prl-writing-style
Use when polishing the prose of a Physical Review Letters manuscript for APS house style, concision, precise notation, and out-of-subfield readability. Polishes language; does not restructure the result or manage length budget.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill prl-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.
# PRL Writing Style (prl-writing-style) ## When to trigger - Prose is wordy, hedged, or jargon-dense - Notation is inconsistent or symbols are undefined on first use - An out-of-subfield physicist would stumble on the opening - The draft uses long subordinate clauses where a Letter wants directness - You are in late polish, after the result, figures, and SM are stable ## APS house-style essentials - **Concision is a feature, not a constraint.** A Letter says what it must and stops. Every sentence should advance the central claim. - **Active, direct voice** where it sharpens meaning; "We measure ..." / "The data show ..." beats passive circumlocution. - **Define every symbol on first use**; keep notation consistent across Letter, figures, and SM. - **Spell out acronyms on first use**; avoid undefined subfield jargon in the abstract and opening. - **SI units**, consistent significant figures, and proper math typesetting. - **Reference style** follows the current APS format; cite the prior work that establishes importance and the work the reader needs to trust the result. ## Concision moves | Wordy pattern | Tightened | |------------------------------------------------|---------------
- When to trigger
- APS house-style essentials
- Concision moves
- Readability for a broad audience
- Worked micro-rewrite (Letter register)
- Sentence architecture for a four-page format
- Precision discipline
- Checklist
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
What does the prl-writing-style skill do?
Use when polishing the prose of a Physical Review Letters manuscript for APS house style, concision, precise notation, and out-of-subfield readability. Polishes language; does not restructure the result or manage length budget.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill prl-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.