Q-Scholar: Academic Manuscript Writing Suite
Q-Scholar is an overarching academic writing skill that orchestrates specialized sub-skills to support the complete manuscript preparation workflow. It produces journal-ready prose following APA 7th edition standards.
Sub-Skills
q-intro
Introduction drafting and refinement with argumentative architecture guidance. Supports two modes: interview-based drafting from scratch, and diagnostic refinement of existing drafts. Produces flowing prose that establishes context through a single narrative arc, identifies literature gaps as natural consequences of the trajectory, motivates theoretical frameworks as resolutions to identified needs, and frames research questions with clear scope progression.
Use for: Writing or refining introduction sections that move from phenomenon to theory to empirical contribution, with discipline-first literature grounding, cross-paragraph bridge architecture, and enumerated contributions.
q-descriptive-analysis
Comprehensive exploratory analysis of tabular datasets. Generates grouped statistics, frequency distributions, entity extraction, temporal dynamics, and publication-ready summary reports.
Use for: Initial data exploration, descriptive statistics generation, understanding dataset structure before formal analysis.
q-methods
Methods section drafting in clear, narrative style. Produces flowing paragraphs organized by workflow stages with appropriate appendix cross-references for technical details. Maintains strict separation between methods and results: describes procedures and summarizes data collected, but reserves analysis findings for the results section.
Use for: Writing data collection, preprocessing, analysis procedures, validation descriptions, and corpus summaries (sample size, date range, category distributions).
q-results
Results section drafting following APA 7th edition guidelines. Produces narrative prose organized by research questions with properly formatted tables.
Use for: Presenting findings, formatting statistical results, creating APA-compliant tables.
Workflow Integration
Phase 1: Data Exploration
Invoke q-descriptive-analysis to:
- Generate comprehensive descriptive statistics
- Identify patterns and distributions
- Create CSV tables and markdown summaries
- Understand grouping variables and key metrics
Phase 2: Introduction Drafting
Invoke q-intro to:
- Draft from scratch via interview workflow, or refine existing drafts via diagnostic workflow
- Ground literature in target discipline's core concerns with narrative-arc progression
- Motivate theoretical frameworks as resolutions to identified gaps
- Frame research questions with scope progression (descriptive, relational, conditional)
- State contributions with parallel structure and provide article roadmap
Phase 3: Methods Documentation
Invoke q-methods to:
- Document data collection procedures and corpus summaries
- Describe analytical approaches conceptually
- Reference technical details to appendices
- Include validation procedures
- Keep methods separate from results (procedures, not findings)
Phase 4: Results Presentation
Invoke q-results to:
- Organize findings by research questions
- Write narrative prose integrating statistics
- Format tables per APA 7th edition
- Prepare appendices for detailed content
Core Writing Principles
Across all sub-skills, Q-Scholar maintains consistent standards:
- Narrative prose over bullet points
- No em-dashes; use hyphens for compound modifiers only
- No unnecessary bold or italic emphasis
- APA 7th statistical notation (italicized symbols)
- Numbers: spell out below 10 unless measurements/statistics
- Tables: APA format with number, title, notes
- Appendices for technical details and comprehensive codebooks
- Placeholders for missing information (coauthor contributions, pending metrics)
Usage Patterns
Full Manuscript Support
User: Help me write the introduction, methods, and results for my topic modeling study
Assistant: [Invokes q-intro, q-methods, then q-results in sequence]
Targeted Section Drafting
User: Draft an introduction for my paper on esports legitimacy
Assistant: [Invokes q-intro with interview workflow]
Data Exploration First
User: I have a new dataset and need to understand it before writing
Assistant: [Invokes q-descriptive-analysis for exploration, then proceeds to writing sections]
Quality Standards
All output should meet these criteria:
- Ready for submission to peer-reviewed journals
- Consistent formatting throughout
- Complete information (or explicit placeholders)
- Appropriate use of appendices
- Logical organization and flow
- Objective reporting without premature interpretation
Directory Structure
q-scholar/
├── SKILL.md # This file (orchestration)
├── references/ # Shared style guides
│ ├── apa_style_guide.md # Numbers, statistics, notation
│ └── table_formatting.md # APA 7th table examples
├── q-descriptive-analysis/
│ └── SKILL.md # Data exploration skill
├── q-intro/
│ ├── SKILL.md # Introduction drafting skill
│ └── references/
│ ├── introduction_template.md
│ └── interview_questions.md
├── q-methods/
│ ├── SKILL.md # Methods drafting skill
│ └── references/
│ ├── methods_template.md
│ └── appendix_template.md
└── q-results/
├── SKILL.md # Results drafting skill
└── references/
└── results_template.md
Cross-References
Shared references (apply to all sub-skills):
- references/apa_style_guide.md: numbers, statistics, notation
- references/table_formatting.md: APA 7th table examples
Sub-skill specific references:
- q-descriptive-analysis/SKILL.md: workflow templates, code patterns
- q-intro/references/: introduction_template.md, interview_questions.md
- q-methods/references/: methods_template.md, appendix_template.md
- q-results/references/: results_template.md