Litmus

Paste a page and see how quotable it is. Litmus checks whether the answer comes first, whether a passage can stand on its own, and whether there is anything concrete worth quoting.

Question this page should answer

Optional. If you add it, Litmus checks whether the opening actually addresses it.

Your copy

Nothing is uploaded to the cloud or anywhere else. The whole check runs in this page and clears when you close the tab.

Reading level

What to fix

What "answer-shaped" means

Answer-shaped writing is built to be lifted. An AI system pulls out one small passage and quotes it, so each passage has to answer a real question, stand on its own, and say something specific. Four habits get you most of the way there.

1. Answer first, explain second

Put the direct answer in the first sentence, then add the detail. Do not warm up to it.

BuriedThere are many things to consider when storing coffee, and it depends on several factors...

Answer firstRoasted coffee tastes best 4 to 21 days after roasting. The exact window depends on the roast and storage.

2. Make each passage stand alone

Do not open with This, It, or They pointing back at an earlier line, and avoid as mentioned above. A quoted passage loses whatever came before it.

Needs contextAs mentioned above, it keeps best in these conditions.

Self containedWhole beans keep best in an airtight container, away from light and heat.

3. Use real figures and names

Numbers, dates, and named things get quoted. Vague words like many, several, and various do not.

VagueWe have helped many customers enjoy fresher coffee for a long time.

SpecificIn a 30 cup taste panel, whole beans held their flavour 5 times longer than pre-ground.

4. Write plainly, in your own voice

Drop the marketing language and the hedging. Describe the thing, not the company behind it.

BrochureWe pride ourselves on delivering world class, industry leading coffee that may help elevate your mornings.

PlainOur beans stay fresh for 3 weeks after roasting and are sealed within an hour of the roast.

A good test: copy any single paragraph, paste it somewhere with no surrounding text, and ask whether it still answers a question on its own. If it does, it is answer-shaped.

What this measures. Reading level uses the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch Kincaid grade formulas, which are long established. Syllable counting is done with a heuristic, so grade figures are close rather than exact.

What it cannot measure. The citability score is a rubric I built from observable traits of quotable writing: the answer arriving early, passages that survive being lifted out of context, concrete detail, and plain language. It is not a ranking signal and no search or AI system publishes one. Treat a low score as a prompt to look at the copy, not as a verdict.