Individual skill
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).
Yale-Law-Journal-Skills/skills/ylj-writing-style/SKILL.md
Source commit 932eb23331721b16e967c59f093781be1928b498
What was checked
- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- Yes
- Repository scan complete
- No
- Skill scan complete
- Yes
- Observed behavior
- Network or broad shell
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.
Install this skill
Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.
An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.
Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 1,397
- Repository last updated
- Sep 27, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- academic-writing Repository topic
- agent-skills Repository topic
- journal Repository topic
- academic-research Repository topic
- ai-agents Repository topic
- anthropic Repository topic
- awesome-list Repository topic
- claude Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- economics Repository topic
- legal Derived category
- writing Derived category
Files and excerpt
File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.
Browse files
SKILL.mdcore · 4,525 bytes
Read excerpt
# 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
