academic-writing-style
Skill56 starsChanged 3 months agoMITView on GitHub
Plan, draft, revise, and audit theses, papers, literature reviews, methods, results, and discussions for argument, evidence, structure, citations, and style.
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The file
Show its rules and text
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
13 rules. About 0 are common, 13 are distinctive, and 0 are very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈13
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
0
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Distinctive: line 22
Before drafting or revising, identify:
- Distinctive: line 24
document type, field, audience, language, and expected length.
- Distinctive: line 30
If a required source or rule is unavailable, state the gap.
- Distinctive: line 42
Remove sections that repeat a claim without adding evidence or interpretation.
- Distinctive: line 77
Follow the user-specified style guide.
- Distinctive: line 78
Use direct quotations sparingly and include locator information when the style requires it.
- Distinctive: line 79
Keep terminology stable after first definition.
- Distinctive: line 80
Prefer precise verbs and concrete subjects over inflated academic phrasing.
- Distinctive: line 81
Use cautious language only where uncertainty exists.
- Distinctive: line 82
Never create a DOI, page number, author, title, statistic, or quotation that was not verified.
- Distinctive: line 94
Keep edits faithful to the author's meaning and distinguish required corrections from optional improvements.
- Distinctive: line 99
Use available document, spreadsheet, PDF, or web tools only when the task needs them.
- Distinctive: line 100
Verify current citation rules from an authoritative source when exact compliance matters.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Rylai Academic Writing
Produce rigorous academic prose without inventing evidence, citations, findings, or institutional requirements.
Start With The Writing Contract
Before drafting or revising, identify:
- document type, field, audience, language, and expected length;
- research question, central claim, and scope;
- required citation style and institutional template;
- supplied sources, data, tables, and terminology;
- whether the task is drafting, restructuring, proofreading, or compliance review.
If a required source or rule is unavailable, state the gap. Do not silently guess.
Core Workflow
- Map the argument
- Express the main claim in one sentence.
- List the claims each section must establish.
- Link every substantive claim to evidence, reasoning, or an explicit limitation.
- Build the structure
- Give each section one clear purpose.
- Order paragraphs so each one prepares the next.
- Remove sections that repeat a claim without adding evidence or interpretation.
- Draft by paragraph function
- Open with the paragraph's controlling idea.
- Present evidence or method.
- Explain why the evidence matters.
- Close with a consequence, qualification, or transition.
- Calibrate claims
- Match certainty to the study design and evidence.
- Distinguish correlation, prediction, mechanism, and causation.
- State population, time, geography, and measurement limits where relevant.
- Audit evidence
- Confirm that every citation supports the nearby statement.
- Separate the author's interpretation from the source's conclusion.
- Mark missing bibliographic fields instead of fabricating them.
- Revise in passes
- Pass 1: argument and section order.
- Pass 2: evidence and citation integrity.
- Pass 3: paragraph cohesion and transitions.
- Pass 4: sentence clarity, terminology, and formatting.
Section Guidance
- Introduction: establish context, define the problem, identify the gap, state the objective, and present the research question.
- Literature review: synthesize sources by issue or debate; compare positions instead of listing summaries.
- Methods: describe design, sample, materials, procedure, analysis, ethics, and decisions needed for replication.
- Results: report findings in the order of the questions or hypotheses; keep interpretation limited.
- Discussion: answer the research question, connect findings to prior work, explain implications, and acknowledge limitations.
- Conclusion: state the contribution and boundary of the work without introducing new evidence.
Citation And Style Rules
- Follow the user-specified style guide; otherwise preserve the document's existing convention.
- Use direct quotations sparingly and include locator information when the style requires it.
- Keep terminology stable after first definition.
- Prefer precise verbs and concrete subjects over inflated academic phrasing.
- Use cautious language only where uncertainty exists; do not weaken well-supported statements by habit.
- Never create a DOI, page number, author, title, statistic, or quotation that was not verified.
Review Output
For a review request, return:
- high-impact issues in argument, evidence, or structure;
- citation and factual-integrity problems;
- recurring style or clarity problems;
- a revised passage when useful;
- unresolved questions that require the author's decision.
Keep edits faithful to the author's meaning and distinguish required corrections from optional improvements.
Runtime Notes
- Resolve any supplied files relative to the active workspace.
- Use available document, spreadsheet, PDF, or web tools only when the task needs them.
- Verify current citation rules from an authoritative source when exact compliance matters.
- Deliver editable text or files and report checks actually performed.
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