# Blog AI-tells audit (3 publishing posts) Audit date: 2026-06-16 Auditor: subagent for sonographer week-9 web-mockups Catalog reference: `/Users/kreed/.claude/commands/ai-tells.md` ## Scope and ground rules Three posts were reviewed. Body prose only (everything from the H1 down through "Where to Go From Here" / equivalent CTA and the FAQ). The Appendix sections (Interactive Elements, Sticky Moments, What Changed & Why, Production notes, References) are NOT in scope - those are spec/meta sections, not published prose, and several of their tells (verbose parentheticals, "Why it works" patterns, status code stacking) are inherent to the spec format and not Jenny-voice violations. Posts audited: 1. `revamped-06-physics.md` 2. `revamped-04-salary.md` 3. `revamped-11-history.md` Severity scale used below: - **BLOCKER**: must be resolved before publish (banned character, factual / voice break that would damage trust) - **HIGH**: flag for Jenny / Keith review; a paying reader who reads carefully would notice - **MED**: pattern occurs more than once; risks accumulating into "AI feel" even if individually fine - **LOW**: noted for completeness, probably fine to leave Because the copy is reproduced verbatim and not rewritten by us, every finding is framed as **flag for Jenny / Keith review** with a quoted exact text, location, and a lighter-touch alternative as a SUGGESTION only. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: em-dash density (BLOCKER on extraction) Per Keith's standing rule and the design brief, em dash and en dash are banned in any deployed file. Per Keith's stored feedback ("Em-dash is a strong AI tell"), em dash is also a top-severity content tell, not just a character issue. Counts in source (article prose + appendix combined; appendix counts are appendix-only and don't ship): | File | em dashes (total) | en dashes | |---|---|---| | revamped-06-physics.md | 53 | 0 | | revamped-04-salary.md | 24 | 0 | | revamped-11-history.md | 37 | 0 | No en dashes anywhere. Em-dash density in the article prose alone (excluding appendix lines after the first `# APPENDIX` / `## APPENDIX` marker) is roughly: - physics: ~30 em dashes across ~190 lines of prose - salary: ~17 em dashes across ~170 lines of prose - history: ~30 em dashes across ~205 lines of prose **Extraction normalization (mechanical, MUST happen):** every em dash in the body prose has to be converted to a plain hyphen `-` (with surrounding spaces preserved) on extraction. The commit hook will block the files otherwise, and the design brief explicitly forbids them. **Voice-level concern (flag for Jenny / Keith):** even after mechanical conversion to ` - `, the underlying sentence cadence still reads "interrupted-thought, parenthetical-aside, em-dash-as-rhythm." That's the actual AI tell, not the glyph. Many of these would read more like Jenny if the dependent clause were turned into a short second sentence, or simply dropped. Per-instance suggestions are in the per-post sections below. Decision on rhythm rewrite belongs to Jenny / Keith; the glyph normalization is non-negotiable. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: ALL-CAPS mid-sentence emphasis (HIGH) Catalog item #3. Real authors emphasize through word choice; LLMs reach for caps as a low-cost authority signal. Three or more instances per doc is diagnostic per the catalog. Counts: - physics (body prose only): NOT (1), NEVER (n/a in prose), ELI5 sections use INTO / FASTER / THAT / WHY in caps about 6 times in body, plus quiz callouts using NOT (twice). 8+ caps emphases in prose alone. Diagnostic. - salary (body prose): zero caps emphases in body prose. Clean. - history (body prose): IS (1), in `"It IS ultrasound."` Single instance, intentional rhetorical hit. Fine. Physics body prose - caps instances flagged for Jenny review: - L45: `"Passing the class is NOT the same as passing the boards."` Suggestion: drop the cap, the sentence is already a hard stop. `"Passing the class is not the same as passing the boards."` - L66 (ELI5): `"That is the whole game."` - fine, no caps. - L73 (ELI5): `"and THAT bounce is what becomes your image."` Suggestion: `"and that bounce is what becomes your image."` Italicize "that" if rhythm matters. - L80 (ELI5): `"Higher frequency (more detail) gets eaten FASTER."` Suggestion: `"Higher frequency, more detail, gets eaten faster."