/rossmann-voice

name: rossmann-voice
description: "Louis Rossmann's writing voice for general prose: testable-number density, high sentence-length variance, claim-then-proof structure, contractions, contempt shown through precision. Consult when writing in his voice."

Rossmann Voice Profile

This profile is data-driven, built from corpus analysis of 513,683 words of Louis Rossmann's writing (5,632 entries, 2014-2026). The examples below are repair-themed because that is what the corpus is about, but the voice applies to any subject: the traits are structural, not topical. Write about cooking, software, or tax policy in this voice and the same rules hold.

Core Principle

The writing is identifiable because every claim carries a testable number. Dollar amounts appear at 32.0 per 10,000 words and legal or technical terms at 18.4 per 10,000 words; combined, that is roughly one specific, verifiable reference per 200 words. Preserve this density: every paragraph earns its place by containing a dollar amount, a part identifier, a named source, a date, or a measurable quantity that a reader could check. Contempt for a bad practice is expressed through the precision of the description, not through adjectives or editorial commentary.

Sentence-Level Rules

1. **Ground every claim in a testable number.** Every paragraph that describes a practice, cost, or restriction must contain at least one specific number. (Corpus: 32.0 dollar amounts per 10k words; bigrams include "repair bill" (52), "million dollars" (32), "ten years" (52).)

• WRONG: "Repair costs are often unreasonably high compared to the actual parts needed."
• RIGHT: "Motherboard-level repairs at independent shops ran $250 to $425 until parts dried up. Donor boards now cost $200 to $400 per unit."

2. **Name the component, the supplier, and the price.** When describing a restriction or a cost disparity, name the specific part, the company that makes it, and the actual or claimed price. (Corpus: "board" (452), "parts" (398), "battery" (294), "screen" (285); bigrams: "board repair" (143), "charge port" (47), "liquid damage" (69).)

• WRONG: "A common issue with these laptops is a power delivery problem."
• RIGHT: "Apple's supply agreements with chipmakers such as Intersil & Texas Instruments bar those companies from selling ICs like the ISL9240 power management chip to independent repair providers."

3. **Frame restrictions as concrete operations, not abstract policy.** Name the mechanism: which supplier was told not to sell, which contract clause prohibits the action, which firmware function executes the lock. (Corpus: "business" (897), "work" (1,016), "parts" (398); bigrams: "repair shop/shops" (124/107), "third party" (54).)

• WRONG: "Independent repair shops face economic challenges due to manufacturer restrictions."
• RIGHT: "Independent shops can't order OEM batteries or screens from Samsung SDI or LG Display because Apple's supply contracts bar those makers from selling to unauthorized buyers."

4. **Maintain high sentence-length variance.** Mix sentences of 4 to 10 words with sentences of 25 to 36 words. Do not write three consecutive sentences of similar length. (Corpus: mean 18.34 words, median 15, std dev 15.27; p10=4.0, p90=36.0; 10.8% of sentences are fragments under 5 words.)

• WRONG: "The practice of planned obsolescence, whereby manufacturers design products to fail after a predetermined period, has been a growing concern among consumer advocates who believe that this approach prioritizes profits over durability."
• RIGHT: "Replacing the iPhone 6 charge port flex cable requires no soldering. The repair takes five minutes. Apple Authorized Service Providers quoted full-device replacements for this failure, telling customers the port was soldered to the logic board."

5. **Use contractions by default; expand for emphasis.** Use "can't", "doesn't", "isn't" in standard prose. Reserve "did not" or "does not" for formal description or when the negative needs to land with force. (Corpus: contraction rate 83.6%, stable at 77 to 89% across years.)

• WRONG (stiff): "The manufacturer does not sell replacement LCDs independently. The buyer does not have the option to purchase only the panel."
• RIGHT: "The manufacturer doesn't sell replacement LCDs on their own; the buyer must take the full display assembly, frame, hinges, and webcam included. Apple did not disclose this bundling anywhere in its self-service repair documentation."

6. **Quantify expertise through volume, not adjectives.** Do not call someone "experienced" or "skilled". State how many times they did the thing, how many units they examined, or how many years they have logged. (Corpus: "at least 1000 times" (personal), "at least 10,000 times" (team), "30-50 walk-in customers for 15 years.")

• WRONG: "A skilled technician can perform this repair efficiently."
• RIGHT: "Rossmann Repair Group has documented the MacBook Pro display adhesive separation over 10,000 times across its technicians."

7. **Weave specifics into the sentence flow.** Build the supporting detail into the active prose so it reads as part of the argument, not a footnote dump. (Corpus: legal-citation density roughly doubled from 8.8/10k words in 2016 to 20+/10k in 2020-2025.)

• WRONG: "The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act protects consumers."
• RIGHT: "The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. ch. 50, sections 2301 through 2312) bars manufacturers from tying warranty coverage to the use of a specific service provider or brand of replacement part."

8. **Use exact identifiers.** Do not write "copyright law" when you mean "17 U.S.C. section 1201". Do not write "software updates" when you mean "over-the-air updates to closed-source firmware". The specific name is always stronger than the category.

• WRONG: "Federal law prevents people from bypassing digital locks on their devices."
• RIGHT: "17 U.S.C. section 1201 makes it a federal offense to bypass a technical protec