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scientific-writing

Core skill for the deep research and writing tool. Write scientific manuscripts in full paragraphs (never bullet points). Use two-stage process with (1) section outlines with key points using research-lookup then (2) convert to flowing prose. IMRAD structure, citations (APA/AMA/Vancouver), figures/tables, reporting guidelines (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA), for research papers and journal submissions.

53

Quality

61%

Does it follow best practices?

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tessl review fix ./writing_skills/scientific-writing/SKILL.md
SKILL.md
Quality
Evals
Security

Quality

Content

56%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

The body delivers strong, concrete guidance for its core workflow — the two-stage outline-to-prose process with a worked example, plus executable LaTeX for professional report formatting — and points to six real, substantive reference files. Its main weaknesses are verbosity (repeated mandates, a large inline terminology taxonomy of knowledge Claude already has, LaTeX detail duplicating an asset guide) and two broken script references, which together hold the conciseness and progressive-disclosure dimensions down.

Suggestions

Move Section 10 (field-specific terminology, ~90 lines) into a reference file such as 'references/field_terminology.md' and keep a 5-line summary of the principle in SKILL.md.

Trim the LaTeX detail in Section 8 (box environments, table example, commands table) to a short starter snippet plus pointers to assets/REPORT_FORMATTING_GUIDE.md and references/professional_report_formatting.md, which already cover it.

Remove or fix the references to scripts/generate_schematic.py and scripts/generate_image.py (the scripts/ directory does not exist in this bundle), and consolidate the 'never bullet points' mandate to a single stated location instead of repeating it in the Overview, Section 7, and the Workflow.

DimensionReasoningScore

Conciseness

The ~690-line body has several padded sections: the 'never bullet points' mandate is repeated in the Overview, Section 7, and the Workflow; Section 10 is a ~90-line taxonomy of field terminology conventions (gene italics, SI units, binomial nomenclature) that Claude already knows; and Sections 6/11 restate generic writing principles and common pitfalls. It is above 1 because much of the material (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA mappings, venue differences, the .sty workflow) is genuinely domain-specific rather than basic-library or file-format explanation.

2 / 5

Actionability

Guidance is mostly executable: a worked outline-to-prose example, copy-paste LaTeX for box environments, tables, and notation commands, and an XeLaTeX compile command. It falls short of 5 because the schematic generation commands invoke 'scripts/generate_schematic.py' and 'scripts/generate_image.py' which do not exist in the bundle, and several sections defer to external skills ('scientific-schematics', 'generate-image', 'venue-templates') without bundled instructions.

4 / 5

Workflow Clarity

The 'Workflow for Manuscript Development' gives a clear 4-stage numbered sequence, and Stage 3 (Revision) provides verification checkpoints ('Verify all citations are accurate', 'Confirm adherence to reporting guidelines', 'Check word counts'). It is not 5 because checkpoints are advisory prose rather than explicit validate-and-fix feedback loops, and the drafting order (figures first, Methods first) is stated without guidance on recovering when a stage fails.

4 / 5

Progressive Disclosure

References are well signaled — all six 'references/*.md' and three 'assets/*' files exist, are pointed to at point of use, and are summarized in dedicated sections — but content that clearly belongs in reference files is inlined: the ~90-line field-terminology taxonomy (Section 10) and the detailed LaTeX box/table/commands documentation (Section 8) duplicating assets/REPORT_FORMATTING_GUIDE.md. Two referenced script paths do not exist in the bundle, and the venue-templates pointer lists file names Claude cannot navigate from this bundle.

3 / 5

Total

13

/

20

Passed

Description

66%Weight 40%Scale 1-5

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

A domain-specific description that clearly states what the skill does (full-paragraph manuscript writing via a two-stage outline-to-prose process) with good concrete keywords, but it lacks an explicit 'Use when...' trigger clause, leaving the activation conditions weakly implied. Adding trigger guidance and a few natural synonyms (thesis, abstract, preprint) would lift the completeness and trigger-term dimensions to 5.

Suggestions

Add an explicit trigger clause, e.g. 'Use when writing or revising research papers, journal manuscripts, abstracts, or scientific reports, or when the user mentions IMRAD, CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA, or citation styles.'

Include natural synonyms users would say — 'thesis', 'abstract', 'preprint', 'draft', 'write up' — to broaden trigger coverage.

Consider trimming the topic enumeration tail in favor of one or two more concrete actions (e.g., 'format citations in APA/AMA/Vancouver', 'apply reporting checklists') to make every clause action-shaped.

DimensionReasoningScore

Specificity

The description lists several concrete actions ('Write scientific manuscripts in full paragraphs (never bullet points)', 'two-stage process with (1) section outlines... then (2) convert to flowing prose'), but the second half ('IMRAD structure, citations (APA/AMA/Vancouver), figures/tables, reporting guidelines') enumerates topic areas rather than actions, so it falls short of the comprehensive concrete-action coverage of a 5.

4 / 5

Completeness

The 'what' is clear and detailed (manuscripts in full paragraphs via a two-stage process, IMRAD, citations, figures, reporting guidelines), but there is no 'Use when...' clause or equivalent explicit trigger guidance — only the weakly implied purpose phrase 'for research papers and journal submissions'. Per the rubric guideline, a missing or only weakly implied 'when' caps completeness at 3; it does not reach 4's explicit 'Use when working with...' form.

3 / 5

Trigger Term Quality

Natural user terms are present ('scientific manuscripts', 'research papers', 'journal submissions', 'citations', 'figures/tables'), giving good keyword coverage. It is not a 5 because common synonyms and variations users would say — 'thesis', 'abstract', 'preprint', 'draft a paper', 'write up results' — are missing.

4 / 5

Distinctiveness Conflict Risk

The scientific-manuscript niche (IMRAD, CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA, journal submission) is mostly distinct with minimal conflict risk beyond closely related writing skills. It is not a 5 because 'Core skill for the deep research and writing tool' is generic framing and the domain overlaps with general academic/technical writing skills (e.g., the venue-templates skill it defers to).

4 / 5

Total

15

/

20

Passed

Validation

81%

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 13 / 16 Passed

Validation for skill structure

CriteriaDescriptionResult

skill_md_line_count

SKILL.md is long (696 lines); consider splitting into references/ and linking

Warning

metadata_version

'metadata.version' is missing

Warning

referenced_paths_exist

Referenced path issues: 4 missing

Warning

Total

13

/

16

Passed

Repository
fernandezbaptiste/CatMaster
Reviewed

Table of Contents

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