All Questions
Tagged with grammar or writing-style
666 questions
-1
votes
1
answer
134
views
Writing style: why is "in the context of" bad? [closed]
I am using a style checker http://www.cs.umd.edu/~nspring/software/style-check-readme.html and it scolds me for using "in the context of".
In the context of CUDA, this is also called ...
-1
votes
3
answers
135
views
What should be verb tense be in figure captions? [duplicate]
I am confused about what verb tense should be used in captions for figures that showcase experiments that were necessarily performed in the past. Is there a norm for this, or is this question journal ...
- 17
4
votes
1
answer
382
views
1960s Stylesheet/Format for working Physics problems
One of my Physics professors once mentioned that he took a semester-long Physics class that was all about formatting work in the correct way: The problems were done on graph/grid paper, and all of the ...
- 141
-3
votes
2
answers
161
views
Is there a general guideline to conjure up a mathematical expression to convey a system? [closed]
Pardon my naivety. I'm new to academic paper authorship. I would like to understand, is there a general guideline on how to think & express concepts in terms of mathematical expression.
Often ...
- 67
19
votes
5
answers
5k
views
How to make a case based on factual evidence that my colleague's writing style for submitted manuscripts has got to be overhauled?
Background (and, OK, venting a little frustration):
I have a colleague who's writing with English as a second language. They've learned a scientific writing style that was probably already outdated ...
- 3,654
2
votes
1
answer
134
views
Writing a Book Chapter and Adjusting One's Scholarly Tone (Writing Style)
I'm turning my master's dissertation into a book chapter and I'm worried about my scholarly tone. When I read other articles they don't sound like the way I have written my dissertation and I'll be ...
- 41
3
votes
2
answers
249
views
How to make an entire section as a conjecture?
I was writing a research paper and solved a problem inside it. To solve the problem for a specific case, I need to assume something to be true (I'm now sure about that) and then write a set of proofs ...
- 273
0
votes
1
answer
59
views
What to do with a wide text in appendix of a paper [closed]
I am writing a paper and want to include my Mathematica commands in an appendix. By exporting my commands as a .tex file and including it in my paper’s tex file, I end at a text too wide to be fitted ...
- 373
3
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Use of "would have + past participle" in a scientific article
I want to ask if the use of "would have + verb in past participle" is appropriate in a paper. What is the correct way of expressing a hypothetical outcome when describing past events? I may ...
- 33
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
in-text citation: multiple section of a book
I am using APA 7th and IEEE.
In in-text citation, how to refer to multiple section of a book.
I mean, i want to say in chapter C1, section S1 and chapter C2, section S2 the author talked about X.
Here ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
108
views
Cite a specific section of my own paper
I am using APA 7th. I want to cite a specific section of my own paper.
How to say look into section X for more details.
Please show both parenthetical and narrative.
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
89
views
When paraphrasing over several paragraphs, how to cite an ebook with chapter and section?
Here is a sample dummy text:
Davis and Jones (2020) explore different leadership styles and their
effects on employee motivation in their ebook. They highlight
transformational leadership as ...
- 111
11
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why are method sections usually impersonal, when the main text isn’t?
There are generally two possible ways to present experiments and analyses in academic writing, which I label as follows for the purpose of this question:
Personal, also referred to as active or first ...
- 65k
0
votes
1
answer
256
views
I am citing from a paper which confused the word "affective" and "affectionate", what should I do?
I understand that with minor spelling mistakes you use [sic] or just [brackets]. However, in this case, I think the author accidentally wrote the wrong word.
It looks odd to write affect[ionat]e and ...
- 1
13
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What should I do when a coauthor suggests I fluff up a manuscript?
I have worked on a project almost entirely on my own with some input from my main advisor.
Now I've drafted a manuscript, and I have received comments from my secondary advisor, who is also a coauthor,...
- 343
2
votes
2
answers
267
views
List of words to present equations in an article
I have 13 equations (LaTeX: \eqref) (constraints more precisely) to present in an article's paragraph and, as a non-native, I would welcome any other suggestions to present these constraints in order ...
- 508
8
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Double parenthesis in academic writing [duplicate]
I have the following question. I have a text in which I want to insert a small mathematical formulation, namely between parenthesis. Unfortunately, this mathematical formulation also contains a ...
