New: 98,000+ skills indexed from GitHub repos with 100+ stars · every skill safety-checkedBrowse top skillsTop skills
Esc to closeBrowse all skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills

Agent skill

Itcs Writing Style

by brycewang-stanford in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

A skill your agent uses when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as…

MITAuto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Itcs Writing Style

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-writing-style -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills itcs-writing-style --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/ITCS-Skills/skills/itcs-writing-style .claude/skills/itcs-writing-style && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
itcs-writing-style
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
880 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as…

  • Works in 5 steps: The new question or model — the first… → Why the field lacked it — isolate the… → The conceptual payoff — what the new… → …
  • Revising an ITCS papers abstract
  • SKILL.md covers The ITCS first-page arc, Lead with the idea, not the…, The first-10-pages merits window and Pre-empting objections…, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Itcs Writing Style is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as a lens rather than a tweak, scope and limitations are owned up front, and complete proofs are deferred cleanly — matching the ITCS emphasis on new ideas over technical depth.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Writing & Content, covering Brand voice and tone. The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. ｜ 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Revising an ITCS papers abstract
  • Technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem
  • The model is motivated as a lens rather than a tweak
  • Scope and limitations are owned up front

Example prompts

  • “/itcs-writing-style”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. The new question or model — the first breath. Name the object or ask the question the
  2. Why the field lacked it — isolate the silent assumption or missing seam that hid the
  3. The conceptual payoff — what the new lens lets us see or do: a connection, a
  4. A result that shows the model is alive — at least one crisp theorem (a separation, a
  5. Scope and directions — own what is unresolved and frame the open problems as the

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Itcs Writing Style loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 93 tokens; SKILL.md has 880 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~93
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 880 words, ~1,666 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/itcs-writing-style/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
itcs-writing-style
description
Use when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as a lens rather than a tweak, scope and limitations are owned up front, and complete proofs are deferred cleanly — matching the ITCS emphasis on new ideas over technical depth.

ITCS Writing Style

At ITCS the reader must feel the innovation before the theorem. Reviewers are briefed to reward a new model, question, or connection over a deeper result on an old one, so a paper that opens like a STOC depth paper — leading with a bound and a technique — reads as if it mistook the venue. The whole job of the first pages is to make a skeptical expert think "I hadn't thought to ask that, and I want to" before they reach a single lemma. Because ITCS has no rebuttal (see itcs-review-process), the writing must also pre-empt objections there is no later chance to answer.

The ITCS first-page arc

Structure the abstract and introduction as:

  1. The new question or model — the first breath. Name the object or ask the question the standard setting cannot phrase. Not "we study X with parameter Y," but "here is a thing worth thinking about that we did not have a way to talk about."
  2. Why the field lacked it — isolate the silent assumption or missing seam that hid the question. This is the honest delta (see itcs-related-work).
  3. The conceptual payoff — what the new lens lets us see or do: a connection, a reorganization of known questions, a new axis of measurement.
  4. A result that shows the model is alive — at least one crisp theorem (a separation, a surprising possibility, an impossibility) proving the model is neither empty nor everything. ITCS PCs probe every new model for exactly this.
  5. Scope and directions — own what is unresolved and frame the open problems as the deliverable. At ITCS a candid "first map" beats a polished increment.

See the before/after in ../../resources/worked-examples/01-introduction.md.

Lead with the idea, not the machinery

  • State the contribution as a new noun. "We introduce forgetful certificates" beats "we analyze memory-bounded provers." A named object the community can adopt is the ITCS currency.
  • Motivate the model as a lens, not a tweak. Do not write "we add a bound"; write what the bound reveals. The move that earns ITCS acceptance is showing the new setting makes an old thing look different.
  • Spend the abstract's real estate on why-it-matters, not on constants. "Improving the constant" or "tightening the bound" is a depth-venue virtue; at ITCS it can actively signal the wrong fit. Report the result, then immediately its conceptual consequence.
  • Do not over-claim finality. ITCS respects a bold, incomplete direction. Overselling a first foray as the last word invites the reviewer to test it as one and find the gaps.

The first-10-pages merits window

ITCS submissions have no hard page limit, but the community norm (stated in the call) is that the first ~10 pages give a clear, self-contained presentation of the paper's merits, significance, innovations, and place in the literature, with complete proofs following (in an appendix if needed). Treat those ten pages as the document a busy PC member actually reads to decide:

  • The model, the motivation, the main results, and the why-new must all fit and cohere there.
  • Proof ideas (a paragraph of intuition per main theorem) belong here; full proofs can defer.
  • Do not bury the innovation on page 14 behind preliminaries — if the merits are not legible by page 10, the paper is effectively judged as if they are absent.
Show full SKILL.md (334 more words)Show less

Pre-empting objections (because there is no rebuttal)

Write the three reviewer objections into the paper:

  • "Is the model trivial or all-powerful?" -> the anchoring result in the intro, and a remark placing your model between two known extremes.
  • "Is this actually new?" -> a delta-first related-work paragraph that names the closest prior model and says exactly what it did not ask (not a citation dump).
  • "Why should the community care?" -> a concrete payoff: a connection drawn, a question reframed, an application sketched — even if informal.

Technical presentation

  • Definitions before use, self-contained. A reviewer should parse every theorem statement without your prior papers open — which lightweight double-blind would expose anyway.
  • One idea per definition. Resist bundling three parameters into a mega-definition; ITCS readers value a clean object they can carry away.
  • Proof intuition in the body, full proofs deferred cleanly. Each main theorem gets a "proof sketch / idea" paragraph in the merits window; the complete proof lives later or in an appendix, clearly cross-referenced. Never write "the proof is standard" for a central claim.
  • Keep the open problems as a real section. At ITCS they are part of the contribution — a good open-problems section is an invitation the community accepts by working on your model.

