Paper Polish Guide

Pass 1: Structural Coherence

Read each paragraph and check:

• Does the first sentence state the paragraph's main point?
• Does every subsequent sentence support or develop that point?
• Does the last sentence transition to the next paragraph?
• Could this paragraph be split into two (if it covers multiple ideas)?
• Could this paragraph be merged with an adjacent one (if it makes only a minor point)?

Pass 2: Sentence-Level Clarity

Read each sentence and check:

• Is the subject of the sentence clear? Who or what is performing the action?
• Is the sentence shorter than 35 words? If not, split it.
• Are there any dangling modifiers or ambiguous pronoun references?
• Is the main verb strong and specific? Replace weak verbs ("is," "has," "makes") with precise ones.
• Is there unnecessary hedging? Remove "it should be noted that," "it is interesting that," "it is important to mention."

Pass 3: Word-Level Precision

Review word choice throughout:

• Eliminate redundancy: "past history" → "history"; "future prospects" → "prospects"; "end result" → "result"
• Prefer concrete over abstract: "The algorithm processes data" → "The algorithm classifies images"
• Remove filler words: "very," "quite," "rather," "somewhat," "basically," "actually," "really"
• Use precise quantifiers: "many" → "47%"; "significantly" → "p < 0.01"; "fast" → "in 3.2 seconds"
• Consistent terminology: Pick one term for each concept and use it throughout. Do not alternate between "method," "approach," "technique," and "framework" for the same thing.

Pass 4: LaTeX-Specific Polish

For LaTeX manuscripts, check these formatting details:

% Non-breaking spaces before citations and references
as shown in prior work~\cite{smith2024}
in Figure~\ref{fig:architecture}
in Table~\ref{tab:results}
in Section~\ref{sec:methods}

% Correct dash usage
pages 1--10       % en-dash for ranges
state-of-the-art  % hyphen for compound adjectives
--- and           % em-dash for parenthetical (or use --)

% Math mode consistency
$n$-dimensional   % variable in math mode even in text
$O(n \log n)$     % Big-O in math mode

% Consistent use of \emph{} vs \textit{}
% Use \emph{} for emphasis, \textit{} only when italic is the content (e.g., species names)

Pass 5: Reference and Citation Check

• Every claim that is not your own contribution or common knowledge needs a citation
• Citations should be positioned at the end of the specific claim, not at the end of a paragraph about multiple claims
• Check that all \cite{} keys resolve to entries in your .bib file
• Verify that author names and years in the compiled PDF match the actual publications
• Ensure consistent citation style (Author (Year) vs. [Number])

Common Patterns to Fix

Wordy Constructions

Weak Sentence Openings

Avoid starting sentences with:

• "It is..." or "There are..." (expletive constructions) — Rewrite with a real subject
• "This" without a noun — "This shows..." → "This result shows..."
• "We can see that..." — Just state what is seen
• "As we know..." — If it is known, just state it

Passive Voice Overuse

Academic writing traditionally uses passive voice, but overuse makes prose sluggish. Use active voice for your contributions and passive for standard procedures:

• Active (preferred for claims): "We propose a new architecture that..."
• Passive (acceptable for procedures): "The data were preprocessed using..."
• Passive (avoid): "It was found that the results were improved by..." → Active: "Our method improved results by..."

Automated Assistance Tools

Complement manual review with these tools:

• LaTeX linting: Use chktex or lacheck to catch common LaTeX issues (missing tildes, inconsistent quotes, etc.)
• Spell check: Use aspell or your editor's built-in spell checker with a custom dictionary for technical terms
• Style checking: textlint or writegood can flag passive voice, weasel words, and other style issues
• Grammar: Grammarly or LanguageTool can catch grammatical errors, but review their suggestions critically—they sometimes "fix" correct academic constructions
• Consistency checker: Search your document for variant spellings ("dataset" vs "data set", "pretrained" vs "pre-trained") and standardize

# Find common issues with chktex
chktex -v3 main.tex

# Check spelling with aspell
aspell --mode=tex check main.tex

# Find inconsistent terminology
grep -n "data set\|dataset" main.tex
grep -n "pre-train\|pretrain" main.tex

Final Quality Checklist

Before declaring the paper polished:

• No sentence exceeds 40 words
• No paragraph exceeds 200 words (with rare exceptions)
• All figures and tables are referenced in order
• Non-breaking spaces before all \cite, \ref, and \eqref commands
• Consistent number formatting (commas for thousands: 10,000 not 10000)
• Units separated from numbers by a thin space: $3.2\,\text{ms}$
• No orphaned or widowed lines (single lines at top/bottom of page)
• PDF renders correctly with all fonts embedded

References

• Writing Style Guide: wentor-research-plugins
• Strunk, W. & White, E.B. "The Elements of Style"
• Zobel, J. "Writing for Computer Science" (Springer)
• Chktex LaTeX linter: https://www.nongnu.org/chktex/