapes prose and structure of Harvard Law Review pieces for a generalist, student-edited audience — clear introductions, disciplined Parts, and heavy-footnote register.
Guides authors through The Yale Law Journal post-acceptance editing cycle and YLJ Forum piece preparation, including substantive edits, source-pull, line edits, and author query responses.
Academic legal writing style guide for law review articles and seminar papers, based on Volokh. Enforces citation rules, counterargument requirements, and docx template usage.