Questions tagged [writing]
For questions on the process of writing. For questions on the content of writing, use [writing-style].
1,216
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Where to locate the "harder to read" text for a paper describing a new method?
I developed new methods to measure characteristic values for globally critical issues. These new methods are described in detail in a patent application I filed last year. The patent application is ...
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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 ...
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What is the fastest way of completing my post viva thesis correction edits?
I have written my thesis using Word and Endnote. I have three months of corrections. Any general tips based on previous experience on how to streamline the edits would be welcome.
The document is too ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Concise way to add a citation showing closely-related effects that result from one of a list of cited examples for a trend?
I have a parenthetical serial list of citations that demonstrate support for a claim I make prior to the parenthetical list.
X has been shown to impact Y (e.g., Mo 1900, Larry 1920, Curly 1950).
I ...
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How to write research proposals for several PhD applications?
PhD hunting is not an easy task. I have to search a Phd position on several PhD portals and social media groups. For each application, they ask to write some sort of research proposal, motivation ...
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Citing 2 nearly identical article names from the newspaper, APA 7th edition
I seem to be at an edge case. I have two websites to cite, NYT Report Card NCF and NYT Report Card YU
They are both effectively from the same "article", drawing on data from This project ...
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Impact of references & quotes on essay quality [closed]
Do references and quotes improve the quality and make an essay sound better in undergraduate and graduate exams, contests, and other such situations? Could you please provide me with a book, paper, or ...
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Using Grammarly in Article writing [closed]
I'm sure you have heard about or seen Grammarly app's ads. Do you recommend using it to proof read your articles before sending them for review?
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How can I tackle self-doubt while writing my first paper?
I finished my Bachelor's degree this year. I worked on some research with my advisor and after a few months, we decided that there's enough interesting research to be able to write a paper. This will ...
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Is it okay to have 2 definitions of the same term?
(A bit difficult to describe what I mean without sharing my definitions, but I am cautious of posting them since this is regarding my thesis.) I had to provide a definition for a term I came up with. ...
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Is it OK to use GPT-3+ to rewrite your own paper to have better English?
As an example, someone who's not a native speaker of English might come up with the following paragraph (generated using a second-class translation service):
Basic principle of gamification is ...
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Can a review paper have the same title to another review paper
I am a first year college student and this is my first time making a review paper. I am working in a group and I was assigned to do the introduction. I noticed that our title is copied from another ...
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Is it OK to generate parts of a research paper using a large language model such as ChatGPT?
Large language models (LLMs) are complex neural networks that can capture and represent world knowledge present in the human-generated text as their weights. LLMs are trained on a large collection of ...
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What to choose for a writing sample?
I am applying to a PhD program in the US (nutritional sciences), and they require me to submit a writing sample, but as I'm from Spain all of my previous work is in Spanish. I have thought about ...
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How to structure a data analysis paper [closed]
There's a large, publicly available data-set that, in my opinion, has been horribly under-analysed. I can only find one paper that seems to use the data from it and I think there's some significant ...
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Word to describe "continuous relationship" between predictor and outcome variable [closed]
I'm writing my methods section where I want to stress that I am not looking at the effect by condition, but exploring the continuous relationship between my predictor variable and the dependent ...
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What should I do with discarded paragraphs?
I'm writing a difficult paper for my PhD. My first draft is rambling and long, so I'm cutting it down for the next round of edits.
However, I find it difficult to discard old writing. Some of the ...
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Should I improve the article even the reviewers didn't request to do it?
Currently, I submitted my article to the frontiers series and received comments from the reviewers. After revising the article, I let a native English speaker help me to check it.
She made great ...
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how do you write a State of the Art section in this particular case? [closed]
How can I write an adequate State of the Art section in the following case for the field of CS? Let´s suppose that I am writing an article that solely relies on using classic Machine Learning ...
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How is a dissertation plan written and how to learn writing it
I am a Law student with an Economics Background (School of Economics, Department of Economics, Economic Theory and Policy)
I have a dissertation to write on Spatial and Urban planning. I have an ...
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379
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Personal pronouns in papers
I keep reading that we should absolutely avoid personal pronouns in papers, however, a lot of the academic papers I have read on google scholar use "our work", "our approach", &...
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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 ...
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About writing survey papers in the Computer science field [duplicate]
I am confronted with the task of writing a survey paper, the advisor collected for me a number of papers to study and summarize and I suspect they would come up with the schema and structure of the ...
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104
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Writing abstract
I want to submit an abstract for a call for papers for a good journal in my field. I don't have the paper ready yet, but I have a vague idea for a paper that I would like to propose to the journal ...
