Paper Introduction Argument Writer

Write introductions as disciplined arguments. This skill turns a paper's positioning, venue, claims, and evidence into a paragraph-by-paragraph introduction plan or draft.

Use this skill for:

• choosing an introduction argument structure for a target venue and paper archetype
• assigning jobs to intro paragraphs
• drafting or revising hook, problem, gap, insight, method, result, and contribution paragraphs
• strengthening contribution bullets without overclaiming
• deciding what related-work contrast belongs in the introduction
• making intro wording consistent with the abstract, title, evidence board, and writing contract

Do not use this skill for full-paper review. Use paper-reviewer-simulator for adversarial critique. Use paper-writing-assistant for broad prose drafting. Use paper-writing-memory-manager to record introduction paragraph roles, claim dependencies, and stale downstream locations. Use related-work-positioning-writer for the full related-work section. Use paper-writing-contract-planner first when the paper archetype or claim contract is not settled.

Skill Directory Layout

<installed-skill-dir>/
├── SKILL.md
├── references/
│   ├── argument-patterns.md
│   └── paragraph-moves.md
└── templates/
    └── introduction-plan.md

Progressive Loading

• Always read references/argument-patterns.md.
• Read references/paragraph-moves.md when drafting, revising, or diagnosing paragraph-level flow.
• Use templates/introduction-plan.md when creating paper/.agent/introduction-plan.md.
• Read local paper/.agent/writing-contract.md, paper/.agent/writing-memory/, paper/.agent/paper-evidence-board.md, paper/.agent/related-work-plan.md, and paper/.agent/provisional-results.md when present.
• Read current draft files such as main.tex, paper.tex, sections/introduction.tex, sections/intro.tex, sections/abstract.tex, and sections/related_work.tex when revising an existing paper.

Core Principles

• The introduction is a sales argument, not a literature survey.
• Each paragraph needs one reader-facing job and one handoff sentence.
• The gap must be specific enough to justify this paper, not the whole field.
• The insight must explain why the proposed approach is plausible before details appear.
• Result claims in the introduction must match evidence status.
• Contribution bullets should name deliverables and evidence, not repeat marketing slogans.
• Related-work contrast in the introduction should include only the closest boundary needed to understand novelty.
• If the evidence is missing or provisional, narrow the claim or mark the placeholder explicitly.

Step 1 - Build an Intro Snapshot

Extract:

## Introduction Snapshot
- Target venue:
- Paper archetype:
- Intended audience:
- Primary claim:
- Secondary claims:
- Core problem:
- Closest prior limitation:
- Key insight:
- Proposed object:
- Main evidence:
- Missing/provisional evidence:
- Related-work boundary needed in intro:
- Forbidden claims:

Prefer existing project artifacts over memory. If no claim IDs exist, assign local CLM-TMP-* IDs and suggest syncing them to paper-evidence-board.

Step 2 - Select Argument Pattern

Read references/argument-patterns.md and choose one pattern:

• method breakthrough
• benchmark/dataset
• empirical study
• analysis/diagnostic
• systems/tooling
• application
• negative result or limitation
• hybrid

If the paper has multiple plausible archetypes, choose the one that matches the paper's main sell and mark the secondary archetype as a constraint.

Step 3 - Plan Paragraph Jobs

Create or update:

paper/.agent/introduction-plan.md

If there is no paper/ directory and the current directory is the paper repo, save to:

.agent/introduction-plan.md

Use templates/introduction-plan.md. Every paragraph should specify:

• paragraph job
• first-sentence role
• evidence or citation used
• claim supported
• handoff to next paragraph
• overclaim risk

Step 4 - Draft or Revise the Introduction

When drafting, write paragraph-by-paragraph prose that follows the plan. When revising, preserve correct citations, labels, macros, math, and verified numbers.

For each paragraph:

• open with the reader question for that paragraph
• move from known context to paper-specific gap
• use one main contrast, not several unrelated contrasts
• end by pushing the reader to the next paragraph
• avoid final-sounding claims when evidence is provisional

Step 5 - Contribution Paragraph

Contribution bullets should answer:

• What did we build, prove, evaluate, release, or discover?
• What is the claim strength?
• Which evidence supports it?
• What should the reader remember?

Avoid contribution bullets that only restate section titles.

Step 6 - Final Checks

Before finalizing:

• intro claim strength matches the evidence board and writing contract
• the gap is neither too broad nor too narrow
• the insight appears before method detail
• related-work contrast is enough but not a full survey
• contribution bullets are concrete and evidence-backed
• all provisional result language is searchable and tracked
• abstract/title alignment issues are routed to abstract-title-contribution-writer when needed
• introduction claim, paragraph-role, or handoff changes are written back through paper-writing-memory-manager