Bow Tie Kreative Writing System
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Rules / editing

EDT-003 Hard constraint layer: sentence

Protect meaning before changing form

IF an edit changes denotation, scope, polarity, actor, time, modality, evidence strength, or legal effect without authorization, THEN reject or escalate it ELSE retain.

Why the rule exists

Editing improves expression without silently rewriting the author’s claim.

Condition

The rule fires when this evaluates true. Paths marked below must be present in the fact base; the engine reports the rest rather than guessing them.

  • edit.semantic_change eq true

Facts this rule reads

PathSource
edit.semantic_change You supply it

Then

  1. compare — target edit
  2. reject_or_escalate — target edit

Else

  1. retain — target current_text, No triggering condition is present.

Test cases

TST-023 · [object Object]

Before
Source: The result may reduce risk. Edit: The result prevents harm.
After
The result may reduce risk.
Reason
The edit must not inflate modality or evidence.

LAKA

Smallest sufficient intervention
Yes
Primary axes

Sources

  • The Copyeditor's Handbook — Amy Einsohn; Marilyn Schwartz
    Professional copyediting practice, grammar, and editorial process.
  • The Sense of Style — Steven Pinker
    Reader-centered clarity informed by linguistics and cognition.
The raw rule record

Verbatim from 19-editing-diagnostic-rules.json. Also available at /v1/rules/EDT-003.

{
  "id": "EDT-003",
  "name": "Protect meaning before changing form",
  "domain": "editing",
  "layer": "sentence",
  "strength": "hard_constraint",
  "human_logic": "IF an edit changes denotation, scope, polarity, actor, time, modality, evidence strength, or legal effect without authorization, THEN reject or escalate it ELSE retain.",
  "when": {
    "path": "edit.semantic_change",
    "operator": "eq",
    "value": true
  },
  "then": [
    {
      "action": "compare",
      "target": "edit",
      "dimensions": [
        "denotation",
        "scope",
        "polarity",
        "actor",
        "time",
        "modality",
        "evidence_strength",
        "legal_effect"
      ]
    },
    {
      "action": "reject_or_escalate",
      "target": "edit",
      "when": "unauthorized_material_change"
    }
  ],
  "else": [
    {
      "action": "retain",
      "target": "current_text",
      "reason": "No triggering condition is present."
    }
  ],
  "unless": [],
  "because": "Editing improves expression without silently rewriting the author’s claim.",
  "diagnostics": [],
  "examples": {},
  "source_ids": [
    "BK-007",
    "BK-008"
  ],
  "laka": {
    "smallest_sufficient_intervention": true,
    "primary_axes": [
      "scope",
      "depth",
      "magnitude",
      "reversibility"
    ]
  }
}

Other editing rules

  1. EDT-001 Do not polish before purpose is stable IF audience, purpose, outcome, or controlling idea is unresolved, THEN perform strategy or developmental editing before line editing ELSE continue. Hard constraint
  2. EDT-002 Separate editing passes IF one pass attempts strategy, structure, evidence, style, mechanics, and proofing simultaneously, THEN separate the passes ELSE retain. Context default
  3. EDT-004 Apply smallest sufficient intervention IF a diagnosed failure can be fixed at a lower layer without creating another failure, THEN use that lower-layer fix ELSE escalate one layer. Context default
  4. EDT-005 Track the reason for substantive edits IF an edit changes argument, order, emphasis, evidence, obligation, or reader action, THEN attach a concise rationale ELSE silent mechanical correction is allowed by policy. Context default
  5. EDT-006 Style sheet records local decisions IF spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, numerals, terminology, citation, locale, or exceptions repeat, THEN record the decision in a style sheet ELSE retain. Context default
  6. EDT-007 Query instead of guessing intent IF two plausible interpretations require different edits and context cannot resolve them, THEN ask a focused query ELSE edit. Hard constraint
  7. EDT-008 Verify facts outside copyediting scope IF names, dates, numbers, citations, quotations, links, calculations, or cross-references are present, THEN verify according to assignment scope and flag the rest ELSE retain. Context default
  8. EDT-009 Read at multiple scales IF reviewing a document, THEN inspect outline, section, paragraph, sentence, word, and rendered page views ELSE retain. Heuristic