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Agent skill

Soctheory Writing Style

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

A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's…

MITAuto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Soctheory Writing Style

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

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills soctheory-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/Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-writing-style .claude/skills/soctheory-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
soctheory-writing-style
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
581 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 polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's…

  • Works in 4 steps: Open with the theoretical problem, not a… → Lead with claims; reason toward them.… → Define each concept on first use and use… → …
  • Polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, Write as an argument, not a…, Vocabulary rule (absolute) and Format to the ASA Style Guide, plus 5 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Soctheory Writing Style is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when drafting or polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's length cap (max ~14,500 words inclusive of footnotes, references, tables, figures, and appendices — verify current). Tightens prose and format; it does not invent content.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.3k 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

  • Polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership
  • Follows the ASA Style Guide
  • Fits STs length cap (max ~14
  • 500 words inclusive of footnotes

Example prompts

  • “/soctheory-writing-style”

Workflow steps

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

  1. Open with the theoretical problem, not a definition or a survey. By the end of the
  2. Lead with claims; reason toward them. Each paragraph advances the argument. The prose
  3. Define each concept on first use and use the label consistently. Conceptual slippage is
  4. Reach across traditions. A field theorist should be able to follow a pragmatist argument

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

Soctheory Writing Style loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 93 tokens; SKILL.md has 581 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
~1.3k

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). 581 words, ~1,254 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/soctheory-writing-style/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
soctheory-writing-style
description
Use when drafting or polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's length cap (max ~14,500 words inclusive of footnotes, references, tables, figures, and appendices — verify current). Tightens prose and format; it does not invent content.

Writing Style (soctheory-writing-style)

An ST paper must read as a sustained theoretical argument legible to sociologists across traditions, be formatted to the ASA Style Guide (7th edition, June 2022 — verify current), and fit a length cap that includes everything — footnotes, references, tables, figures, and appendices. This skill is about reaching theory readers and respecting the format, not generating claims.

When to trigger

  • Drafting the introduction, framing the contribution, or final polish
  • Over the length cap and needing to cut without losing the argument
  • Aligning citations, headings, and format to the ASA Style Guide
  • The prose reads like a literature review instead of an argument

Write as an argument, not a survey

  1. Open with the theoretical problem, not a definition or a survey. By the end of the introduction the reader knows the tension existing theory cannot resolve, the move you make, and the new way of seeing it provides — not "the concept of X has been studied extensively."
  2. Lead with claims; reason toward them. Each paragraph advances the argument. The prose is the contribution at a theory journal, so it must read as reasoning, not as reportage.
  3. Define each concept on first use and use the label consistently. Conceptual slippage is the cardinal ST writing sin; a term must mean the same thing on page 3 and page 30.
  4. Reach across traditions. A field theorist should be able to follow a pragmatist argument and vice versa; define tradition-specific terms; spell out what is at stake for sociology broadly.

Vocabulary rule (absolute)

Propositions, not hypotheses; mechanisms, not findings; illustrations, not tests. Never write "H1," "supported / not supported," "we estimate," or "our data show that…" — that is ASR/AJS register and reads as wrong-journal to ST editors. A case or example illustrates a concept; it never confirms it.

Show full SKILL.md (282 more words)Show less

Format to the ASA Style Guide

  • Citations: author-date per the ASA Style Guide; one consistent style (manage with Zotero/BibTeX). References count toward the length cap.
  • Manuscript: standard 12-pt font, double-spaced, generous margins; include a word count. (ST guidelines describe roughly 40 manuscript pages — confirm current spec.)
  • Masking: separate title page; no author-identifying content in the body. You may cite your own work but must word it neutrally ("a prior study," not "our prior study").
  • Abstract: a concise statement of the problem, the theoretical move, and the contribution — with no identifying information (verify the current abstract limit on the author page).

Fit the cap (everything counts)

ST's cap is inclusive of footnotes, references, tables, figures, and appendices (max ~14,500 words — 检索于 2026-06；以官网为准). Budget accordingly:

  • Tighten the literature engagement — intervene in the debate, do not catalog it.
  • Prune redundant citations and over-long reference strings; references count.
  • Tighten footnotes; they count too.
  • An exhibit must earn its space against the cap (see soctheory-conceptual-exhibits).

Referee pushback → ST-specific fix

  • "Reads like a literature review." → Re-open with the problem and the move; lead each paragraph with a claim (soctheory-argument-development).
  • "Concept drifts across the paper." → Lock each definition on first use; use the label verbatim.
  • "Hypothesis-testing language in a theory paper." → Purge H1/"supported"/"we estimate"; restate as propositions and mechanisms.
  • "Over length." → Trim citation strings and footnotes; everything counts toward the cap.

Anti-patterns

  • A dictionary/survey opening instead of the theoretical problem
  • Evidence-first paragraphs where the claim cannot be found
  • Conceptual slippage — a term used in two senses
  • Hypothesis-and-data vocabulary in a theory manuscript
  • Treating references/footnotes as "free" — they count toward ~14,500 words
  • Self-references worded so they break masking

Output format

【Problem stated by end of intro?】[Y/N]
【Reads as argument, not survey?】claims lead; concepts defined on first use [Y/N]
【Vocabulary】propositions/mechanisms only; no H1/"supported"/data-test language [Y/N]
【Length】≤ ~14,500 words incl. footnotes + references + tables + figures + appendices [Y/N]
【ASA style + masked + separate title page】[Y/N]
【Next】soctheory-contribution-framing

Supplementary resources

© 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 Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-writing-style of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

Compare with similar skills

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Khazix WeChat Article WriterKKKKhazix/khazix-skills21k1 repos~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
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Unslop AI Writing Cleanuptheclaymethod/unslop518—~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Soctheory Writing Style

What does Soctheory Writing Style do?

A skill your agent uses when drafting or polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's…. Soctheory Writing Style is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when drafting or polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership, follows the ASA Style Guide, and fits ST's length cap (max ~14,500 words inclusive of footnotes, references, tables, figures, and appendices — verify current).

When should I use Soctheory Writing Style?

Soctheory Writing Style fits situations like: polishing a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript so it reads as an argument for a broad theoretical readership; follows the ASA Style Guide; fits STs length cap (max ~14; 500 words inclusive of footnotes.

How do I install Soctheory Writing Style in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Soctheory Writing Style in Codex?

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

Can I use Soctheory 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 soctheory-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/soctheory-writing-style, .gemini/skills/soctheory-writing-style, .github/skills/soctheory-writing-style and .opencode/skills/soctheory-writing-style in your project.

What does Soctheory Writing Style need to run?

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

Does Soctheory 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 Soctheory 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 Soctheory Writing Style use?

Soctheory 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 Soctheory Writing Style use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5k 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 Soctheory Writing Style?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Soctheory Writing Style: Avoid AI Writing (conorbronsdon/avoid-ai-writing, 4.9k stars), Brand (Ohh-889/skyroc, 795 stars), Khazix WeChat Article Writer (KKKKhazix/khazix-skills, 21k stars) and Writing Guidelines (vercel-labs/agent-skills, 32k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Soctheory 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.