` - L87 (ELI5): `"that's the sound pulse going INTO the patient"` and `"which turns INTO electricity"` Suggestion: drop both caps. The phrase carries on its own. - L101 (ELI5): `"Your job is to understand WHY the shadow appears"` Suggestion: italicize *why* in the running copy, drop caps. Note: italic *why* already appears elsewhere in the same post (L127), so italics is the established device, caps is the inconsistent one. - L119: `"They could not explain *why* a structure casts a shadow"` - already italicized correctly. - Quiz items L107, L233, L234: `"NOT 'just because stones make shadows'"` etc. These are appendix spec lines but the inline quiz block L107 is in body. Physics also has rhetorical-emphasis bold lines like `**Trap #1:** It is completely foreign.` These are fine - bold-as-label, not bold-as-shouting. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: three-item parallel cadence (MED) The "rule of three" is a real rhetorical device that Jenny does use ("warm, candid, blunt"), but when it appears multiple times per post it becomes the LLM cadence tell. Spot-check below. physics: - L11: `"abstract, tied to math, and tested for true understanding rather than recall."` - fine, content-bearing. - L21: three sentences in a row open with "It..." (`"It is abstract... It is tied to math... And it does not go away..."`) - intentional anaphora, lands. - L27: `"abstract, tied to math, and tested for true understanding"` - exact reuse from L11. Slight echo. LOW. - L151: `"boring, invisible, and then suddenly you are ahead"` - works. - L165: `"Not being 'good at math.' Not having a science background. Just showing up..."` - works. salary: - L107: `"portable, immediate, decisive"` (used twice across hook + body, fine here) - L109: `"Some do it for the money. Some do it because they got divorced... Some do it because the idea of one hospital..."` - intentional triplet, lands. - L137: four-move recap (Get credentialed / Add a second specialty / Be deliberate / negotiate) - structural, fine. history: - L17: `"A beating heart. A baby turning inside the womb. Blood pulsing through a vessel..."` - triplet hook, lands. - L22: `"Not difficult. Not expensive. Actually, literally impossible."` - triplet, lands. - L121-125: bullet list of five settings each opening `"In hospitals... In emergency medicine... In rural... In military... Aboard..."` - works as a list. Verdict: three-item cadence is **not** overused in these posts. Jenny is allowed her triplets. No action needed; just don't add more. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: "elevate / seamless / dive in / unlock / in today's world" (clean) Searched all three body proses for the canonical LLM marketing vocabulary (elevate, seamless, dive in, unlock, in today's [fast-paced / digital] world, journey, leverage, robust, holistic, navigate, ecosystem). Zero hits in any of the three. **This is genuinely well-written copy on that axis.** No findings. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: hedging and "may already be" speculation (clean) Searched for `may already`, `looks done`, `if you / they decide`, `could go either way`, `it depends`. Zero hits in body prose. Jenny commits to her claims. No findings. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: manufactured both-sides framing (clean) Reviewed for the catalog #9 pattern (listing options without picking). Each of these posts makes a clear recommendation (study daily not crammed; negotiate; setting > sticker number). No both-sides hedging detected. No findings. --- ## Cross-cutting finding: restating the obvious (clean) Catalog #10 is mostly an audit-table pattern; in narrative prose the equivalent would be "Physics is the class everyone fears, and people fear it." Reviewed for circular sentences. The closest case is salary L34 `"So when you see '$89,000' in a headline, read it as the middle of a wide road, not as what you will make on day one."` which restates L30-32 in image form. That's not restatement-as-tell, that's intentional metaphor reinforcement. Acceptable. --- # Per-post findings ## Post 1: revamped-06-physics.md Highest-density file. Most caps-emphasis hits. Em-dash heaviest. Otherwise the voice is closest to Jenny in this post. ### P-06.1 - em-dash interrupted-thought cadence (HIGH, ~6 instances of structural concern) Mechanical conversion of em dash to hyphen is mandatory. These specific instances are flagged because even after conversion, the rhythm reads as the AI parenthetical tell: - L21: `"It is abstract in a way anatomy is not - you cannot point to 'acoustic impedance' on a cadaver."