ci-writing-style
Use when drafting or polishing the prose of a Critical Inquiry (CI) essay so it meets the journal's bar for ambitious, lucid critical writing and fits the word limit (articles ≤ 9,500 words including discursive notes and all bibliographical information; Critical Responses ≤ 3,000; Reviews ≤ 500). Tightens style and discipline; it does not invent argument or evidence.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ci-writing-style --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Writing Style (ci-writing-style) A *Critical Inquiry* essay must read as **ambitious, precise, and alive** — prose worthy of the claim, legible to a reader from another field, and disciplined to the word limit. This skill is about how the essay sounds and how tightly it is cut, not about generating the argument. ## When to trigger - Drafting the opening or doing a final stylistic polish - Over the **9,500-word** cap (which counts notes) and needing to cut - The argument is strong but the prose is flat, baggy, or opaque - Tuning the register so it is rigorous without being airless ## Write to CI's bar 1. **Clarity is the highest ambition.** Difficulty should come from the ideas, never from the sentences. Say the hard thing plainly. 2. **Voice with control.** CI prose can be vivid and essayistic, but every flourish must carry argument. Style serves the claim, not the author's persona. 3. **Show the reading.** Move close to the text or image; let the analysis breathe rather than asserting conclusions (see `ci-evidence-and-objects`). 4. **Address the discipline-crossing reader.** Define terms on first use; an art historian should follow a literary essay and vice versa (see `ci-struct
- When to trigger
- Write to CI's bar
- Fit the word cap (notes are counted)
- Sentences and paragraphs
- Anti-patterns
- Style execution pass for Critical Inquiry
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the ci-writing-style skill do?
Use when drafting or polishing the prose of a Critical Inquiry (CI) essay so it meets the journal's bar for ambitious, lucid critical writing and fits the word limit (articles ≤ 9,500 words including discursive notes and all bibliographical information; Critical Responses ≤ 3,000; Reviews ≤ 500). Tightens style and discipline; it does not invent argument or evidence.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill ci-writing-style --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.