The last ten percent

You have a structure you argued for, sections drafted in your voice, criticism taken, numbers recomputed. What remains is the part that separates a document that reads as competent from one that does not — and it is a different skill from writing.

Section drafting has a specific cost

L2 recommended drafting section by section, and it was the right advice. It has one predictable consequence: the sections do not quite agree.

The same thing gets three names across four pages. Two sections make the same point in different words. A figure in the summary contradicts the same figure in the appendix. A heading survives from an outline you later reorganised and now describes something else.

None of these are writing errors. They are assembly errors, and they are exactly what a machine is good at finding.

The consistency pass

This is a complete document assembled from separately drafted sections. Do not rewrite it. Report only:

1. Terms used inconsistently — list each variant and where it appears. 2. Points made more than once, with locations. 3. Any number, date or name that appears twice with different values. 4. Headings that do not match the content beneath them. 5. Claims in the summary that no section supports.

Do not rewrite it keeps this a report you can act on rather than a new draft you have to re-read from the top.

Item five earns its place. Summaries get written early, the document changes underneath them, and the summary keeps asserting the original plan. It is the part most likely to be read and the part most likely to be stale.

What it cannot check

Then the pass that stays yours, and there are only three questions.

Is it true? Not internally consistent — true. A document can be perfectly coherent and wrong throughout, and consistency checking will report nothing.

Is it fair to the people in it? Anyone named, described or implied. Would they recognise themselves? Would you say it with them present? This one has no mechanical version at all.

Will I sign this? Your name goes on it. Everything in it becomes something you said, and E4·L2’s rule scales: the larger the document, the more of it you are quietly agreeing to.

Read it once on paper

An unfashionable suggestion that keeps earning its place: print it, or at minimum read it in a different format from the one you wrote it in.

You stop seeing the document you have been editing and start seeing the one that exists. Most people catch something in the first two pages, every time.

Try it now (7 minutes)

Take a document assembled from parts. Run the five-point consistency report.

Then read the summary against the sections. If the summary promises something no section delivers, you have found the most valuable defect in the document.

Check your understanding

1. Drafting section by section predictably introduces:

Spelling errors Assembly errors — inconsistent terms, repeated points, contradictory figures Overly short sections

2. Why include 'do not rewrite it' in a consistency pass?

Rewriting costs more You want a report you can act on, not a new draft to re-read from the top Rewrites break formatting

3. Which final check has no mechanical version?

Whether numbers agree between sections Whether the document is fair to the people named in it Whether terminology is consistent

Check answers

Recap

Run a consistency report over the assembled document — terms, repetition, conflicting figures, stale headings, and summary claims no section supports — and forbid rewriting so the output stays actionable. Then ask the three questions no tool can: is it true, is it fair to the people in it, and will you sign it. That completes E5.