| name | scientific-writing-en |
| description | Use whenever the user writes, drafts, revises, edits, polishes, or translates scientific or academic prose in ENGLISH - Q1 research articles, theses, dissertations, abstracts, introductions, methods, results, discussions, conclusions, acknowledgments, literature reviews, grant proposals, conference papers, or any IMRaD section. Provides 5000+ pre-cooked, idiomatic, native-academic phrases plus paragraph- and sentence-level guidance for every standard section of a scientific document, avoiding robotic / LLM-style prose. Triggers: "write the introduction", "draft the abstract", "help me with the discussion", "polish this scientific paragraph", "translate this paper to English", "this sounds like AI, rewrite it", "write the methods section", "I need phrases for...", "academic English", "make this sound more academic", "make this Q1-ready". |
| allowed-tools | Read, Grep, Glob |
Scientific Writing in English
Do NOT activate for code comments, docstrings, commit messages, casual emails, marketing copy, fiction, or general non-academic writing. For blog posts or popular-science pieces, ask before invoking the academic register - these usually want lighter, more accessible prose.
Goal
Replace generic "LLM-default" prose with established academic English constructions (Academic Phrasebank tradition), and lift drafts to Q1-journal structural and rhetorical standards. See references/core-principles.md for what "Q1 quality" means and the 11 non-negotiable rules (hedging, tense discipline, US spelling, ASCII-only punctuation, citation grammar, etc.) - read this file on first use in a session, before drafting anything.
Workflow
- Identify the section or function the user needs (see index below).
- Read
references/core-principles.md if not already read this session.
- Read ONLY the matching reference file(s) for that section/function. Never load more than 2-3 reference files for a single request - each runs several hundred lines.
- Draft finished prose, not a phrase menu. Pick phrases from the bank, adapt them to the user's actual content (replace X/Y/Z/"Author" placeholders), and combine/vary them so the result reads as prose, not a phrasebook collage.
- Self-check before delivering using
references/qa-checklist.md.
- Final pass: scan against
references/quick-replacements.md for LLM-tell phrases and padding. Cut or replace anything that matches.
Default output is a polished paragraph ready to paste into the document. Only return a list of phrase options if the user explicitly asks for alternatives.
Reference index
IMRaD structure and front matter:
references/acknowledgments-authors.md - Acknowledgments, funding, conflicts of interest, about-the-author, contributor statements.references/introduction.md - Background, importance, literature synthesis, problem statement, controversy, knowledge gap, study aim, research questions, hypotheses, structure, limitations. Follows Swales' CARS model (territory -> niche -> occupy niche).references/methods.md - Study type, data sources, design, methodology justification, sample, procedure, instruments, methodological limitations.references/results.md - Referencing method, presenting data, tables/figures, positive/negative/unexpected findings, questionnaires, qualitative data, summary.references/discussion.md - Background, linking results to discussion, agreement/contradiction with prior literature, explaining results, caution, tentative hypotheses, consequences, future research. Follows Hopkins & Dudley-Evans' move structure (restate -> compare -> explain -> limitations -> implications).references/conclusion-abstract.md - Restating, summary, synthesis of findings, strengths, limitations, implications, contribution, recommendations.references/statistics-and-measurement.md - Measurement/quantification language; statistical procedures and tests (t-test, ANOVA, regression, correlation, chi-square); reporting statistics, p-values, effect sizes; descriptive statistics; Likert-scale design. Mainly Methods/Results.
Structural and stylistic craft (cross-cutting):
references/paragraph-structure.md - Topic sentences, controlling idea + supporting detail, given-new ordering, cohesion devices.references/academic-style.md - Formality register, colloquialism/contraction/tautology/cliche avoidance, weak-verb replacement, bias-free language, nominalization, confused word pairs, US/British spelling conversion.references/shared-knowledge-signposting.md - Indicating shared knowledge, previewing/transitioning between sections, summarizing and re-orienting the reader.references/punctuation-articles.md - Comma/semicolon/colon/quotation/dash/apostrophe rules, abbreviations, capitalization, article use (a/an/the/zero). Use when editing for mechanical correctness.references/grammar-numbers-units.md - Irregular plurals (datum/data, criterion/criteria...), subject-verb agreement on borrowed nouns, noncount nouns, number style, SI units. Use when editing Methods/Results for correctness.
Transverse functions (useful in every section):
references/critical-writing.md - Limitations, weaknesses, criticism of specific authors, constructive suggestions, evaluative language.references/classify-compare.md - Classifications, lists, differences, similarities, contrasts.references/define-cause-effect.md - Definitions, exceptions, causality, correlation.references/caution-hypothesis.md - Distancing the author, hypothesizing, cautious interpretation, possibility/probability, assumption, implication.references/viewpoints.md - Agreement/support, disagreement, stating your own viewpoint.references/references-citations.md - Reporting-verb stance (argues, contends, demonstrates, suggests, posits), synthesizing sources, direct quotations. Avoid repeated "According to X".references/exemplify.md - Examples, cases, illustration.references/connectors-time.md - Tense/time connectives, frequency, section transitions. Use to vary repeated "however/moreover/furthermore/therefore".references/support-contrast.md - Contrasting own work, supporting a viewpoint, explanations.references/quantity-order-change-interpretation.md - Quantity, order, change (increase/decrease), interpretation of findings.
If a request doesn't map to a single file, read references/critical-writing.md and references/connectors-time.md - they cut across sections.
Attribution
Phrase bank adapted from PhraseBook for Writing Papers and Research in English (Howe & Henriksson, 2007, EnglishforResearch.com) and Academic Phrasebank (Morley, 2021, University of Manchester), with structural framing from 5000 frases precocinadas para textos cientificos (Margolles Garcia, NeoScientia, CC BY-NC) and Swales (1990) CARS model.
