Academic writing · Level Advanced · Papers Discussion Papers
Discussion: explanation and rival explanations
A discussion that repeats the results.
Prompt
One job: make the reader believe the claim is warranted. Every paragraph offers a reason or rules out an alternative.
Task: A discussion that repeats the results.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- key findings
- possible mechanisms
- rival explanations
- relation to literature
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- mechanism first, then raise and rule out two rivals
- dialogue with the literature
- one theoretical and one practical implication
- lead into limitations
[Process]
1. Conclusion first, then support
2. One point per paragraph, stated in its first sentence
3. Address alternative explanations and limits
4. Cut sentences that do not advance the argument
5. Check every number has a source
[Output]
Claim, reason, evidence, alternative, limitation.
[Do not]
- No 'obviously' or 'as we all know'
- Never state a fact without a citation
- Do not repeat results in the discussion
- Do not inflate practical implicationsWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- key findings
- possible mechanisms
- rival explanations
- relation to literature
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- mechanism first, then raise and rule out two rivals
- dialogue with the literature
- one theoretical and one practical implication
- lead into limitations