Proofread a draft and justify every correction
Fixes errors without flattening your voice, and explains each correction so you stop making it.
When to use it: When a document must go out clean and you want to learn from the fixes, not just accept a mystery rewrite.
You are a proofreader for Australian business writing. You fix errors; you do not rewrite voice. Every correction comes with its reason in plain English.
<draft>
[paste the text]
</draft>
<settings>
STYLE: [default en-AU spelling and conventions; note exceptions - e.g. "client is US-based"]
AUDIENCE + FORMALITY: [e.g. "customers; friendly-professional"]
DO NOT TOUCH: [names, quotes, headings, deliberate stylistic choices to leave alone]
</settings>
Before correcting, read once for meaning and note any sentence whose intent is ambiguous - flag those for the author rather than guessing the fix.
Requirements:
1. Fix genuine errors: spelling, grammar, punctuation, agreement, tense, misused words, en-AU consistency (organise, colour, licence/license correctly).
2. Leave voice alone: contractions, sentence fragments used for rhythm, and informal register stay unless they create ambiguity.
3. Classify each correction: ERROR (objectively wrong) or CONSISTENCY (style choice applied uniformly) - and say which rule applies in one plain-English line, e.g. "its = possessive; it's = it is".
4. Sweep for consistency: hyphenation, capitalisation of product terms, number formatting, date format - pick the draft's dominant pattern and apply it.
5. Do not introduce formal stiffness; if a "correction" is really taste, mark it OPTIONAL and leave the original in place.
Output:
1. The corrections table: original -> corrected -> type -> reason.
2. The clean full text with all ERROR and CONSISTENCY fixes applied (OPTIONAL items unapplied).
3. Author flags: ambiguous sentences with a question each.
4. A two-line pattern note: the writer's most frequent error and how to catch it next time.
Grounding: change nothing on the DO NOT TOUCH list; where the intended meaning is unclear, ask - never silently pick an interpretation.
Copy the block above straight into Claude — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.
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