Non-AI thesis style analyser

Notes

How do I use it?

• In Word: Select All text (with Ctrl+A)
• Copy the text to your clipboard (with Ctrl+C)
• Come back to this browser tab
• Put your cursor into the "Paste or type your thesis text here..." box at the top
• Paste everything from your clipboard (with Ctrl+V)

Run the following checks

Once you have pasted text:

• click any of the "Weasel, Passives, Duplicates, Lists, Exact String" buttons - you can select multiple but it is probably clearer to take one at a time
• Each check has a "Show Definition" button for what it is doing.
• If issues are found, the browser shows the issue in context of around 30 words.
• If you click the Copy button on the top right of the issue, a smaller fragment will be copied to the clipboard, so that you can search within your Word document, and use Ctrl+F to find in your document.
• Exact String should show you where you have used a term in your text. This is intended to be more useful than in Word, where you skip to the next occurrence of your phrase. It might be particularly useful if you are contrasting two similar terms, to ensure that you have used them correctly.

Check Definitions

Weasel Words

Weasel words are vague qualifiers that make statements less precise and can weaken your writing. They often introduce ambiguity and may indicate a lack of clear evidence or reasoning.

Words checked: many, various, very, fairly, several, extremely, exceedingly, quite, remarkably, few, surprisingly, mostly, largely, huge, tiny, excellent, interestingly, significantly, substantially, clearly, vast, relatively, completely

Passive Voice

Passive voice constructions use a form of 'to be' followed by a past participle. While not grammatically incorrect, excessive use of passive voice can make writing less direct and engaging.

Patterns checked: be verb + past participle (regular -ed or irregular verbs)

Duplicate Words

Duplicate words are consecutive repetitions of the same word. These are usually typos or editing oversights that should be corrected.

Inconsistent List Markers

Inconsistent list markers mix ordinal forms (first, second, third) with adverbial forms (firstly, secondly, thirdly). For clarity and consistency, stick with one style throughout your document.

Ordinal markers: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth

Adverbial markers: firstly, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, fifthly, sixthly, seventhly, eighthly, ninthly, tenthly

Syntax & Formatting Issues

This check highlights formatting issues in academic writing, including spacing problems, potential footnote numbers, unmatched punctuation, and mixed list styles.

• Excessive spacing
• Footnote numbers left in text
• Unmatched punctuation: quotes, brackets, etc.
• Mixed list styles (numeric, alphabetic, Roman numerals)

Exact String

This feature finds all occurrences of an exact string in your text, regardless of context. It's useful for ensuring consistent terminology or identifying overused phrases.

What do you mean non-AI?

Although this page is delivered over the internet to your browser, all the text stays on your computer. Nothing is sent to any remote server, and certainly not to an AI Large-Language Model. You can check this by inspecting the code (right-click in your browser, and Inspect, and you will see HTML, CSS, and JavaScript only).

No changes are made to your text, but certain usages you may wish to reconsider are highlighted.

Who wrote this?

Adapted from Simon Willison's adaptation of these shell scripts published by Matt Might.

Nick Romney then developed the idea, using some assistance from Claude.ai to write further JavaScript code to identify issues, after reading a few chapters of a friend's PhD thesis.