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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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While you are at it, avoid "attempts". You do things in research
papers. You might be more or less successful at doing those things,
but don't weasel-word it.
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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 reader
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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Ah yes, another phrase to avoid, "We/I argue ..." Don't argue
with your reader. You might point out or note things. You might
try to persuade the reader. But mostly you want the prose to do
that for you without telling the reader that you're trying to pull
a fast one over on him or her.
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Run a spell checker. It won't catch everything, but it should catch
the things that will embarrass you.
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Assume that your readers are going to believe you and agree with you
instead of trying to convince them of something before you've even
presented it.
Say, "The sun rises in the East, because the earth rotates in an
easternly direction." instead of, "Because the earth rotates in an
easternly direction, the sun rises in the East."
In the first case, if the reader agrees with your statement s/he will
skim over your explanation and simply nod.
In the latter, you're providing an explanation out of context and the
reader is going to think about it and try to decide if s/he agrees
with you before going on to read the point that you actually care about.
And the point that you care about is your statement, not the explanation.
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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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