Aristotle's Rhetoric, Strunkified(lukebechtel.com)
lukebechtel.com
Aristotle's Rhetoric, Strunkified
https://lukebechtel.com/blog/aristotle-rhetoric-strunkified
3 comments
Luke, would you mind sharing (here or on your blog) the prompt and model used to generate the text?
certainly. Maybe tomorrow I'll make a post laying it out, but here's how I did it.
I did this using cursor. You can use other methods[1], but I'll describe mine.
1. Grab the text contents of a style guide you like (I used Strunk, which is easily available on internet. Use whatever you like.)
2. Paste that into Cursor as a txt file.
3. Paste your target text into Cursor as another txt file.
4. In the AI Pane, switch your model to Gemini 3 Pro (for its intelligence + long context)
5. Prompt it thusly:
""""""""""""
Can you please create a paragraph-for-paragraph rewrite of NAME-OF-TARGET-TEXT using NAME-OF-YOUR-STYLE-GUIDE?
All the original ideas must be maintained -- we are simply trying to create a version that matches the style guide better. The paragraph ordering must be matched.
Please output this in OUTPUT-FILE.txt
Before doing so, I want you to create a todo list (it will be quite long) of the form:
- Convert Book X Part Y
- Convert Book X Part Z
And so on, exhaustively covering all parts.
You will have to view the entire file to do this.
You must ALWAYS output a new part after the old part, never overwrite.
You must always convert a part, output it, and then move on.
Your flow should be:
(1) view NAME-OF-YOUR-STYLE-GUIDE (if they are no longer visible)
(2) view part of NAME-OF-TARGET-TEXT you're converting
(3) output converted part into OUTPUT-FILE.txt
(4) check it off on your todo list
(5) begin next part
""""""""""""
[1] Though I used cursor, you should be able to script the whole "paragraph for paragraph" thing if you wanted to, which I might do later. (If you do this, let me know!)
I did this using cursor. You can use other methods[1], but I'll describe mine.
1. Grab the text contents of a style guide you like (I used Strunk, which is easily available on internet. Use whatever you like.)
2. Paste that into Cursor as a txt file.
3. Paste your target text into Cursor as another txt file.
4. In the AI Pane, switch your model to Gemini 3 Pro (for its intelligence + long context)
5. Prompt it thusly:
""""""""""""
Can you please create a paragraph-for-paragraph rewrite of NAME-OF-TARGET-TEXT using NAME-OF-YOUR-STYLE-GUIDE?
All the original ideas must be maintained -- we are simply trying to create a version that matches the style guide better. The paragraph ordering must be matched.
Please output this in OUTPUT-FILE.txt
Before doing so, I want you to create a todo list (it will be quite long) of the form:
- Convert Book X Part Y
- Convert Book X Part Z
And so on, exhaustively covering all parts.
You will have to view the entire file to do this.
You must ALWAYS output a new part after the old part, never overwrite.
You must always convert a part, output it, and then move on.
Your flow should be:
(1) view NAME-OF-YOUR-STYLE-GUIDE (if they are no longer visible)
(2) view part of NAME-OF-TARGET-TEXT you're converting
(3) output converted part into OUTPUT-FILE.txt
(4) check it off on your todo list
(5) begin next part
""""""""""""
[1] Though I used cursor, you should be able to script the whole "paragraph for paragraph" thing if you wanted to, which I might do later. (If you do this, let me know!)
Thanks for responding so fast and thoroughly! I'll give it a whirl and either post here or else email you from your profile if the reply window times out.