` After conversion: still fine. Sentence works. LOW. - L53: `"I am not going to teach you all of physics in one post - that would be ridiculous and irresponsible."` Suggestion: `"I am not going to teach you all of physics in one post. That would be ridiculous and irresponsible."` Period beats hyphen here. - L63: `"Propagation speed is set by the medium - soft tissue is assumed ~1,540 m/s."` Suggestion: `"Propagation speed is set by the medium (soft tissue is assumed ~1,540 m/s)."` or split into two sentences. Reads as parenthetical aside. - L119: `"the ones with the most flashcards - hundreds of them, color-coded, laminated, impressive to look at."` Strong Jenny line, but suggestion: `"the ones with the most flashcards. Hundreds of them, color-coded, laminated, impressive to look at."` New sentence lands harder. - L127: `"explain attenuation to a friend who knows nothing about ultrasound - in actual spoken sentences - you understand it."` Suggestion: parenthetical commas. `"explain attenuation to a friend who knows nothing about ultrasound, in actual spoken sentences, you understand it."` - L131: `"more material in two weeks than a crammer covers in one panicked night - and you actually remember it."` Suggestion: `"more material in two weeks than a crammer covers in one panicked night. And you actually remember it."` - L143 (heading): `### Phase 1: Day One of Class (Not Exam Week - Day One)` Heading with em dash becomes heading with hyphen, fine. LOW. - L151: `"This is the compound interest of studying - boring, invisible, and then suddenly you are ahead of everyone."` Strong line. Suggestion: comma not hyphen. `"This is the compound interest of studying: boring, invisible, and then suddenly you are ahead of everyone."` Colon works. - L182: `"covers the rest - the systems, the habits, the reality checks."` Works after conversion. LOW. - L184: `"the study tools I now sell - not because I am a natural entrepreneur, but because I needed them first and they worked."` Strong Jenny line. LOW after conversion. - L186: `"the question set I used to get registry-ready - 1,000 board-style questions - is what made the difference"` Suggestion: parenthetical commas or parentheses. `"the question set I used to get registry-ready (1,000 board-style questions) is what made the difference"` - L198: `"Do not assume passing the class means passing the boards - the data says it does not."` Suggestion: `"Do not assume passing the class means passing the boards. The data says it does not."` ### P-06.2 - ALL-CAPS mid-sentence (HIGH, listed in cross-cutting above) See cross-cutting. Five-to-six body-prose instances. Recommend Jenny pick one device (italics OR caps) and use it consistently. Italics is already used in the same post and reads more like her. ### P-06.3 - "I am not going to X. Right now." cadence (LOW) L25: `"I am going to fix that. Right now."` - this is an LLM-ish "set up + payoff" beat. Not a hard tell, but it does the same emphatic-mic-drop work that LLMs reach for. Jenny said it; might be fine; Keith call. ### P-06.4 - Coined-callout brackets `[TRUTH BOMB]` / `[DON'T SKIP THIS]` (MED, design decision) These are in-line all-caps labels that will get styled out in the rendered post, not body prose. But the literal text `[DON'T SKIP THIS:` and `[TRUTH BOMB:` will be visible in the source markdown until/unless they're converted to a styled callout component during extraction. If they ship as raw text, they read as forced typographic shouting (catalog #3 variant). Flag for Jenny / Keith: confirm extraction converts these brackets to a styled card/callout component (gold rail or `.sitm-glass`) and strips the inline ALL-CAPS label. Otherwise the post has 5+ all-caps callouts as raw text. ### P-06.5 - Two slightly different versions of the same lede (LOW) L11 (italicized intro) and L21 + L27 (Quick answer) restate "physics is abstract, tied to math, tested for understanding" three times in the first 27 lines. Probably intentional (lede / hook / TL;DR pattern), but a careful reader may notice. Decision: leave; this is a known SEO structure. --- ## Post 2: revamped-04-salary.md Cleanest of the three. Best Jenny voice. Lowest tell density. Em dashes mostly used as natural pause-marks rather than parenthetical asides. ### P-04.1 - em-dash cadence (LOW-MED) After mechanical conversion to hyphen, these specific instances are flagged: - L20: `"depends on choices you can actually control - right now, before you have even graduated."