ing-tail

A rule that is off by default: it reports a participle clause added to claim significance (", highlighting the importance of") once a decisions table turns it on.

What it catches

A participle clause added to claim significance (", highlighting the importance of").

Dimension

economy: words that carry nothing. A finding is counted on the dimension of its rule, the cost it names to the reader.

Why

The tail asserts significance with no subject to own it. It advises: a participle clause is also ordinary grammar. Measured 2026-10-11 over the adjudicated labeling round 2: 41.9% precision (18 of 43) before, 85.7% (18 of 21) after. "reflecting" is no longer read (it named what a change mirrors), and a tail with no object (a noun in a list), a presenting verb before the bare content it names ("showcasing custom validators"), an item in a list of actions and quoted words are left alone. It stays off until a fresh labeling round measures it.

Default decision

The code is PRF4011. The decision depends on the kind of text judged:

Changing it

A decisions table sets this rule to deny, advise or off, for everything judged or for the files a glob matches. Proofread reads the table from the file its -decisions flag names:

{
  "rules": {"ing-tail": "deny"},
  "paths": {"blog/**": {"ing-tail": "off"}}
}

rules applies to every file. A glob in paths applies to the files it matches, and the last match wins. A rule set to off never reports.

Seeing it

A finding names the rule, its code and the decision that applies, and links here:

{"rule": "ing-tail", "code": "PRF4011", "decision": "off", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/ing-tail/"}

proofread rules prints this entry with every other rule's.

See also

• All proofread rules - every rule, grouped by what it checks
• Writing rules - how the rules apply to this repository's pages and pull requests
• The findings contract - the fields every finding carries