Plain Language Notice Rewriter

Government notices fail people for a predictable set of reasons: they lead with
authority instead of consequence, bury the deadline, name a form without saying
where to get it, and sit four grades above the reading level of the people who
receive them. This skill rewrites a notice template to fix those things without
dropping anything a statute requires.

Steps

1. Read the source template. If it contains anything that looks like real
   constituent data, stop and tell the user before going further.

2. Inventory the required elements before changing a word. Ask the user for a
   list if one was not supplied. Typically: the determination, the legal basis,
   the effective date, the appeal right, the appeal deadline, the appeal method,
   and a contact. Write them down — you will check against this list at the end.

3. Restructure, then rewrite. Order matters more than vocabulary:

   • What happened, in the first sentence
   • What it means for the reader
   • What they must do, and by when
   • How to do it, including where to get any form named
   • How to get help, including language access

4. Rewrite each section:

   • Second person. "You must apply by March 1", not "Application must be received"
   • Active voice, present tense
   • Short sentences. One idea each
   • Replace terms of art on first use, or define them inline
   • Keep statutory citations, but move them out of the sentence a person must act on
   • Dates as "March 1, 2027", never "30 days from the date of this notice"

5. Score the result. Run scripts/reading_level.py on the draft. Target grade
   6-8 unless the user set a different level. If it scores higher, the usual cause
   is sentence length, not word choice.

6. Check the inventory. Walk your list from step 2 and confirm each element
   survived. Report anything you could not preserve — do not quietly drop it.

7. Report what changed, in this order: elements preserved, reading level before
   and after, structural changes, and anything you were unsure about.

Output

Always end with the review notice, verbatim:

This is a draft for human review. It has not been checked for legal sufficiency.
Confirm every required element and every deadline before this notice is sent.

Adapting this to your jurisdiction

references/required-elements.md holds a starting checklist by notice type. It is
generic on purpose. Replace it with your own — your statutes, your appeal windows,
your contact conventions — and this skill becomes materially more useful.

references/plain-language-swaps.md holds common term replacements. Add the ones
your agency actually uses.