---
name: review-prose
description: "Performs a prose-level review of a passage, analyzing sound, rhythm, sentence variety, POV consistency, word economy, repetition, and the balance of crowding and leaping. Use this skill whenever the user asks to check their writing style, review prose quality, assess how a passage reads, give style feedback, asks 'how does this sound', 'is this well written', 'check my prose', or submits a passage specifically for craft-level feedback rather than story-level feedback. Also use when a writer wants to improve the music and economy of their sentences."
---

# Review Prose

Prose review examines writing at the level of sound, sentence, and word — the physical material of the text. This is distinct from story review (which examines internal architecture) and scene review (which examines a scene's structural function). Prose review asks: does this *sound* right? Is every word earning its place?

## Review Process

### Step 1: Read with the Mind's Ear
Read the passage as if hearing it aloud. Note rhythm, flow, stumbles, beauty, and dullness. Do not analyze yet — just listen. Mark passages that sound wrong, passages that sound right, and passages where you lose the thread.

### Step 2: Analyze Sound and Rhythm

**Sentence variety:**
- Map the sentence lengths. Is there variety, or monotonous uniformity?
- Are short sentences deployed for emphasis in the right places?
- Are long sentences clearly constructed — does the reader glide through, or get lost?
- Is there conjunctivitis (strings of short sentences joined by "and" / "but")?

**Rhythm:**
- Does the rhythm match the emotional register of the content? (Fast rhythm for action, slower rhythm for reflection, etc.)
- Are there accidental rhythmic patterns that create unintended effects?
- Does the prose have moments of beauty — places where language takes pleasure in itself?

### Step 3: Analyze Word Economy

**Adjectives and adverbs:**
- Can any adjective be absorbed into a stronger noun?
- Can any adverb be absorbed into a stronger verb?
- Are there qualifier ticks? (just, very, kind of, sort of, rather, a little, somewhat)
- Are there empty intensifiers? (great, suddenly, somehow, really, absolutely)

**Verbs:**
- Are verbs active and specific? Or weak and generic?
- Is the passive voice being used where active would be stronger? (And is it being used well where it belongs?)
- Are there unnecessary "to be" constructions?

**Crowding and leaping:**
- Is the passage vivid, exact, concrete, dense, rich? (Crowded enough?)
- Is there white space — things left unsaid, leaps the reader can make? (Leaped enough?)
- Are there passages that list rather than describe?
- Is every sensory detail earning its place — serving story, character, or theme?

### Step 4: Analyze POV and Voice

- Is the POV consistent throughout the passage?
- Are there accidental slips into another character's thoughts?
- Is the narrative voice consistent in register and tone?
- If there's a strong character POV, does the language reflect how that character would think and perceive?
- Is exposition delivered through the character's filter, or does the author step in?

### Step 5: Check for Repetition

- Is there accidental repetition — unintentional echoes that create clumsiness?
- Is there deliberate repetition — purposeful echoes creating emphasis or rhythm?
- Has the writer reached for the thesaurus to avoid natural repetition, producing awkward synonyms?

### Step 6: Check Punctuation and Grammar

- Is punctuation clarifying the prose or cluttering it?
- Are there grammar errors that will break the reader's trust?
- Are unconventional choices (fragments, run-ons, comma splices) deliberate and effective?

## Prose Review Report Structure

```
## Prose Review: [Passage Description]

### Overall Impression
[How the passage reads as a whole — the mind's ear verdict]

### Strengths
[What the writer is doing well at the prose level]

### Sound and Rhythm
[Sentence variety, rhythmic patterns, flow]

### Word Economy
[Adjectives/adverbs, verb strength, qualifiers, crowding/leaping]

### POV and Voice
[Consistency, register, character filter]

### Repetition
[Accidental vs. deliberate; awkward synonym hunting]

### Specific Line Notes
[Passage-by-passage observations with specific suggestions]

### Priority Recommendations
[The 3-5 most impactful prose improvements to make]
```

## When to Read Reference Files

- **For the complete prose review criteria** — read `references/prose-review-checklist.md`
