Individual skill

popl-writing-style

Use when drafting or revising POPL prose — building the informal-to-formal ramp from a motivating program to definitions to a sharply stated main theorem, keeping notation coherent across 25 pages of text, writing proof sketches that name the hard case, and framing significance as an idea other PL researchers can reuse.

POPL-Skills/skills/popl-writing-style/SKILL.md

Read pinned source

Source commit 932eb23331721b16e967c59f093781be1928b498

What was checked

Matches the observed repository HEAD: Yes
Scanner rules are current: No
Repository scan complete: No
Skill scan complete: Yes
Observed behavior: Not checked yet
Last checked: Nov 9, 2026

These are observations at the recorded commit, not a guarantee of safety. Review the source before running it.

Install this skill

Choose an agent in your Stack or copy a command below. Commands fetch the pinned commit and copy only this skill directory. Existing destinations are refused. Copying a command does not install anything.

An install command is unavailable: current rules, complete repository and skill scans, an eligible behavior level and a permitted license are required.

Repository context

Repository stars (not skill ratings): 1,411
Repository last updated: Sep 27, 2026
License: MIT

Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.

academic-writing Repository topic
agent-skills Repository topic
journal Repository topic
academic-research Repository topic
ai-agents Repository topic
anthropic Repository topic
awesome-list Repository topic
claude Repository topic
claude-code Repository topic
economics Repository topic
writing Derived category

Files and excerpt

File metadata and permitted, redacted excerpts come from the recorded scan. Source links are pinned to that commit.

Browse files

SKILL.mdcore · 3,845 bytes

Read excerpt


# POPL Writing Style

A POPL paper convinces twice: informally, that the problem is real and the idea
natural; formally, that the theorems are exactly true. The craft is the ramp between
the two. The 25-pages-of-text budget (POPL 2027 call, read 2026-07-08) is generous
compared with old conference caps — the failure mode is not compression but
*unmotivated formalism*.

## The informal-to-formal ramp

1. **Open with a program, not a framework.** Page 1 should show concrete code or a
   concrete derivation that misbehaves — the phenomenon your formalism explains.
2. **State the contribution as a sharp claim.** "We prove type soundness for λ_X
   with feature Y, the first such result without assumption Z" beats any paragraph