Common failure modes at ITCS

SymptomWhy it fails hereFix
Abstract leads with a bound/techniqueReads as a STOC depth paper; the idea is hiddenLead with the new question/model
New model with no result"Definition in search of a theorem"Add an anchoring result showing it is alive
"New" question is a known one relabeledNovelty is the selection axis; a rename fails itDo the honest delta; find the truly new seam
Merits not legible by page 10The window the PC reads shows nothingRestructure so model+motivation+results fit early
Over-claimed finality on a first forayInvites the reviewer to find the gapsOwn the scope; frame open problems as the point
Central proof marked "omitted"/"standard"Violates the full-proof requirementInclude the complete proof (appendix if needed)

Output format

text
[ITCS framing status] innovation-first / buried / mis-venued
[First breath] does p.1 pose a NEW question/model before any theorem? yes/no
[Alive] anchoring result present (not empty / not everything)? yes/no
[Merits window] model+motivation+results legible within ~10 pages? yes/no
[Objections pre-empted] trivial? / new? / why-care? all answered in-text? yes/no
[Proofs] every central claim fully proved (appendix ok)? yes/no
[Fix queue] <ordered edits>

© brycewang-stanford, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in ITCS-Skills/skills/itcs-writing-style of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

Itcs Writing Style next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Itcs Writing Style compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Itcs Writing Style this skillbrycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills1.2k—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Crim Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~975Automated safety check: PassNone
Est Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~798Automated safety check: PassNone
Jaar Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~760Automated safety check: PassNone
Jcf Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~669Automated safety check: PassNone
Joc Writing Stylefranklee16/academic-research-skills2231 repos~873Automated safety check: PassNone

Similar skills

  • Crim Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing a Criminology (ASC / Wiley) manuscript so it reads for an interdisciplinary criminology audience, follows the journal's APA-based style, and uses…

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~975 tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

  • Est Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing the prose of an Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) manuscript so it reads for a multidisciplinary audience in ACS style and fits the…

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~798 tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

  • Jaar Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing the prose of a Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) article so it is clear, analytic, gender-neutral, and readable across the study…

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~760 tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

  • Jcf Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing prose for a Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF) manuscript — the ≤250-word abstract, 1–7 keywords, author-date (Harvard) in-text citations, and the…

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~669 tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

  • Joc Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing a Journal of Communication (JoC) manuscript so it reads for the whole field, follows APA 7th edition, and fits the limits (main document <= 35…

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~873 tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

  • Jpe Writing Style

    franklee16/academic-research-skills

    A skill your agent uses when polishing the prose of a Journal of Political Economy (JPE) manuscript into its spare, analytical, economics-first register.

    223 GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~1.1k tokens
    Writing & ContentAuto-check passed

More from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

All 2,387 skills in this repo

  • Aaag Data Analysis

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when running and reporting the analysis for an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript — spatial statistics and modeling, remote-sensing accuracy, or…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Aaag Literature Positioning

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when positioning an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript in the literature — engaging geographic scholarship across the relevant area and the…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Aaag Rebuttal

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when responding to an Annals of the American Association of Geographers decision letter (major/minor revision) — building a point-by-point response to the subject editor and…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Aaag Research Design

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when defending the research design of an Annals of the American Association of Geographers manuscript — spatial/quantitative analysis and GIScience, remote-sensing and…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Aaag Review Process

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when you need to understand how the Annals of the American Association of Geographers evaluates a manuscript — double-anonymous review routed through a subject editor by…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Aaag Submission

    brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

    A skill your agent uses when running the final pre-submission preflight for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers via ScholarOne Manuscripts — area/article-type selection…

    1.2k GitHub stars~1.6k tokensUpdated 14 days ago
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Itcs Writing Style

What does Itcs Writing Style do?

A skill your agent uses when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as…. Itcs Writing Style is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when drafting or revising an ITCS paper's abstract, introduction, and technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem, the model is motivated as a lens rather than a tweak, scope and limitations are owned up front, and complete proofs are deferred cleanly — matching the ITCS emphasis on new ideas over technical depth.

When should I use Itcs Writing Style?

Itcs Writing Style fits situations like: revising an ITCS papers abstract; technical presentation so the conceptual innovation lands before any theorem; the model is motivated as a lens rather than a tweak; scope and limitations are owned up front.

How do I install Itcs Writing Style in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-writing-style -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (ITCS-Skills/skills/itcs-writing-style in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/itcs-writing-style in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Itcs Writing Style in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-writing-style -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (ITCS-Skills/skills/itcs-writing-style in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/itcs-writing-style in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Itcs Writing Style in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill itcs-writing-style -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/itcs-writing-style, .gemini/skills/itcs-writing-style, .github/skills/itcs-writing-style and .opencode/skills/itcs-writing-style in your project.

What does Itcs Writing Style need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Itcs Writing Style is instructions for the agent only.

Does Itcs Writing Style access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Itcs Writing Style safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Itcs Writing Style use?

Itcs Writing Style is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Itcs Writing Style use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Itcs Writing Style?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Itcs Writing Style: Crim Writing Style (franklee16/academic-research-skills, 223 stars), Est Writing Style (franklee16/academic-research-skills, 223 stars), Jaar Writing Style (franklee16/academic-research-skills, 223 stars) and Jcf Writing Style (franklee16/academic-research-skills, 223 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Itcs Writing Style?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,231 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.