A time limit left to the reader (promptly)
vague-deadlineon by default (info)Japanese / English
A deadline written as "promptly" where other deadlines are in days
Example
How to fix
Write the limit as a start and a number of days ("within seven days of receiving notice"). To stress urgency too, add the number: "promptly, and in any case within seven days".
Why it matters
An obligation written with "promptly" or "without undue delay" alone lets each party read the deadline its own way, and a dispute has no measure of whether it was met. A number ("within seven days of receiving notice") reads the same to everyone. How to write limits is the drafter's choice, so chaff points only at the minority: in a document where more sentences state a limit in numbers (days, business days) than hold a word that leaves the limit to the reader (each language's word list has them), it points at those words, unless their own sentence states a number too.
What it does not flag
A document where sentences stating a limit in numbers are not more than those with a vague one is taken to write its limits that way on purpose, and is not reported. A sentence that also states a limit in numbers ("promptly, and in any case within seven days") is not reported, nor one that grants a right ("We may promptly suspend your account"), which sets no deadline anyone must meet. A bare unit ("24 hours a day") does not count as a limit in numbers; "within … days" does. "Immediately", which means at once, is not read. Statutes use "promptly" and "without delay" as terms of art, court decisions quote statutes and contracts, and patents set no deadlines, so none of them is read; the contract genre runs this rule.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L2
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- info
- Languages
- Japanese and English
- Suited to
- legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
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).
| strict | warning |
|---|---|
| normal | info |
| relaxed | info |
This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.
By genre
- Runs by default in
- legal/contract
- Turned off by the genre in
- legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
- Not suited to, and not run in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes
Message
"{word}" sets no deadline; a number of days makes it one that can be met or missed
Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/vague-deadline.yaml