` Works after conversion. LOW. - L55 (DON'T SKIP callout): `"is not making more - they are making the same and learning less."` Suggestion: `"is not making more. They are making the same and learning less."` Period punches harder. - L67: `"land in the broad middle - solid, steady, always in demand."` Works after conversion. LOW. - L139: `"the one who asked for $5,000 more, who asked about the sign-on bonus, who came back with a counter - is the reason that $20,000 gap existed."` This sentence has TWO em dashes (opening at "who did" and closing here). Long parenthetical. After conversion to ` - ... - ` it still scans, but a careful editor would shorten. Suggestion: break the parenthetical into a second sentence. `"Because the person in my cohort who did is the reason that $20,000 gap existed. She asked for $5,000 more. She asked about the sign-on bonus. She came back with a counter."` More Jenny. ### P-04.2 - "is the whole story of" / "is the secret of" headline framings (LOW) - L20: `"That gap is the whole story of sonographer pay."` - L40 heading: `"## Pay by Work Setting - The Insider's Map"` - L79 heading: `"## Where You Work Changes Everything - The Geography Secret"` - L101 heading: `"## Travel Sonography - The Secret Club"` Each individually is fine. Stacked across the post, the "the secret X / the insider's Y" frame starts feeling like blog-headline-generator output rather than Jenny voice. Per Jenny voice on the site ("study smarter, save time for life outside of school", "I didn't just survive my program, I conquered it"), she tends toward direct claims, not mystique framings. Flag for Jenny: review the four section headings as a group; consider whether two of the four should drop the secret/insider hook. ### P-04.3 - "[INTERACTIVE: ...]" inline tags in body (BLOCKER on extraction, not voice) L75, L113, L143 contain raw `[INTERACTIVE: ...]` spec blocks inside body prose. If these ship un-stripped, they will appear as literal text on the published page. Confirm with Keith that extraction strips these or converts them to actual interactive elements / placeholder cards. Otherwise: voice break (catalog #15 - inline spec metadata mixed with author voice). Same issue applies to all three posts. ### P-04.4 - manufactured "asterisk is real" register (LOW) L107: `"The asterisk is real: most travel roles want at least a year or two of experience first."` The phrase "the asterisk is real" is a stock blog construction that doesn't sound like Jenny's other posts. Flag for Jenny review. Suggestion: `"There's a catch: most travel roles want at least a year or two of experience first."` Direct, lands the same. ### P-04.5 - "**You are allowed to ask.**" landing (clean, keep) L141 is the sticky line of the entire post. Four-word paragraph. Real Jenny. No flag - this is the model for what the rest of the post could lean toward. --- ## Post 3: revamped-11-history.md The "wonder + history" framing risks the most florid tells. Largely controlled, but the pivots and the "Read that again." beats accumulate. ### P-11.1 - em-dash cadence (HIGH on a few instances, MED overall) - L18: `"They're ordinary to me now - just another scan, another patient, another Tuesday."` Works after conversion. LOW. - L22: `"The idea that sound - just sound, vibrations in the air - could paint a picture..."` Suggestion: parenthetical commas. `"The idea that sound (just sound, vibrations in the air) could paint a picture..."` Reads less LLM-rhythmic. - L29 (Quick answer): `"a discovery the Curie brothers made in 1880 - the piezoelectric effect."` Works after conversion. - L37: `"SONAR - Sound Navigation and Ranging - worked on..."` Acronym definition; after conversion to ` - ` it scans like an inline gloss. Acceptable. LOW. - L53: `"identified the [piezoelectric effect](...) - the property that lets certain crystals turn mechanical pressure into an electrical charge."` Suggestion: period. `"identified the piezoelectric effect. It's the property that lets certain crystals turn mechanical pressure into an electrical charge."` - L75: `"But the attempt itself mattered - because it marked the beginning of diagnostic ultrasound."