Limitations: honest and proportionate

One job: make the reader believe the claim is warranted. Every paragraph offers a reason or rules out an alternative.

Task: Afraid to write limitations.

[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:
   - design constraints
   - sample and measurement issues
   - tests not run
   - what reviewers will ask
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- three real limitations with the direction of impact
- do not defend every one
- one concrete follow-up study
- no vague 'small sample' filler

[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 implications