Research writing13 min read
Thesis writing
Build the argument first. Write from evidence you can trace.
Carrel is thesis writing software for researchers who have done the reading: it proposes a structure from the evidence in your library, drafts each section from the passages behind it, keeps every citation a link to the page, and exports a Word file your supervisor can mark up.
You have read everything. The page is still blank.
Thesis writer’s block rarely comes from not knowing enough. It comes from knowing a great deal that has not yet been arranged into an argument, so every sentence feels premature and every paragraph sends you back to the folder to check.
The blank page is a structure problem, not a motivation problem. Once the claims are visible, with the evidence for and against each of them, there is something to write about and something to check it against. The draft becomes a way of testing the argument rather than a performance of certainty.
How it works
What Carrel does, in the order it happens
01Start from a structure, not a cursor
Carrel proposes sections from what you have actually read and fills each with the claims, answers and passages behind it. It is a starting outline, built from your evidence, that you rename, merge and argue with.
02Draft a section with its citations attached
Pick a section and Carrel drafts it from your passages only, arguing where the papers disagree. Each claim carries a citation that opens the paper at the page, so the first draft arrives checkable.
03Write, and let the evidence push back
Because a citation is a link rather than text, the sentence and its source can be compared. Tighten a paragraph until it no longer says what the passage said and Carrel flags it; you open the passage and decide.
04Hand it over in Word
Export a .docx whose tracked changes open as tracked changes, attributed to the right person, so your supervisor marks it up the way they always have. LaTeX, Markdown and BibTeX come out too, in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE or Nature.
Guides
The method, without the product
Why the block is a structure problem, and the smallest piece of thinking to make visible first.
Synthesis13 min read
How to Synthesize a Literature Review Without Writing One Summary per Paper
If the draft keeps turning into one summary after another.
Research writing13 min read
How to Start a Literature Review When You Don’t Know Where to Begin
If you still do not know what to read or where the review begins.
Questions people ask
More in the full FAQ.
- What does a drafted section actually look like?
- Prose written only from passages in your own project, with a citation marker on each claim that links to the passage behind it. It is a first draft: grounded, cited, and not finished. You rewrite it, cut it, and argue with it.
- Will it write my literature review for me?
- No, and it is not trying to. It gets you past the blank page: the papers read and indexed, the claims extracted with their quotes, the agreements and contradictions mapped, and a first draft of a section you chose, cited to the passages behind it. The argument is yours.
- How do I get my work out?
- Word (.docx), LaTeX, Markdown and BibTeX. The Word export carries tracked changes that open as tracked changes in Word, attributed to the right person — so a supervisor marks it up the way they always have, with nothing to install and no account to create.
- Which citation styles are supported?
- APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE and Nature. Because a citation is a link rather than typed text, switching style re-renders the document and the bibliography rather than asking you to redo them.