` Suggestion: period. `"But the attempt itself mattered. It marked the beginning of diagnostic ultrasound."` - L78 (callout): `"They were wrong, obviously - but the lesson is worth remembering."` Suggestion: period. `"They were wrong, obviously. But the lesson is worth remembering."` - L86: `"Detecting a gallstone is a concrete, useful diagnosis - and proving ultrasound could do it moved the technology..."` Suggestion: period. `"Detecting a gallstone is a concrete, useful diagnosis. Proving ultrasound could do it moved the technology..."` - L96, L100, L106 (H3 headings): `"### John J. Wild - 'The Father of Medical Ultrasound'"`, `"### Ian Donald - The Man Who Changed Pregnancy Forever"`, `"### Inge Edler & Hellmuth Hertz - The Beating Heart on Screen"` Heading-with-em-dash pattern. After mechanical conversion to hyphen, these are fine as headings. LOW. - L108: `"created echocardiography - finding a way to image the beating heart in motion."` Suggestion: parenthetical comma or period. - L111 (callout): `"Every specialty exam you'll ever take - abdomen, echo, OB, vascular - traces back..."` Suggestion: parenthetical commas. `"Every specialty exam you'll ever take, abdomen, echo, OB, vascular, traces back..."` Or parentheses around the list. - L121-125 (bullet list): each opens `"**In hospitals and clinics** - the standard of care"`, etc. After conversion to hyphen, these are fine list-item-with-definition format. LOW. - L127: `"safe enough for repeated use - including throughout a pregnancy."` Period works. Suggestion: period. - L132 (callout): `"there was her heart - beating, on screen, in her living room."` Strong Jenny line. After conversion to hyphen, still works. LOW. - L144: `"used to treat conditions such as essential tremor - the same technology that once produced a grainy picture of the brain is now being used to operate on it without surgery."` Long. Suggestion: period. `"...essential tremor. The same technology that once produced a grainy picture of the brain is now being used to operate on it without surgery."` - L150: `"influence the nervous system directly - an area called neuromodulation."` Suggestion: parenthetical commas. - L163: `"every scan I perform sits on top of more than 140 years of this story - from a discovery about crystals in a Paris laboratory, through wartime sonar, to the pioneers who first dared to point sound at the body."` Works after conversion. LOW. - L173: `"If reading this made you wonder what it's actually like to do this work - that's a good sign."` Suggestion: period. `"If reading this made you wonder what it's actually like to do this work, that's a good sign."` ### P-11.2 - "Read that again." / "We are in it." rhetorical beat (HIGH) L146: `"Read that again. **Sound is being used to perform surgery inside the brain without cutting the skin.** We are not waiting for the future. We are in it."` Three-beat rhetorical sequence (command + bold restatement + chiasmus). This is a strong LLM mannerism: instructing the reader to re-read, then bolding what to re-read, then a chiastic "we are X. we are Y." closer. Catalog item #1 (self-directed instruction adjacent: instructing the reader is the second-person variant; the LLM is performing emphasis). It's also genuinely a powerful beat. Flag for Jenny: she may want to keep it. Lighter-touch alternative: `"Sound is being used to perform surgery inside the brain without cutting the skin. The future is not coming. It is already here."` Drops the meta-instruction. ### P-11.3 - "Think about that for a second" beat (MED) L41: `"Think about that for a second. The technology that now checks on unborn babies was first aimed at killing people."` Same family as P-11.2. Reader-instruction-then-payoff. Once is a beat; twice in the same post (this + L146) is the pattern. Flag for Jenny: pick one of the two, drop the other's instruction. Suggested keep: the L146 one (it earns it). Suggested drop: L41 "Think about that for a second." Sentence works without it: `"The technology that now checks on unborn babies was first aimed at killing people."` ### P-11.4 - "Not X. Not Y. Actually Z." cadence (LOW-MED) L22: `"Not difficult. Not expensive. Actually, literally impossible."` Pattern itself is fine and Jenny-ish. The word "literally" is the soft tell - it's the modern verbal-filler "literally" that LLMs (and people online) overuse. Suggestion: `"Not difficult. Not expensive. Impossible."