reader-comprehension-pass git:20261001.b885f69A

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name: reader-comprehension-pass
description: Make technical writing land with its reader — add figures for hard-to-grasp concepts, define jargon in plain terms at first mention, and audit the draft for unintuitive spots before delivering. Use when writing or revising research documents, manuscripts, status notes, handovers, or explanatory artifacts, and before handing any such draft to the user.
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# Reader comprehension pass

The user reads agent-authored technical documents as a researcher would, and repeatedly hits concepts that prose alone does not convey. Apply these rules while drafting, and run the audit before delivering.

## Illustrate hard concepts with figures

- When a central concept is spatial, geometric, or quantitative and the prose is doing heavy lifting, draw it instead of explaining harder. Prefer a figure carrying real values from the work over an abstract sketch — e.g. "search box floor" only became legible as a diagram showing an actual proposal point (8.15, 4.06) clipped to the constraint-box wall at (6.8, 5.2).

## Define jargon at first mention

- Give every domain term the target reader may not know a plain-terms definition at its first use (the user could not parse "Sn-based non-convergence" or "censored loss" left bare in a manuscript).
- Keep the distance between a concept's first mention and its explanation minimal — order sections so the reader has the needed background at the point of first mention, never referencing a concept long before it is explained.

## Audit before delivering

- Before handing over a draft, reread it as a first-time reader and list every term or concept that would be unintuitive. Fix each one (figure, definition, reordering) or flag it explicitly in your response. The user expects this proactively — do not wait to be asked "what else is not intuitive?"

## Test an unprompted explanation

For a substantial explanation or paper revision, ask a fresh reader to retell the
problem, proposed insight, essential operation, and demonstrated finding using
only the audience-facing material. Give the audience brief but withhold author
notes, later slides in a prefix test, expected answers, and prior critiques.
Ask where the text supplied each prerequisite, rather than letting an expert
fill gaps from outside knowledge. Record what was misunderstood or could not be
answered, and repair the first causal gap before adding more definitions.

Use an independent reader when available and authorized; otherwise label the
pass self-review. A model reader is a proxy, not proof of human comprehension or
recall. A small wording edit needs a proportionate local check, not a new team.

When translating slides into a paper, check that spoken bridges now exist in
prose, algorithm and figure identities still match, and compression has retained
assumptions. Do not demand a fixed sentence count or a rhetorical question.
Plain language must preserve the original mathematical and empirical claim.