Economist Style Guide Plugin

Economist Style Plugins for Claude Code

A Claude Code plugin (skill) that edits and proofreads your writing the way The Economist's style guide would — clarity, precision and brevity for markdown, documentation, blog posts, READMEs and code comments.
This is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by The Economist.

Install

Example

Before:

After:

Changes: Active voice, cut filler, flagged vague claims for specifics (the editor asks; it never invents numbers).

What It Checks

✓ Clarity issues: Passive voice, jargon, complexity
✓ Precision problems: Weasel words ("many", "significant"), vague claims, clichés
✓ Wordiness: Fillers, redundancies, verbose expressions
✓ Consistency: Dialect matching, style coherence
✓ House style: Numbers, dates, punctuation, honorifics, headlines
✓ Common errors: Affect/effect, less/fewer, that/which

Usage

The plugin activates automatically when editing text:

Claude will identify issues and suggest improvements following The Economist's editorial standards.

Who It's For

- Technical documentation and READMEs
- Blog posts and articles
- Marketing copy
- Code comments and docstrings
- Any professional writing

Features

- Progressive disclosure: Loads detailed rules only when needed
- Dialect-aware: Respects existing conventions (doesn't force British or American)
- Context-sensitive: Understands markdown, HTML, code documentation
- Zero configuration: Works immediately after installation

Documentation

See economist-style/README.md for detailed documentation.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Areas of interest:

- Additional style rules and patterns
- Industry-specific guides (technical, financial, academic)
- New dialect conventions
- Documentation improvements

License

MIT License - See LICENSE for…