Academia Stack Exchange
Academia Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [writing]

For questions on the process of writing. For questions on the content of writing, use [writing-style].

1228 questions
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Do authors have to be politically correct in article-writing?

My colleagues and I have recently submitted an article in a biology-oriented journal about a new technological system. While describing the interaction between the different modules of the system, we used the terms "master" and "slave", as it…
Ratbert
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45
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9 answers

The use of words such as "clearly", "obviously" etc. in a technical paper

Is there any hidden rule for using the words "clearly", "obviously" or similar ones in a technical paper? It can be offensive to the readers in many cases (especially in mathematical proofs), since the reader may not find it "clear" or "obvious".…
AJed
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37
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4 answers

Choosing the title of a paper: are provocative titles better?

I am currently working on a paper that challenges some long-standing practices within my field, but am questioning how to title the paper. Basically, the old view in the research field is "we do Y instead of better method X, because X takes too…
aeismail
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33
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4 answers

How to improve technical writing

Whenever I write an article, I feel the result is not good enough. Although every theorem is solid and correctly proven, something is always "squeaky". The main evidence for my feeling shows itself when my co-authors revise theorem I've written.…
Ran G.
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30
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8 answers

Do you worry about using certain words too frequently in your research paper?

I'm working on a paper and found myself using certain words very frequently. For instance, the word "condition" or "study" or "group" or "participants" or "the results suggested"....? I mean I was just looking at a paragraph and realized I had used…
user152187
28
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8 answers

How to approach American English vs. British English spelling in a paper?

I am currently writing a paper, for which my title and core problem is spelled differently in American and British English. I don't worry about my professor preferring one way of writing over the other, as I'm not residing in an English-speaking…
grunwald2.0
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18
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4 answers

Present math for non-mathematicians

I am a graduate student in mathematics, and I recently got the question why there isn't a press release to the general public whenever we publish a paper (to advertise mathematics and increase interest). Now, every paper is a bit extreme, but forced…
Per Alexandersson
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15
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1 answer

Is the phrase "We can see that ..." appropriate in research papers?

Today at work, we had a discussion about writing styles of research papers. One of the topic was if the phrase "We can see that..." is appropriate for research papers or not. While some people were convinced that the phrase does not belong there…
MasterPJ
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15
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2 answers

Is it bad style if a section has exactly one subsection?

In a discussion on why subsubsections are evil, egreg comments: If you have subsubsections, you must have at least two of them in a subsection; you must have at least two subsections and, of course, at least two sections. Draw the tree and you'll…
gerrit
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14
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5 answers

How to improve writing skills when writing a manuscript for the first time?

After a year of researching for my Masters project, I am writing a manuscript for publication. I have spent nearly 3 months writing it now. My advisor has read my drafts, but after nearly 4 drafts that I thought were successively better, he says…
arabhi manachra
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14
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7 answers

Synonym for "fortunately" in academic language

I need to emphasize on the positive aspect of the fact that someone has already worked on the topic I am including in a paper. So, I want to have a connecting sentence such as "Fortunately, the topic has already been explored...", however I know…
coffee-and-code
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13
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4 answers

Use of words like "herein" in research articles

A colleague of mine recently used the word "herein" in a research article (of which I am a co-author) to mean essentially "in this paper". To me it makes the paper read more like a legal document than a research article, so I commented that I would…
robguinness
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12
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6 answers

Should you place accents on letters in academic writing in English?

Is there a standard practice in academic writing regarding the use of accented letters when the underlying language is English? I'm specifically thinking of the word naive, which often has a dieresis above the i, but I suppose this is applicable to…
BMS
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9
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4 answers

Shall acronyms in scientific papers be expanded exactly once?

There's no way to evade having a lot of acronyms in a scientific paper, often already in the title. I use the latex package glossaries to automatically expand the first use of every acronym (except usage in the title), but for a scientific paper, I…
gerrit
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8
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3 answers

Which section to start with when writing a research paper

Which section of a research paper should be written first? When I finally finish my analysis I begin to write the Methods section and the Results section. That is the first "block" of my writing. After that, I discuss it with co-authors (they are of…
user3624251
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