2
votes
1
answer
167
views
Should the information within a caption be repeated into the main text?
My understanding is that a caption should be here to help someone read a caption independently from the text (without reading the paper/book/etc for example).
This question answers whether a long ...
- 935
3
votes
1
answer
161
views
Institution wide style guides for theses - rationale and context
Under this answer here on Academia StackExchange, Xander Henderson and I observed that there seems to be a large difference between the United States and, for instance, Germany regarding how specific ...
- 8,092
7
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Publishing no-longer state-of-the-art results in machine learning
I co-authored a method, which yielded state-of-the-art results in several machine learning benchmarks.
However, the paper got rejected from two conferences and then from a super slow journal.
With the ...
- 246
2
votes
1
answer
429
views
My footnotes are too long and too many due to my anxiety. How to shorten/reduce them?
I am a historian and I have noticed over the last few years that my footnotes have become too long. It goes so far that for a recent article manuscript the word count of my footnotes is only slightly ...
user176383
0
votes
2
answers
177
views
In mathematical essays, is "at x=a", "for x=a", "when x=a", "if x=a", or even "with x=a", a better choice? [closed]
Which one of the following sentences sounds better to a native ear?
At $x=a$, $f(x,t)$ is an even function of $t$.
For $x=a$, $f(x,t)$ is an even function of $t$.
When $x=a$, $f(x,t)$ is an even ...
- 107
2
votes
1
answer
187
views
What methods to contain in an abstract?
It is my first time writing an abstract for an assignment and I am wondering if I need to include all of the methods used within a piece of research. I understand I don't need to include every tiny ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
174
views
How many related concepts should I try to fit into a research article?
When writing a journal article, I've noticed I have a habit of name-dropping concepts that are related to my argument. This has the benefit of increasing the links between my paper and other research, ...
- 1,101
11
votes
5
answers
8k
views
In a grant proposal, should I write that I have a paper very likely to be accepted by a very prestigious journal? and how?
I am facing a problem that is new for me and I don't know to whom to ask. My current supervisor and I are very busy and we both have barely some time to discuss pressing bureaucratic issues and ...
- 129
7
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Convention: Comma and period in an enumeration
I am writing a master thesis in maths and I use lots of enumerations in theorems. I am not sure, how I use a comma and period correctly. As I was told, there has to be a comma after an item, except ...
- 408
0
votes
0
answers
86
views
Master thesis mistakes with in-text citing and grammar [duplicate]
I recently re-read my publicly available master's thesis which was made public a month ago. I found a lot of grammatical mistakes and also inconsistency of putting references in relation to ...
- 107
2
votes
1
answer
133
views
How would you characterize or cite common social media posts?
I am investigating a complaint that comes up on social media "often" for a particular institution. The complaint is about a particular type of bad interaction with the institution. I could ...
- 21
2
votes
2
answers
353
views
Does case of the first letter in disciplines such as Mathematics, Physics, etc. need to be capitalized?
Does the first letter of disciplines such as Mathematics, Physics, etc. need to be capitalized in research papers of computer science?
- 113
8
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Is "e.g." ever needed in parenthetical citations?
It seems to me that "e.g." is rarely needed in parenthetical citations because readers assume that the works listed are examples taken from all works on the topic. For example:
"This ...
- 2,111
0
votes
1
answer
214
views
How to shorten references [duplicate]
How to shorten the reference format to maximum one line per reference so that it fits to the guidelines. I have already used APA format. But is there any other format for doing so?
- 53
17
votes
4
answers
6k
views
What is a good way to phrase "in my experience" in a journal paper?
I want to say, "In our experience/as far as we know/etc., A only requires a few iterations to converge," without citing any relevant literature, particularly because I could not find any ...
- 5,425
-5
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Two-author paper with thesis mentor, but the idea is entirely mine
I recently defended my master's thesis in artificial intelligence. Among other things, I invented a new algorithm that I would like to publish. The domain is natural language processing, with papers ...
- 541
0
votes
4
answers
493
views
Abbreviating authors' names in a paper
I'm writing a rebuttal to a paper that was recently published. Since I refer to the authors very frequently, I've abbreviated their names to WW for their last names Williams and Wang (I made up these ...
