Research Writing Literature

---
name: research-writing-literature
description: Write and revise rigorous research narratives, literature reviews, manuscript sections, citations, and figure discussions. Use for technical introductions, methods, results, discussions, review articles, abstracts, or related-work sections.
---

# Research Writing And Literature

## Purpose

Build a research story rather than a sequence of paper summaries. Every paragraph needs a central topic, normally in its first sentence; each later sentence must develop, support, qualify, or transition from it.

When AI is used to draft or substantially revise the document, first use [author-guided-ai-writing.md](../mechanical-engineering-research/references/author-guided-ai-writing.md) to obtain an author-approved story brief and claim-evidence map. Drafting and line editing do not replace those author decisions.

Before a substantial draft or structural revision, identify the reader, the decision or scientific understanding the section must support, the evidence that carries the central claim, and what the reader should know after the section. Write the structure from that reader-to-evidence path instead of filling a generic manuscript template.

## Route To References

- For critical literature synthesis, read `references/literature-review.md`.
- For journal-paper structure and results-led storytelling, read `references/paper-writing-style.md`.
- For section-specific technical writing, concise revisions, conclusions, methods, DOE, and figure discussion, read `references/technical-writing-analysis.md`.
- For equation explanations, claim-evidence checks, methods completeness, and figure or equation narratives, read `references/technical-argument-audit.md` before a final prose-only pass.
- For a clarity pass focused on reader understanding rather than formulaic compression, read `references/technical-prose-clarity.md`.
- When matching the calibrated research style and its evidence boundaries, read `references/han-hu-research-style.md`.
- For a final pass against formulaic AI-like drafting habits, read `references/anti-formulaic-writing.md`.

## Introduction And Background

Use the chain: importance and applications; state of the art; remaining issue; why it persists; the proposed innovation; and its likely significance. Do not claim novelty merely because no prior work exists. Identify why the missing work is challenging and how the approach resolves a meaningful barrier.

## Citations And Synthesis

Use `FirstAuthor et al.` for a multi-author narrative citation unless the target format requires otherwise. State a paper's method and takeaway in one efficient sentence when possible; avoid a redundant second sentence that only repeats its result. Group background studies by mechanism, method, material, or evidence type, and place citations beside the claim they support. Do not attach a broad citation range to a sentence that conflates distinct categories.

After each source group, state the limitation, contradiction, or knowledge gap that motivates the next step. Include background references fairly across major theories and research groups; trace seminal work backward through its references and forward through citing work.

## Methods, Models, And Results

Methods must make the work reproducible: facility/model details, procedure, data reduction, uncertainty, assumptions, and justification. For results, describe the figure, state the observation, explain it with mechanisms or relevant studies, and draw a bounded conclusion. Combine related plots into one argument when appropriate. Distinguish observed trends from hypotheses and preserve model, protocol, and uncertainty definitions during compression.

## Editorial Safeguards

Do not make abstracts into compressed result tables. Use only the quantitative anchors needed to convey the main result; prioritize the problem, gap, approach, central finding, and implication. Before delivery, make an editorial pass for unfamiliar or undefined labels, repeated vague forms of `enable` and `establish`, `unusually`, `together`, unnecessary hyphenated compounds, dash forms, catalog-like headings, and modifier-heavy sentences. Use the rules in `references/anti-formulaic-writing.md`; review each occurrence in context rather than applying blind word bans or treating a style signal as authorship evidence. For a Word deliverable without a controlling template, use Times New Roman 11 pt, black text, single spacing, and Normal margins.