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References are not nouns. What does this mean? It means that
the following is wrong: "In [1], Jack and Jill went up a hill."
Instead, you can say, "Mother Goose reports that Jack and Jill went up
a hill [1]."
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Now that Halloween is over, go on a which hunt. In general, everywhere
you are using "which," you should be using "that." The particular rule
is that "which" prefaces a clause that could be removed from the sentence
without changing the meaning; if you need the clause to understand the
sentence, then you want "that." A corollary is that if the phrase is
preceded by a comma, you probably want "which."
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An example:
The car that is in the garage is broken.
The 1982 Toyota Corolla, which was decomissioned last year, was named
Beauregard.
Note the example in the text above. Why is "that" correct instead
of "which?"
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Keep "only" close to its clause. If you use the word "only," push it
as close as possible to the clause to which it applies.
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If you have one subject and two predicates, do not separate the predicates
with a comma.
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Laundry lists of references are often worthless. Avoid things like,
"Many people have investigated caching [1][2][3][4][5][6]." Instead, tell
us something about what the references actually say. "While many people
have studied caching, only one study shows that it is a fundamentally flawed
idea [1]. Several others indicate that it is the best thing since
sliced bread [2][3][4], and a few authors actually seem to provide an accurate
evaluation [5][6]." (Hint: this means that you actually have to have
read the related work.)
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Avoid "very." I believe it was Mark Twain who said,
"Substitute d--n every time you're inclined to write 'very';
your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as
it should be."
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Avoid passive voice. It is significantly easier and more enjoyable to
read technical prose written in the active voice.
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Your paper should not read as a murder mystery. Tell the author
in the beginning, that's in the abstract, what the significant
results of the research are. There is nothing more frustrating
than reading a paper wondering the whole time what you're going
to see.
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Use fewer and less appropriately. Fewer implies that you are
describing a discrete quantity while less implies a continuous one. So, you might
have fewer people or things, but you might have less inclination or less clutter
in your room.
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Impact is probably the most over-used term in technical papers today. People
use it as a verb, they use it as a noun. I use it to describe wisdom teeth
(impacted). Just avoid it. Use affect(s) and effect(s).
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Another phrase I despise is "seeks to." Disks seek to places, but
research papers don't; research projects don't; and you shouldn't either.
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Click here for tips on avoiding gender-specific writing
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Click here for Strunk and White (which should probably be read annually)
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