writing-style

writing-style is a cursor rule for Cursor from AI-Learning-Gems/AI-Learning-Gems.github.io. It costs 9,039 tokens per session, scanned A, original, MIT.

Shared writing rules for textbook chapters, covering tone, sentence rhythm, avoiding signs of machine-written prose, and choosing between mathematical and narrative explanations.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use them during research, drafting, editing, and updating of textbook chapters.
Why use it?
They provide consistent guidance when writing or editing technical educational material for readers who know technology but are new to the topic.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/ai-learning-gems/ai-learning-gems.github.io/writing-style
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/AI-Learning-Gems/AI-Learning-Gems.github.io

Made for: Cursor.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for writing-style

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/ai-learning-gems/ai-learning-gems.github.io/writing-style.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/ai-learning-gems/ai-learning-gems.github.io/writing-style)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/ai-learning-gems/ai-learning-gems.github.io/writing-style"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/ai-learning-gems/ai-learning-gems.github.io/writing-style.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 9,039 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 9,039 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.09039 $0.09039
Opus 5 $0.04519 $0.04519
Sonnet 5 $0.01808 $0.01808
Haiku 4.5 $0.00904 $0.00904

Measured 4d ago against content hash 6e38643a32df, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

writing-style scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 4d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/writing-style.mdc · 541 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 541 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Writing Style Rules

Shared writing style rules for all textbook chapter workflows (research, write, edit, update).

Target reader: Someone with strong reading comprehension and technical background who is new to this specific topic. Write with depth and precision, not oversimplification.


Engaging Writing (Make It Unputdownable)

The best technical textbooks (MacKay, Sutton & Barto, Feynman) are engaging because they use techniques from great non-fiction writing. Apply these:

Conversational Tone (Like Explaining to a Smart Friend)

  • Write as if you're having a conversation with the reader
  • Address the reader as "you" directly
  • Show enthusiasm: "This is the beautiful part." "Here's where it gets interesting."
  • Acknowledge when something is confusing: "This trips up everyone at first."
  • Be intellectually honest about uncertainty: "We don't fully understand why, but..."

Sentence Rhythm and Variety (Gary Provost's Principle)

Vary sentence length deliberately. Short sentences punch. Long sentences build momentum and carry the reader through complex ideas with the energy of a crescendo.

  • Short sentences for emphasis: "That's wrong." "Here's why." "This matters."
  • Medium sentences for flow: Carry the main explanation forward.
  • Long sentences for buildup: Where appropriate, build momentum.
  • Deliberate fragments for punch: "Music." "Exactly." "Finally."

Micro-Surprises and Dopamine Hits

Keep readers engaged with small rewards throughout:

Technique Example
Surprising facts "You might expect X, but actually Y"
Rhetorical questions "But wait — how can that be?"
Vivid analogies "Like untangling earbuds — tedious, but oddly revealing"
Pattern interrupts Start a section with something unexpected
Open loops Tease what's coming: "We'll see why this matters in Section 3"
Enthusiasm markers "This is where it gets good."

Motivation Before Formalism

Read the full file on GitHub · 541 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 4d ago First seen · 541 lines · 9,039 tokens per session scan A 6e38643a32df

Subscribe to this mod's changes

writing-style is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository AI-Learning-Gems/AI-Learning-Gems.github.io (22 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 9,039 tokens to every session, about $0.0452 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.