All rules

A paragraph that only restates the one before

paragraph-restatementon by default (info)Japanese / English

A paragraph opening "In other words" that mostly repeats the one before

Example

Flagged
The new inventory system counts every store's stock on one screen, and a stocktake takes less time. In other words, the new inventory system counts the stock of every store on one screen, so a stocktake takes less time.
What chaff prints
3:1 This paragraph opens with "In other words" and 86% of its content words repeat the paragraph before
Fixed
The new inventory system counts every store's stock on one screen, and a stocktake takes less time. Every store switches next month, and the first stocktake is on April 10.
What chaff prints
no finding
chaff.yaml used for this example
genre: blog/tech

How to fix

Cut the paragraph and let the one before stand. If a summary is needed, make it say what the paragraph before did not (the conclusion, the next step, a figure).

Why it matters

When a paragraph opens with "In other words" or "In short" and then uses mostly the words of the paragraph before it, the reader reads the same thing twice. A summary helps only when it adds something the paragraph before did not say (the conclusion, what to do next, a figure). chaff counts, for a paragraph that opens with a restating word (from the lexicon), the share of its content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, numbers) already in the paragraph before.

What it does not flag

A paragraph that does not open with a restating word, one with fewer than four content words, and one separated from the paragraph before by a heading, a list, a table or code are not checked. Words that open other sentences too ("That is why", "Again the drums") count only with a comma after them ("That is,"). Legal, literary and speech genres do not run this rule.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)
<!-- stet: paragraph-restatement — reason -->
Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)
npx chaffjs relax paragraph-restatement --why "reason"
Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)
rules: paragraph-restatement: off
Technical details
Layer
L2
Status
stable
Severity
info
Languages
Japanese and English
Suited to
blog, business, technical, docs, academic, legal, literature, speech
Reads from the document
pos

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

strictreported when 40% or more of the paragraph's content words repeat the paragraph before
normalreported when 50% or more of the paragraph's content words repeat the paragraph before
relaxedreported when 60% or more of the paragraph's content words repeat the paragraph before

By genre

Runs by default in
technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper
Turned off by the genre in
legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript

Genres

Message

This paragraph opens with "{opener}" and {share}% of its content words repeat the paragraph before

Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): structure — sections, headings and paragraphs are reorganised

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/paragraph-restatement.yaml