Academic Writing

Guidance for drafting, structuring, and revising each section of a scientific research article that follows the AIMRaD convention (Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, and Discussion). Distilled from Cargill & O'Connor, Writing Scientific Research Articles: Strategy and Steps (2009), generalised for computer-science, cybersecurity, and regulatory papers.

Progressive disclosure: SKILL.md (this file) gives the triggers, the non-negotiable principles, and the topic index. Detailed guidance for each section lives in references/. Annotated example fragments live in examples/. Load only what the current task needs.

When to Activate

Activate this skill when any of the following is true:

• The user says "draft", "write", "structure", "how to write", "improve", or "revise" in connection with a manuscript section (introduction, methods, results, discussion, title, abstract, summary).
• The user asks what verb tense to use, how to design a figure/table, how to cite, how to choose a target journal, or how to prepare a manuscript.
• The user is turning a set of results into a paper, ordering figures/tables, or writing a take-home message.
• The user asks about sentence templates, noun phrases, article use (a/an/the), or which vs that.

Do NOT activate for reviewing or critiquing an existing draft — that is the academic-evaluation skill. This skill is for producing text.

Core Principles (Non-Negotiable)

These apply to every section being drafted.

Topic Index — Read on Demand

Load the reference that matches the current task.

Quick Reference

Verb tense by section

Citation styles (Introduction Stages 2–3)

Introduction Stage 4 sentence templates

The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine [NP];
(2) analyse [NP]; (3) evaluate [NP]; and (4) discuss [NP].

As part of a long-term research effort aimed at [NP1],
this paper presents [NP2].

Claim-strength ladder (Discussion)

Strong   demonstrate / show / establish  … + present tense
         indicate … + present / future
         appear to … + present
Weak     suggest … + modal (may / could)

Stop Conditions

Stop and ask the user if:

• The target journal is unknown — formatting, length, and structure all depend on it.
• The results "story" or take-home message is not agreed with co-authors — do not draft other sections until it is.
• The claim strength the user wants conflicts with what the data support — flag the over- or under-claim rather than silently complying.
• A section the user asks to write depends on results that are not finalised.
• The discipline's convention is unclear (e.g., combined vs separate Results and Discussion) — check a sample article from the target journal first.

Coordination with Other Skills

• academic-evaluation — invoke when the task shifts from drafting to reviewing or critiquing a draft against referee criteria.
• doc-coauthoring — invoke for the broader co-authoring workflow (track changes, comments, revision rounds).
• internal-comms — not relevant; this skill is for manuscript content.

Use When

Use this skill whenever the task is to produce or improve the text of a research article — drafting a section, choosing a structure, refining a title, writing an abstract, selecting a journal, or preparing a manuscript for submission. For reviewing or critiquing a finished draft, use academic-evaluation instead.