thesis-writer

Write publication-quality MSc/PhD thesis chapters that pass examiner scrutiny and AI detection tools.

What it does

• Writes thesis chapters following academic conventions, with proper hedging, citations, and chapter structure
• Scans existing text for 14 AI writing patterns (based on Wikipedia: Signs of AI writing)
• Fixes flagged patterns while preserving meaning and citations
• Prepares for viva with 35+ categorised examiner questions

Install

# Claude Code
claude skill add /path/to/thesis-writer

# Or clone and point to it
git clone https://github.com/futureweapons2022-crypto/thesis-writer.git ~/.claude/skills/thesis-writer

Usage

# In Claude Code
/thesis-writer write chapter 2 section 2.1

/thesis-writer scan my-chapter.docx

/thesis-writer prepare for viva

Standalone AI scanner

python scripts/ai_scan.py thesis_draft.docx
python scripts/ai_scan.py --text "paste your text here"

Output:

============================================================
THESIS AI SCAN REPORT
============================================================
Score: 72/100
Words: 2515 | Sentences: 89 | Paragraphs: 29
Violations: 2 critical, 3 medium, 1 minor

VIOLATIONS:

  ❌ [CRITICAL] Pattern 1: Banned vocabulary
    Found: "comprehensive" (2x)
    Fix: Replace with a plain alternative

  ⚠️ [MEDIUM] Pattern 2: However chain
    Detail: 5 transition starters in 2515 words (2.0 per 1000)
    Fix: Use subordinate clauses or plain conjunctions

What's inside

thesis-writer/
├── SKILL.md                        # Main skill (3 modes: Write, Scan, Fix)
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── references/
│   ├── ai-patterns.md              # 14 patterns to avoid + 9 human-writing signals
│   ├── chapter-rules.md            # Chapter-by-chapter writing rules
│   └── viva-questions.md           # 35+ examiner questions by difficulty
└── scripts/
    └── ai_scan.py                  # Standalone AI pattern scanner (stdlib only)

The 14 AI patterns it catches

#	Pattern	Severity	Example tell
1	Banned vocabulary	Critical	"delve," "comprehensive," "leverage"
2	However chain	Critical	However, / Moreover, / Furthermore, back-to-back
3	Uniform sentence length	Critical	Every sentence 20-25 words
4	Copula avoidance	Medium	"serves as" instead of "is"
5	Superficial -ing endings	Medium	"highlighting the importance of..."
6	Rule of three	Minor	"X, Y, and Z" in every paragraph
7	Synonym cycling	Medium	Same concept, different words each time
8	Negative parallelisms	Minor	"Not just X, but also Y"
9	False ranges	Minor	"From X to Y, from A to B"
10	Em dash overuse	Minor	More than 2 per page
11	Filler phrases	Minor	"It is worth noting that..."
12	Formulaic endings	Medium	"These findings highlight the importance..."
13	Generic attribution	Medium	"Several studies have shown..."
14	Descriptive lit review	Critical	Listing studies without comparing them

Anti-AI detection approach

Based on how detectors work:

• Perplexity: AI text is too predictable. The skill forces less obvious word choices.
• Burstiness: AI sentences are too uniform. The skill enforces dramatic length variation (5-word and 40-word sentences in the same paragraph).