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paper-readability-check

Check an academic paper draft against sentence- and paragraph-level readability criteria, then produce revised text and a before/after report with checklist references. Use for paper drafts, manuscript sections, and academic paragraphs.

personAuthor: TashanworldhubOpenAPI

Paper Readability Check

Readability Strategy Checklist

Apply every check below to the provided text:

  1. Duplicate content: Flag a sentence when it repeats a proposition from the preceding two sentences without adding data, a qualification, an inference, a citation, or a transition.
  2. Claims per sentence: Split a sentence that contains more than two independently supportable claims.
  3. Claim placement: Put the paragraph's controlling claim in its first sentence unless the paragraph explicitly uses a question-answer or evidence-conclusion structure; in those structures, put the claim immediately after the question or evidence.
  4. Given-before-new order: Introduce an entity or term before using its abbreviation, pronoun, synonym, or consequence.
  5. Category-before-instance order: Define a category, method class, or comparison criterion before listing its members, variants, or results.
  6. Paragraph scope: Assign one controlling claim to each paragraph. Move a sentence when it neither supports, qualifies, contrasts with, nor derives from that claim.
  7. Subject-verb distance: Flag a main clause when more than 12 words intervene between its subject and finite verb; revise by moving or converting the intervening material unless a technical name or fixed quotation causes the distance.
  8. Terminology mapping: Use one term for one concept. Replace a synonym when the text has not defined a distinction between it and the established term.
  9. Demonstrative clarity: Use "this," "these," and "those" with a summary noun phrase when referring to an idea in a previous sentence (e.g., "this result" instead of just "this").
  10. Explicit references: Replace an empty it subject with the actor, result, condition, or claim it denotes. Flag a pronoun when two or more preceding noun phrases match its number and gender.
  11. Named logical relations: Add a connective when adjacent sentences have an unstated cause, contrast, condition, example, or sequence relation. Use a connective that names that relation.
  12. Redundancy: Delete repeated propositions and phrases whose removal changes no claim, qualification, condition, or citation scope.
  13. Voice choice: Use active voice when the actor is known and performs the paragraph's focal action. Use passive voice when the actor is absent from the evidence or when the acted-on entity is the paragraph's established subject.
  14. Parallel structure: Use parallel structure for items in a series, comparisons, and coordinated elements.
  15. Repeated syntax: Flag four consecutive sentences that begin with the same subject or use the same clause pattern; revise at least one without changing the stated relation between ideas.

Instructions

  1. Read the full input text once before annotating.
  2. Evaluate readability at both sentence level and paragraph level using the checklist.
  3. Report only passages that meet a checklist condition above.
  4. For each issue, include:
    • exact location (section/paragraph/sentence cue)
    • violated checklist item number
    • the exact words that meet the checklist condition
    • one rewrite
  5. If no issue exists for a checklist item, do not invent one.
  6. Preserve claims, mathematical relations, units, citations, terminology, and degree of certainty.
  7. If a sentence has multiple readability problems, list each problem separately.
  8. Order issues by document location, then by checklist item number when multiple items apply to the same passage.

Output Format

By default, create paper-readability-check-report.html in the workspace, or <input-name>-readability-check.html when the input has a filename. If the user asks for inline output only, use the Markdown format below.

For a concrete example of the expected HTML output, see examples/paper-readability-check-example-report.html.

Use these report sections:

  1. Summary: Count revisions and list checklist items in descending order by occurrence count.
  2. Before and After: Show the original text and a readability-improved version side by side.
  3. Highlighted Differences: Show suggested readability changes inline using deletion and insertion styling.
  4. Readability Notes: Use a table with location, original phrase, suggested revision, checklist reference, and one sentence naming the matched condition and its effect on interpretation.
  5. Clean Revised Text: Provide the final readability-improved text without markup.

Use this HTML structure as the report baseline:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Paper Readability Check Report</title>
  <style>
    body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.55; margin: 2rem; color: #1f2937; }
    h1, h2 { line-height: 1.2; }
    .summary { border-left: 4px solid #2563eb; padding-left: 1rem; }
    .comparison { display: grid; grid-template-columns: repeat(2, minmax(0, 1fr)); gap: 1rem; }
    .panel { border: 1px solid #d1d5db; border-radius: 6px; padding: 1rem; background: #f9fafb; }
    .diff del { background: #fee2e2; color: #991b1b; text-decoration: line-through; }
    .diff ins { background: #dcfce7; color: #166534; text-decoration: none; }
    table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; }
    th, td { border: 1px solid #d1d5db; padding: 0.5rem; vertical-align: top; }
    th { background: #f3f4f6; text-align: left; }
    pre { white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: inherit; }
    @media (max-width: 800px) { .comparison { grid-template-columns: 1fr; } body { margin: 1rem; } }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Paper Readability Check Report</h1>

  <section class="summary">
    <h2>Summary</h2>
    <ul>
      <li><strong>Total readability revisions:</strong> [number]</li>
      <li><strong>Counts by checklist item:</strong> [item names and counts in descending order]</li>
    </ul>
  </section>

  <section>
    <h2>Before and After</h2>
    <div class="comparison">
      <div class="panel">
        <h3>Original</h3>
        <pre>[original text]</pre>
      </div>
      <div class="panel">
        <h3>Revised</h3>
        <pre>[readability-improved text]</pre>
      </div>
    </div>
  </section>

  <section>
    <h2>Highlighted Differences</h2>
    <p class="diff">[diff text with <del>removed text</del> and <ins>added text</ins>]</p>
  </section>

  <section>
    <h2>Readability Notes</h2>
    <table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Location</th>
          <th>Original</th>
          <th>Revision</th>
          <th>Checklist</th>
          <th>Why</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>[paragraph/sentence cue]</td>
          <td>[short original phrase]</td>
          <td>[short suggested revision]</td>
          <td>Item [number]: [checklist name]</td>
          <td>[matched checklist condition and its effect on interpretation]</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </section>

  <section>
    <h2>Clean Revised Text</h2>
    <pre>[readability-improved text without markup]</pre>
  </section>
</body>
</html>

For short inline checks or when HTML is not wanted, use this compact Markdown format:

## Before and After

Original:
> <original text>

Revised:
> <readability-improved text>

## Difference

<original phrase> -> <suggested revision>

## Readability Notes

| Location | Original | Revision | Checklist | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <paragraph/sentence cue> | <short original phrase> | <short suggested revision> | Item <number>: <checklist name> | <matched condition and effect on interpretation> |

## Summary

- <most frequent checklist item and count>
- <second-most frequent checklist item and count>
- <number of paragraphs with no revisions>

Rules

  • Do not change technical claims or introduce new content.
  • Do not report a grammar issue unless the same passage also meets one of checklist items 1–15.
  • Quote the affected span and identify its paragraph and sentence number for every issue.
  • Give one imperative edit instruction or one replacement passage for every issue.
  • In HTML reports, escape user-supplied text before inserting it into HTML; only generated <del> and <ins> tags should be markup.
  • Use <del> for removed original wording and <ins> for inserted revised wording in the highlighted difference section.
  • If no checklist condition is met, write No readability issues found under the checklist. and include the supplied text unchanged.