# paper-polish

Polishes an existing academic draft: grammar, flow, tone, and Chinese-to-English rewriting. The author's meaning stays intact.

- skill · `type=skill` · Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, OpenCode · 532 installs · ★ 10652
- Author: HKUSTDial
- License: CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 · policy=link-only · description only; the file stays with the author
- Source: https://github.com/HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills/tree/HEAD/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md
- Updated: 2026-10-16
- HTML: https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/paper-polish

## What it does

The skill takes prose you already wrote and makes the language readable: it repairs grammar, untangles sentences, strips AI tone, and rewrites a Chinese draft into submission-quality English. It also calibrates claim strength against the evidence, so verbs like "show" and "demonstrate" survive only where the data supports them, while "prove" and "unprecedented" get softened or flagged back to you.

The overriding rule is that scientific meaning never changes silently. A correlation does not become causal, a qualifier like "on this dataset" is not quietly dropped, and a conclusion is not strengthened without your confirmation. Data, equations, citations and method names are not added: when a passage lacks support, the skill leaves a short note for you instead. Default behaviour is the light touch — a small edit beats a big one, and no edit beats a small one.

Section conventions matter here. Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Abstract and Title each need a different register, and the skill keeps them apart. If the real problem is logic rather than wording — several points crammed into one paragraph, a claim with no evidence — it says so and points you to `paper-writer` instead of polishing. Licensed CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0, so non-commercial use.

## Install

### Claude Code (native platform)

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-polish -a claude-code
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `~/.claude/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md` — Copy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/paper-polish/

### Codex

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-polish -a codex
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.agents/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md` — For all projects use ~/.agents/skills/

### Cursor

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-polish -a cursor
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.cursor/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md` — Cursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/

### GitHub Copilot

1. **GitHub CLI**
```bash
gh skill install HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills paper-polish
```

2. **Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.github/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md`

### Gemini CLI

1. **Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-polish -a gemini-cli
```

2. **Platform CLI**
```bash
gemini skills install https://github.com/HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --path skills/paper-polish
```

### Windsurf (Devin Desktop)

**Manually: put the files in place**
- File: `.devin/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md` — The legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works

### OpenCode

**Skills CLI (Vercel)**
```bash
npx skills add HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills --skill paper-polish -a opencode
```

### Claude.ai

**Claude.ai**
- Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills

Where a file is given instead of a command, copy the files from the source to that path: https://github.com/HKUSTDial/Supervisor-Skills/tree/HEAD/skills/paper-polish/SKILL.md

## When to use it
- polish a manuscript draft before journal submission
- remove AI tone from a section
- translate a Chinese manuscript into submission-quality English
- soften overclaiming to match the evidence
- fix grammar and word order without touching meaning

## Example prompts
- polish this paragraph, keep the meaning
- strip the AI tone from my Discussion section
- translate my Chinese Introduction draft into English for submission

## Similar
- [typst-paper](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/typst-paper.md) — skill · 1500 installs
- [paper-writing-section](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/paper-writing-section.md) — skill · 1800 installs
- [k2f-academic-paper](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/k2f-academic-paper.md) — skill · 737 installs
- [paper-writing](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/evoscientist-paper-writing.md) — skill · 504 installs
- [paper-planning](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/paper-planning.md) — skill · 416 installs
- [research-paper-writer](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/skills/research-paper-writer.md) — skill · 3300 installs

From the same set: [hkustdial/supervisor-skills](https://affpapa.org/en/nevibecode/by/hkustdial/supervisor-skills.md) — 12 cards

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