` Drop "Actually, literally." Lands harder. ### P-11.5 - "I find it grounding to remember that..." (LOW, optional) L163 closer paragraph opens `"I find it grounding to remember that every scan I perform sits on top of..."`. The "I find it X to Y that..." construction is slightly hedged for Jenny's blunt-end voice. Suggestion: `"It grounds me to remember that every scan I perform sits on top of..."` More direct, same meaning. ### P-11.6 - "She didn't believe me." sidebar (clean, keep) L132 sidebar confession is the best paragraph in the post and exactly the Jenny voice. Anchor the rest of the post to this register. No flag. ### P-11.7 - "[TRUTH BOMB]" / "[SIDEBAR CONFESSION]" / "[DON'T SKIP THIS]" inline labels (BLOCKER on extraction, same as P-06.4) Same finding as physics. Confirm extraction converts these to styled callout components. --- # Summary of actions for extraction / publishing ## MUST do (mechanical) 1. **Convert every em dash (U+2014) to a plain hyphen `-` with surrounding spaces preserved.** Total occurrences across the three article-prose sections: ~77. No en dashes present, no conversion needed there. 2. **Confirm the bracketed callout labels** (`[TRUTH BOMB]`, `[DON'T SKIP THIS]`, `[SIDEBAR CONFESSION]`, `[INTERACTIVE: ...]`, `[ELI5: ...]`) are either converted to styled components on extraction or stripped. If they ship as raw bracketed text, the posts read as spec docs, not finished articles. This is a design / template decision for Keith. 3. **Confirm `[INTERACTIVE: ...]` blocks are placeholder-replaced or interactive component slots,** not rendered as literal text. ## SHOULD flag for Jenny / Keith review (voice) In priority order: 1. **revamped-06-physics.md: ALL-CAPS mid-sentence emphasis** (~6 instances in body prose: NOT, THAT, FASTER, INTO x2, WHY). Italics is already used in the same post and is the more Jenny-voiced device. Recommend Jenny pick one and use it consistently. The italics version reads more like the rest of her writing. 2. **revamped-11-history.md L146: "Read that again. ... We are in it."** Strongest rhetorical beat in the post and arguably the strongest LLM mannerism in any of the three. Jenny decides whether to keep. 3. **revamped-11-history.md L41: "Think about that for a second."** Pairs with L146; recommend dropping one of the two reader-instruction beats. 4. **revamped-04-salary.md L40 / L79 / L101: section headings stacking "secret / insider / map / club" framings.** Group review. 5. **revamped-04-salary.md L107: "The asterisk is real:"** stock blog-construction phrasing; lighter alt "There's a catch:" reads more direct. 6. **revamped-06-physics.md L53, L63, L131, L151, L198 (and analogues in -04, -11):** em-dash parenthetical asides that would land harder as a separate sentence. Per-line suggestions provided in body sections above. These are stylistic refinements, not blockers. The current copy is publishable after dash conversion. ## NO action needed (clean axes) - No "in today's fast-paced world" / "elevate" / "seamless" / "unlock" / "dive in" / "journey" / "leverage" / "robust" / "holistic" / "navigate" / "ecosystem" vocabulary detected in any post. The marketing-LLM register is absent. This is unusually clean copy on that axis. - No speculative hedging ("may already be", "looks done", "could go either way"). Jenny commits. - No manufactured both-sides framing. Each post takes a clear position. - No restating-the-obvious circular sentences in the narrative. - Three-item parallelism is used purposefully, not as a default rhythm. Within tolerance. --- # Overall verdict These posts are publishable after mechanical em-dash normalization and a Jenny-review pass on the ~6 caps-emphasis lines in the physics post and the two reader-instruction beats in the history post. The voice is mostly Jenny: blunt, peer-to-peer, anchored in specific scenes ("crying in my car", "$20K gap", "she didn't believe me"). The tells that remain are concentrated and named above. Nothing in the body prose rises to "this reads as AI-authored marketing copy"; the tells are rhythm tells, fixable per line. The strongest paragraphs in each post (physics car-crying opener, salary "you are allowed to ask", history garage-door-opener sidebar) are the register the rest could be pulled toward if Jenny wants a tighter pass. None of that is in scope for the verbatim extraction. Auditor end.