Academic writing · Level Advanced · Papers Review Papers
Review article: mapping the field
A review that turns into an annotated bibliography.
Prompt
One job: make the reader believe the claim is warranted. Every paragraph offers a reason or rules out an alternative.
Task: A review that turns into an annotated bibliography.
[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:
- scope and period
- existing reviews
- my taxonomy
- target journal
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- a taxonomy by mechanism, method or finding
- representative work and disagreement per class
- one conceptual map or timeline
- three open questions at the end
[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.
- scope and period
- existing reviews
- my taxonomy
- target journal
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.
- a taxonomy by mechanism, method or finding
- representative work and disagreement per class
- one conceptual map or timeline
- three open questions at the end