Flagged for Clarity: Why I Write Off the Cuff Now

I’ve been a professional writer since 2007. I’ve earned thousands of dollars for my articles but who’s counting. I’ve published over a thousand articles across platforms like eHow, Demand Studio, Associate Content, Seekyt, HubPages, and seven blogs of my own, including my advocacy blog. I don’t say that to brag. I say it because apparently, none of that matters in a community forum.

When I write even in a comment thread I write professionally. I use perfect grammar. I edit. I’ve been trained to do that. It’s muscle memory at this point. But recently, I was flagged. Not for being wrong. Not for being rude. I was flagged for “sounding too AI.”

That stopped me cold. Too AI? What does that even mean? Clearly, they’ve never read my work. They’ve never seen the hours I’ve spent researching, documenting, and writing with precision. They’ve never seen the advocacy posts, the wildlife dispatches, the seasonal breakdowns. They saw clarity and mistook it for something artificial.

So I did what any writer would do I read up. I looked into how to “sound more common,” how to “talk like the masses,” how to “turn down the professionalism.” And you know what? I laughed. Because I’m not here to mimic mediocrity. I’m here to tell the truth.

Now I write off the cuff. I’m brutally honest. Still with perfect grammar and punctuation, because that’s how I was raised. But I’ve stopped caring what these communities think. I don’t have time to appease everyone. I’m not here to flatter broken systems or dilute my voice to fit someone else’s comfort zone.

If clarity gets me flagged, then I’ll wear that like a badge.