Our own website scored 20 percent on anti-slop. That was the lowest of eight sub-scores, lower than technology, lower than citability, lower than everything.

Anti-slop measures how many generic AI phrases are in your texts. Twenty percent means: plenty.

That is not only a cosmetic problem. If you let an AI write your texts and do nothing with them, an AI will quote you less often. Those models are trained to have an opinion about something, and generic text adds nothing.

These are the eight things we have watched for ever since.

1. Words that do no work

Crucial. Essential. Invaluable. Seamless. Robust. Powerful. Advanced. Groundbreaking. Leverage. Unlock. Streamline. Facilitate.

Cross them out and read the sentence again. Nine times out of ten it now says the same thing, shorter. If it says nothing at all now, then it said nothing before either.

2. Not X, but Y

"It is not a tool, it is a colleague." "Not working faster, but smarter."

This is the strongest tell there is, and it sounds good, which is what makes it treacherous. Once per page is fine, if the contrast really is the point. Four times per page and your text reads like a LinkedIn carousel.

3. Everything in threes

"Fast, smart and scalable." "From analysis through design to delivery."

Sets of three feel finished. That is why they come out automatically. Vary it: sometimes two, sometimes four, sometimes one. If you list three things, let it be because there are three things.

4. The list where every item is built the same way

Five bullets, all of them "Term: explanation in exactly one sentence". Five times the same length, five times the same rhythm.

Real lists are uneven. One item needs two sentences, the next one needs four words.

5. The closing sentence that closes nothing

"...which underlines the importance of this." "...and that makes all the difference." "In a world where AI is becoming ever more important..."

Go through your text and find the last sentence of every paragraph. If you can delete it without losing anything, delete it.

6. Headings With A Capital On Every Word

That is an English habit. In Dutch only the first word gets a capital, plus proper names. A heading like "The Five Benefits Of Automation" shouts that there is an American model behind it.

7. Emoji in headings

The rocket, the check mark and the light bulb above all. In business writing it is not enthusiasm, it is a signature.

8. Too smooth

This one is the hardest, because it is the sum of the previous seven. Every paragraph the same length. Every transition equally easy. Nowhere a detour, nowhere a sentence that scrapes.

Real people write unevenly. They have one paragraph that is too long because they wanted to get something off their chest. One sentence that is a touch too sharp. One example that was not really needed but that they liked.

What to do about it

Read your text out loud. Does it sound like something you would say to a customer across the table, or like something you would send in? The first one is the goal.

And: leave one imperfection in. Perfectly smooth text is the tell all by itself.