ieee-polishing

IEEE-Style Language Polishing

Use this skill to bring existing sentences to IEEE journal standard. If the text needs its argument or structure rebuilt, use ieee-writing first, then polish here.

Core stance

• Preserve meaning; never add claims. Polishing changes wording, not facts. Do not introduce numbers, citations, or assertions the author did not make.
• Clarity over elegance. A plain, precise sentence beats an ornate one. IEEE values verifiable clarity, not literary flair.
• US English by default (IEEE house style): color, analyze, modeling, behavior, optimize, center, fiber. (This is the opposite of Nature's British spelling.)
• Calibrate claim strength to evidence (see hedging ladder below).
• Return plain, copy-pasteable text. Do not wrap output in commentary the user must strip out.

When to open extra files

File	Open when
references/sentence-and-style.md	Sentence length, acronyms, articles, voice, numbers/units, US-English list, words to avoid, citation phrasing
references/section-moves.md	Choosing tense and hedging for a specific section (Abstract / Intro / Method / Results / Discussion / Conclusion)

Hedging ladder (match the verb to the evidence)

strong, directly measured     show, demonstrate, establish
inferential                   indicate, suggest, imply
possible / partial            may, can, could, appear to, is consistent with

Over-claim is the most common reviewer irritation. If the evidence is one experiment, do not say "prove" or "in all cases". Downgrade the verb instead of adding qualifiers like "very".

Polishing workflow

1. Split into sentences. Inspect each individually — the last sentence of a paragraph fails most.
2. Identify the section (it sets tense and hedging; see references/section-moves.md).
3. Length and one-idea check. Aim for ≤ ~25 words; break any sentence carrying two ideas.
4. Tense audit. Results = past + numbers; method-as-procedure = past; the proposed method as a standing object = present; Introduction background = present / present perfect.
5. Edit each sentence for subject-action clarity, articles, and US spelling.
6. Vocabulary upgrade. Replace vague verbs ("get", "do", "make") with precise ones; remove filler ("it is worth noting that", "as we all know", "obviously").
7. Acronym pass. Define each at first use in the body; do not define in the title; avoid undefined acronyms in the abstract.
8. Citation phrasing. Numbered [n]; for author-prominent sentences use Smith et al. [12], otherwise ... has been studied [12]. Do not use [12] as a noun ("in [12], the authors...").
9. Overclaim sweep. Flag absolutes, unwarranted causation, scope creep, and unverified "first".
10. US-English + house style (units, numbers, hyphenation).
11. Proofread for articles, plurals, agreement — the classic non-native slips.
12. Return plain text plus a short change log of the substantive edits.