Professional Tone Sweep Report
Date: February 2026
Scope: Full sweep of in-scope documentation for professional language (no informal "we/our", contractions expanded).
What Was Changed
docs/development
- TEST_DEBUGGING_LESSONS.md — Contractions expanded (e.g. did not match, does not accept, cannot be imported); narrative kept neutral.
- GENAI_CALLOUT_SNIPPET.md — First-person phrasing replaced (e.g. Amazon Bedrock is already used; Bedrock is used in four spots).
- CONSISTENCY_AUDIT_PROTOCOL.md — Contractions expanded; first-person question rephrased to passive (execution path been tested).
docs/guides
- SUBMISSION_GUIDE.md — First-person and contractions replaced (e.g. the interview discussion; it is a query).
docs/adr
- ADR-001 through ADR-007 — First-person openings replaced with neutral (e.g. The following options were considered; The design must); contractions expanded throughout.
docs (root)
- GENAI_IN_OHPEN_CASE_AND_OPPORTUNITIES.md — First-person and we-phrases replaced with neutral or passive (e.g. Is GenAI used; where it is used; why this run_id is rerun).
- GETTING_STARTED.md — Phrasing replaced with neutral (Where Bedrock is used).
- DATA_MODEL_DESIGN_RATIONALE.md — Receipt and overwrite phrasing made neutral (e.g. when the data was received; do not overwrite).
docs/technical
- TOOLING_AND_CONTROLS.md — Quoted positioning rephrased to neutral (e.g. S3 data events are selectively enabled).
- AWS_TESTING_MINIO_VS_REAL.md — Quoted phrase rephrased (e.g. testing is only with MinIO and static checks).
tasks
- data_ingestion_transformation: CLEANUP_CONDEMNED_README, CONDEMNED_DATA_LIFECYCLE_IMPLEMENTATION (that is over 7 years); AWS_SPARK_SIMPLIFICATION_ANALYSIS (contractions and you-phrasing made neutral).
- sql: SQL_BREAKDOWN (it is necessary); ASSUMPTIONS_AND_EDGE_CASES (does not exist / does not fail).
- devops_cicd: DEPLOYMENT_SUMMARY quoted text (S3 data events are selectively enabled); ASSUMPTIONS_AND_EDGE_CASES (do not corrupt).
test-sandbox
- TEST_SCOPE_SUMMARY.md, TEST_EXPANSION_PLAN.md — Headings and phrases made neutral (Current state; Recommendation: Expand; it is fast).
Excluded (Left Unchanged by Design)
| Location | Reason |
|---|---|
| docs/interview/ | Panel script, candidate answers, and prep materials; first-person and conversational tone is intentional. |
| docs/internal/ (including verification/, audits/) | Internal and audit documents; out of scope for this sweep. |
| docs/DESIGN_PATTERNS_AUDIT.md, docs/PERFORMANCE_AND_MAINTAINABILITY_AUDIT.md | Audit documents; out of scope. |
| tasks/communication_documentation/ (stakeholder emails, appendix, message cards, ceo/cio/cto emails) | Stakeholder-facing comms; first-person "we/our" is the team addressing the audience. |
| docs/design-rationale/DESIGN_CHOICES_AND_ASSUMPTIONS.md | Remaining first-person only inside quoted interview lines and table cells; quoted voice left as-is. |
| docs/VERIFICATION_ENTIRE_REPO.md | First-person appears only in reported diff text (before/after heading); documentation of a change, not narrative. |
Verification
- docs/technical, docs/development, docs/adr, docs/guides: No remaining "we/our" in narrative.
- reference/, docs/runbooks, docs/operations, docs/submission, docs/QUALITY_REQUIREMENTS.md: Already updated in prior sweeps; no new informal language in scope.
- Remaining "we/our" in the repo appear only in excluded paths (interview, internal, audits, stakeholder comms) or inside quoted text (interview lines, positioning quotes, reported diffs).
Audit 2 (post–sweep)
Additional areas fixed:
- PROFESSIONAL_TONE_SWEEP_REPORT.md — All quoted informal examples in "What was changed" rephrased so the report itself contains no contractions or first-person narrative.
- docs-site/ — SOCIAL_PREVIEW_IMAGE.md (it is used); DOCS_INTEGRATION_VERIFICATION.md (What is verified); DOCS_ENABLEMENT.md (do not have); blog welcome (do not want); DOCUSAURUS_SETUP_PROMPT.md (Dutch: We willen → Het doel is).
- scripts/test_report/ASSERTION_PROTOCOL.md — "How we check" → "How checks are performed".
- appendix/cicd/APPENDIX_H_CI_CD_TESTING.md — "We provide" → "A convenient test script is provided"; "can't" → "cannot".
Final verification: Grep for (We |we |Our |our ) and common contractions in all *.md files. Every remaining match is in an excluded path (docs/interview, docs/internal, docs/DESIGN_PATTERNS_AUDIT, docs/PERFORMANCE_*_AUDIT, docs/VERIFICATION_ENTIRE_REPO reported diff, docs/design-rationale quoted lines, tasks/communication_documentation, dist/). No in-scope .md files remain with informal language.
Audit 3 — First-person "I" check
Scope: Narrative use of "I" (e.g. I assume, I'm pleased, I look forward, I need, I can provide) in in-scope docs.
Fixes applied:
- docs/guides/SUBMISSION_GUIDE.md — "I'm pleased to submit" → "This submission responds to"; "I look forward to discussing" → "The author looks forward to discussing".
- docs/development/CONSISTENCY_AUDIT_PROTOCOL.md — "I need absolute confidence" → "Absolute confidence is required"; "What assumptions am I making" → "What assumptions require verification?".
- docs/submission/HANDOUT.md — "I assume an append-only raw layer" → "The design assumes an append-only raw layer".
- docs/SUBMISSION_EMAIL_POINTERS.md — "I can provide a documentation-only package" → "A documentation-only package can be provided if preferred."
- docs/GENAI_IN_OHPEN_CASE_AND_OPPORTUNITIES.md — "What can I query?" → "What can be queried?" (GenAI output heading).
Excluded: docs/interview (candidate voice), docs/internal, and meta docs that only mention "I think" as a banned phrase. No remaining narrative "I" in in-scope .md files.