discussion-grammar-diagnosis

Diagnose grammar in the Discussion of an English psychology research paper. Covers tense choice (Present Simple for permanent truths vs Past Simple for study-specific findings), subject-verb agreement, article usage, voice (active vs passive), and punctuation. Triggers on "check Discussion tense", "

Theory basis

Science Research Writing Unit 4.2.2 Q&A "Why is Sentence 2 in the Present Simple tense?" + "Why are Sentences 3 and 4 in the Past Simple tense?" + 4.5 (modal verb forms and tense).

Tense principles (the single biggest grammar issue in Discussion)

Tense	Use in Discussion	Example
Present Simple	Permanent truths, generalisations, established facts	"Stress disrupts the intestinal barrier."
Past Simple	Study-specific findings (this paper)	"We found a significant difference..."
Present Perfect	Recently completed actions with present relevance (rare in Discussion)	"Several studies have investigated this question."
Modal + bare infinitive	Possibility / ability / recommendation (see Vocabulary skill)	"Stress may disrupt..."

Tense reflects the writer's confidence:

• Present Simple = "I believe this is a permanent, independent truth"
• Past Simple = "this is what we observed in our study"

Self-check: Can you swap the verb between present and past without changing the claim? If yes, the tense choice encodes confidence, not time.

What this skill diagnoses

1. Tense–claim alignment — Is the tense right for the writer's intended epistemic stance?
2. Tense consistency — Same move (e.g., revisit results) should use consistent tense unless there's a deliberate epistemic shift.
3. Subject-verb agreement — especially with long subjects (the results of the present study, the participants who completed the second task).
4. Article usage — a / an / the / zero article, especially with abstract nouns (the result, a significant result, results).
5. Voice — active vs passive; consistent choice within a sentence.
6. Punctuation — comma splices, run-ons, missing commas in compound/complex sentences, consistent decimal/thousand separators.

Diagnostic signals

Signal	Means
"Stress disrupted the intestinal barrier." (general claim, past tense)	Tense weakens claim — should be Present Simple
"The results of the present study suggests..."	Subject-verb agreement (study is singular; results is plural)
"It has been found that..." (no agent)	Unattributed passive — usually acceptable, but watch overuse
"a important finding"	Article error — should be "an"
"However the sample size was small" (no comma)	Punctuation — needs comma after "However" sentence-initial
Two independent clauses joined with comma only	Comma splice — needs semicolon, period, or conjunction

Output format

markdown

## Grammar Diagnosis

### Tense
- Move-by-move tense audit (table)
- Tense-claim alignment issues

### Other grammar
- Subject-verb agreement: [list issues with sentence_ref]
- Article usage: [list]
- Voice: [list]
- Punctuation: [list]

### Top issues (severity: critical / major / minor)
1. ...

Cross-reference

• Modal verb forms (can/could/may/might/must/should + perfect) overlap with the Vocabulary skill. This skill handles the form; Vocabulary handles the appropriate usage for hedging.

Academic integrity

Does not generate or rewrite. Only diagnoses.

References (to be filled in Phase 2)

• references/rubric.md
• references/checklist.md
• references/examples/