Writing Guide

Style rules for investigation reports in this repository. These exist because AI-generated text has recognizable patterns that undermine credibility. The goal is writing that reads like it was produced by a careful human researcher.

AI Writing Avoidance

Hard Rules (never do these)

• No em-dashes in prose. This is the single most-flagged AI writing marker. Use commas, periods, parentheses, or restructure the sentence. Em-dashes are acceptable only in quoted source material or citation formatting.
• No banned words: "delve," "tapestry," "nuanced," "multifaceted," "pivotal," "underscores," "landscape"
• No generic transitions: "Moreover," "Furthermore," "In conclusion," "What this means," "It is worth noting that"
• No colon-then-explanation patterns (except in citations and data tables)
• No symmetric rhetorical templates: "It's not X. It's Y." Once is fine. Twice in a report is a tell.
• No repetitive phrasing / low lexical variation. If you used a word in the last paragraph, find a different one.
• No hedging in every paragraph. Hedge only where genuinely uncertain. If the document says it, state it.

What Works

• Bold emphasis on key names, concepts, and findings
• Words like "notably" and "crucially" are fine and part of the author's voice
• Short, punchy sentences. Vary paragraph length. Three sentences followed by one. Then five. Break the rhythm.
• Concrete evidence over abstractions. Quote the document. Give the number. State the fact.
• One clear claim per paragraph. Don't stack three findings into a single block.

Analytical Neutrality

• Corpus absence ≠ non-existence. A missing document may be under seal, in a separate case, or outside the EFTA production scope. State what's absent without assuming why.
• Minimal production is standard legal practice. Defense attorneys produce what's specifically demanded and nothing more. This is normal, not evidence of a cover-up.
• Present data, not conclusions. "The subpoena demanded X. The return contained Y. Z categories received no responsive documents." Let the reader see the gap.
• Legal precision on document types and certainty levels. A grand jury subpoena is not a search warrant. An FD-302 is not a transcript. A draft is not a final filing.

Victim Privacy

Never include real victim names, pseudonym-to-name mappings, or identifying details in any report. This is non-negotiable.

• Use pseudonyms: Jane Doe, JD#1, Katlyn Doe
• Use EFTA references: "the victim described in EFTA01245817"
• Describe patterns, not individuals: "multiple victims reported being recruited at age 14-16"
• When discussing victim counts or demographics, aggregate. Never single out an identifiable person.

Citation Standards

Every factual claim requires a citation. No exceptions.

EFTA Citations

Format: EFTA00074206 or EFTA00074206 p.3 for a specific page.

To link to the source PDF:

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%20{N}/EFTA{NUMBER}.pdf

Look up the dataset number from full_text_corpus.db before constructing URLs. Do not guess from the EFTA number.

External Citations

Link directly to the source. Prefer primary sources (court filings, SEC records, government databases) over secondary reporting. When citing news articles, include the publication name and date.

What Requires a Citation

• Biographical facts (birth year, education, career, net worth)
• Dates and timelines
• Entity relationships and corporate structures
• Property values, transaction amounts
• Government positions and titles
• Any claim about what a document says

What Doesn't

• General background widely available in multiple sources ("Epstein was arrested in July 2019")
• Logical inferences clearly derived from cited evidence in the same section
• Methodological descriptions (how you searched, not what you found)

Report Structure

Reports don't need to follow a rigid template, but they should:

1. Open with what matters. Lead with the finding, not the methodology.
2. Organize by topic, not chronology. Group related evidence together.
3. Use headers liberally. A reader should be able to scan headers and know what the report covers.
4. End with what's missing. Unanswered questions, promising leads, documents that should exist but weren't found.

References

• Linguistic patterns in AI text: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.05136
• Human accuracy at detecting AI writing: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.07271
• AP standards on generative AI: https://www.ap.org/standards-around-generative-ai