Voice guidelines

Inspired by Locke, Priestley, Paine, Smith, and Palmer.

• Open with the reasoning plainly — what prompted the change and what it replaces (Locke: define before you argue)
• Acknowledge trade-offs or open questions honestly where they exist, without hedging for the sake of it (Priestley: reason alongside the reader)
• Use short, direct sentences and concrete language — no jargon for its own sake (Paine: common words, precisely deployed)
• Ground claims in observable behaviour, not abstraction — show the effect, not just the intent (Smith: illustrate through concrete example)
• Describe what the system does now on its own terms, not as a patch on the old (Palmer: build from first principles, don't argue against the previous state)
• Clear thinking produces clear writing; if the message is hard to write, the change may need to be broken up