AI slop reads differently depending on what you are writing. A cover letter fails on unearned self-description. A cold email fails on fake personalisation. A property listing can fail on compliance. The general 200+ tell list covers what applies everywhere; these guides cover what does not.
By context
Cover LettersGeneric AI slop is corporate vocabulary. Cover-letter slop is unearned self-description — adjectives standing where a specific result should be.
ResumesProse slop is filler between ideas. Resume slop is compression gone wrong — a stock verb standing in for the specific thing you did.
Cold EmailMost AI slop is vague. Cold-email slop is vagueness pretending to be research, which is why it reads worse than sending nothing at all.
LinkedinElsewhere the tells are words. On LinkedIn the tell is the shape of the post, which survives every word swap.
Real EstateEverywhere else, slop is a style problem. In a listing it is also a compliance problem, which is why this page leads with the legal risk.
SupportOther slop is empty. Support slop is evasive — it performs sympathy while withholding the two facts the customer wants: what broke and what you are doing.
SpeechesElsewhere slop is bad style. In a toast it is a social failure, because a line that fits any couple tells the room you wrote about none.
GrantsOther slop adds empty words. Proposal slop removes the evidence — the names, places and numbers that prove you do this work.
Work EmailMost AI slop inflates importance. Work-email slop inflates formality, which is why it reads oddly to a colleague you speak to daily.
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The complete list200+ tells in 13 categories: vocabulary, sentence patterns, structural habits and machine artifacts, each with a replacement.
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The open rule setEvery rule behind these pages, plus 27 other anti-slop projects, on GitHub.
How readers spot AIThe six checks people run before any detector is involved.