- 213
2
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Proper punctuation of equations [duplicate]
What is the proper way to punctuate equations following a colon (:)?
Is it:
The Pythagorean Theorem can be expressed as the following equation:
$a^2+b^2=c^2$
In number theory, triples satisfying the ...
- 187
1
vote
1
answer
236
views
What expression to use when citing a publication for a result bordering one, oneself seeks to publish? (replicate, corroborate, in line with)
The specific reason for citing/referencing a publication may accompany an expression signifying that. One broad reason is empirical results (other broad reasons are theoretical ideas, methodological ...
- 135
32
votes
11
answers
12k
views
Is humor unacceptable in referee reports?
I am from a country where humor is a part of the culture, and I recently prepared the following referee report:
The manuscript solves an interesting problem, but, unfortunately, the
authors are a bit ...
- 477
3
votes
1
answer
360
views
How to refer to the work you are presenting in a scientific paper?
I am co-authoring a scientific paper. In the related works section, we discussed how our work addresses some of the limitations not evaluated in the literature.
To keep style more formal, we ...
- 43
1
vote
2
answers
209
views
Does a problem statement chapter contributes / addressing a research question by establishing a deeper problem understanding?
Considering a PhD thesis that use a problem statement chapter in the middle of the thesis. The reason for the chapter is that the required background information is only, fully available at this point....
- 564
0
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is the use of we / us (in the sense of the reader and writer exploring the topic) accepted in a PhD thesis or bad style? [duplicate]
Before, referring just to some other question that sounds likely to be the same, e.g., about can I write: "I/We have developed X?", what I am asking about is: "Let us (you the reader ...
- 564
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Best way to write an equation while explaining something in a paper
I have found it difficult sometimes to write properly an equation in the middle of some explanations on a research paper, for example:
This can be rewritten by a change in parametrization a = m as,
E ...
- 1,053
2
votes
3
answers
246
views
No quotation marks/citation needed for common expressions/language or for using texts as a model?
This might be a stupid question, but I am asking as a non-native English speaker. Given that we all (even native speakers) will get our English expressions from somewhere, I am wondering when a ...
- 33
26
votes
9
answers
9k
views
Is it okay to criticize authors because of how poorly their paper is written?
I am currently reading a paper in my area which is very poorly written in my opinion. It is hard to understand the bigger picture of the paper. Now, I am just a student and my opinions might not be of ...
- 661
18
votes
7
answers
4k
views
First-person pronoun for things other than mathematical steps - singular or plural?
The question Choice of personal pronoun in single-author papers has a good discussion of the motivation for using first-person plural pronouns ("we") instead of first-person singular (“I”), ...
- 2,365
21
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Best way to highlight the main result in a mathematical paper
I am writing a mathematical paper where I (re-)state a well-known theorem, followed by several corollaries. One of these corollaries is my main result and, naturally, it is somewhat lost in the text, ...
- 313
3
votes
1
answer
225
views
Should I explain abbreviations after table of abbreviations in research paper?
I have table of abbreviations at the end of the introduction section. Should explain an abbrevation if it was explained in that table, at other sections of the paper.
- 73
14
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Convention on embedding three pairs of items in a single sentence using parentheses
I am writing in a description of three items in a thesis on Particle Physics, and I can do it in one line in theory. If there were just two items, e.g. A and B, which produce results C and D, I could ...
- 143
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
quality standards for joint paper written mostly by mentee
I am increasingly in a position where I am writing papers with students I am mentoring.
Since these projects are primarily meant to expose them to research, I will often have them take the lead on the ...
- 2,057
0
votes
1
answer
64
views
Shorthand descriptions in article text
In an article I am writing for the Journal of Chemical Physics we are comparing/contrasting the behavior of methane (i.e CH4) scattering from a bare and oxidized Ni(111) surface.
Often for the purpose ...
- 103
0
votes
1
answer
196
views
Can I suggest certain proofreading software in article review?
The questions that deal with language errors during peer-review
(1
2 to name a few)
typically recommend suggesting the authors seek proofreading help from a person who is proficient in English.
From ...
- 398