Improve PDF writing — what gets cut, what gets kept, and how to push back on AI edits
Most prose can be 20-30% shorter without losing meaning. Redundant qualifiers, run-on sentences, passive voice where active works better, throat-clearing intros, restated conclusions. Cutting them produces tighter, more readable output. The Improve Writing tool does the cutting automatically — but with rules about what stays untouched (your voice, your distinctive phrasings, your technical terms). Here is what the tool changes, what it deliberately leaves alone, and the workflow for reviewing the rewrite without losing the parts that worked.
What gets cut
Five categories the rewriter consistently trims:
- Redundant qualifiers. "Absolutely critical" → "critical." "Completely unique" → "unique." "Very important" → "important." Words that don't add information but feel like they're adding emphasis are cut.
- Throat-clearing intros. "In today's fast-paced world…" "It is important to note that…" "As we all know…" These phrases delay the actual content. The rewriter starts where the substance starts.
- Passive voice without nuance reason. "The report was written by the team" → "the team wrote the report." Passive voice has legitimate uses (when the actor is unknown or irrelevant), but most passive voice in business writing is unconscious filler.
- Run-on sentences. Sentences with three or more conjunctions get split into separate sentences. Easier to read; same content.
- Restated conclusions. "In conclusion…" followed by a restatement of the opening claim. The tool keeps the strongest version and cuts the restatement.
What stays untouched
Five categories the rewriter deliberately preserves:
- Register. Formal stays formal. Casual stays casual. Academic stays academic. The rewriter cuts within the register; it doesn't shift the register.
- Distinctive phrasings. Unusual word choices that are working — a metaphor, a striking adjective, a specific cadence — get preserved. The rewriter errs on the side of keeping craft.
- Technical terms. Industry-specific vocabulary stays. "Subordinated debenture" doesn't become "loan that gets paid back after others" — the precision matters.
- Facts and figures. Numbers, dates, citations, proper nouns — all preserved verbatim.
- Quoted text. Anything in quotes stays exactly as quoted.
How much shorter is normal
The expected reduction varies by source quality:
- Well-written news copy or scientific abstract: 5-10%. Already tight. The rewriter finds modest cuts.
- Business writing — proposals, white papers, reports: 20-30%. The most common reduction range. Business writing typically has more filler than the author realizes.
- First drafts of anything: 30-40%. Drafts haven't been edited yet. The first revision pass cuts significantly. The tool gives you that first revision in one click.
- Internal docs and email threads: sometimes 40-50%. Internal communication often has more throat-clearing. Compressing it for external distribution is a high-value use.
Reviewing the rewrite — three habits
The rewrite is a draft to review, not a final to accept. Three habits that produce the best output:
- Read the original and the rewrite side-by-side. The tool produces both. Skim the original; read the rewrite carefully. Spot anything the rewrite cut that you wanted to keep.
- Read the edit summary. The tool surfaces what kinds of changes it made ("removed 6 throat-clearing intros," "split 12 run-on sentences," "replaced 8 passive constructions"). The summary tells you whether the rewrite was conservative or aggressive.
- Replace anything that doesn't sound like you. If a sentence in the rewrite reads in a voice that isn't yours, replace it with your own version. The cleaner alternative is still in front of you for comparison.
When to use Improve vs Paraphrase vs Rewrite
Three adjacent tools that solve different problems:
- Improve — cut filler. Same meaning, fewer words. Use when the source is too long and the goal is tighter.
- Paraphrase — same length, different wording. Use when you need the same content in a different voice (for citation, for syndication, to break out of stale phrasing). Length stays the same.
- Rewrite — different register or tone. Use when you want to convert formal to casual, or vice versa. Substantial voice change.
When to use cautiously
Three cases where the rewriter benefits from extra care:
- Fiction or poetry. The rewriter is calibrated for non-fiction. Fiction uses deliberate redundancy, rhythm, and voice that doesn't benefit from concision. Use the tool to spot accidental redundancy, not as a final pass.
- Legal documents. Legal language is verbose for a reason — precision against ambiguity. Cutting words can change meaning. Use only on drafts of legal documents, not on final ones.
- Documents going to a sensitive audience. If the original was written in a specific tone for a specific reader, the rewriter might shift the tone in ways the writer wouldn't approve. Review carefully or skip the tool.
Limits and pricing
Improve PDF Writing charges 5 credits per document. The tool handles PDFs up to 25 MB. Processing runs on our servers; the document is in memory only during analysis and is never persisted. Output is the rewritten markdown / text plus the original side-by-side for comparison and the edit summary.
Common pairings: Improve → Paraphrase if you also need wording variation. Improve → Generate PDF if the output should be a polished PDF rather than markdown.