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397
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What tool is better for journal-quality plots: matplotlib or Matlab? [closed]
I make my plots in Matlab and they turn out looking reasonably good. However, I'm contemplating porting to more open-source tools and hence, I wish to make use of Python's matplotlib.
My priorities ...
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What are the ins and outs of submitting two related papers that need to cite each other to the same or different journals? Potential pitfalls? [duplicate]
I'm currently in the middle of some calculations and modeling for two related but different papers on experimental and data analysis mathematical techniques, and have started drafting two papers.
...
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Can I use equations from a paper with proper citation?
I am writing a research paper where I try to produce the results by using the machinery described in a different paper, i.e. testing their equations on my model.
Is it justified to use their equations ...
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337
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Shall I start my example with "for example"?
I'm trying to give an example in my research paper. The first variant:
Example 4.6. For example, this expression is true: ...
The second one:
Example 4.6. This expression is true: ...
Which one is ...
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57 references and 70 footnotes in a 18 page article, normal?
I am submitting a paper for graduate school application in philosophy. Among the items required, a writing sample. The sample relates directly to the field and to the potential supervisor's research ...
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Should the introduction of a paper be broad or specific
My field of background is material science. I am writing a paper regarding some novel properties we discovered from a material system. I struggled a lot with the introduction. Since the entire work is ...
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How do you frame hypothesis where independent variable is categorical and dependent variable is continuous in social science? [closed]
A question on academic writing in social science research.
How do you frame hypothesis where independent variable is categorical and dependent variable is continuous?
In my specific case, i am ...
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How can I deal some outdated claims/conclusions when I translate old thesis?
Here's some backgound...
I wrote a master thesis several years ago in my native language (Not in English).
And recently I am planning to further my studies and so I think an English version of the ...
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My college laptop went kaput and I don't have any writing samples to include in my grad school application. Do you have suggestions?
Practically all programs require a writing sample from applicants. I'm preparing to apply by the end of 2022 but I'm stressed about this aspect of it since I have very few options.
The hard drive in ...
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Writing a short paper focusing on recent advancements in a specific field
Is this an acceptable and common approach to write a short paper (maybe a letter) on a relatively broad topic (e.g. applications of deep learning in a specific field) with the aim of reporting recent ...
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Listing pending and ongoing studies? [duplicate]
I am applying to a professional post graduate program and they are looking for publications or research experience. I have a research paper, that has been approved for publication, but not yet ...
4
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1
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Is it a good idea to omit the structure of a paper from the introduction? [duplicate]
It seems that most every paper – at least in my field of computing – has the same structure for its introduction; first comes a global prosaic overview of the problem, then a bullet-point list of ...
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What comes first a research question or a hypothesis?
I am thinking how to structure a paper on economics. I have some scatter data from online sources, but nothing I collected on my own, say, via a survey.
I am struggling to figure out how to organize ...
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Unit Symbols for Equations
This question falls in the general category of another question from 5.5 years ago with the addition of the explicit request from the reviewer.
A comment from a reviewer requested that units of all ...
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Is it a good idea to submit the preface of my dissertation as a writing sample for PhD application?
I am planning to apply for a PhD in the USA and Canada in fall 2023. I'm applying to English, Film and Media and Gender studies departments. All the programs require only one writing sample of decent ...
22
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Scientific writing: attributing actions to inanimate objects
I have always believed that sentences such as
This (paper/report/section/work/chapter/...) describes ...
should be avoided in scientific work, as they attribute an action (describing) to an ...
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Where to start - writing up a PhD thesis
I am 2 1/2 years in a a part time PhD and really struggling to know where to start with the writing up phase. I have enough research, although this is obviously subject to change, but really don't ...
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Can I use tables to contain my figures in word, while submitting it as a manuscript?
Because it is difficult to make a figure description stick to the figure in word (slightest motion of figure within the document messes-up a lot of text, especially near the figure) I decided to ...
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How to write a scientifc work of my design
I want to write a scientific master thesis. I dont want it to look like a technical report.
I had to configure a system: It contains roughly 2 chips.
Then this system has to send data to another ...
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3
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What is the role of the supervisor in paper writing? [closed]
Should the supervisor be involved in writing parts of the publication with their students? correct parts the student writes or shoould the supervisor just submit the paper after the student has ...
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646
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Does publishing in non-prestigious journal damage your portfolio [duplicate]
Context
A year ago, I had a desire to write my first article for a journal. Since I hadn't had much experience in scientific writing, I gave up writing it. However, I've recently found this work and ...
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577
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For inclusiveness sake, what is the consensus about which usage of "blind" should be changed?
In academic contexts, what is the consensus on whether we should avoid using "blind" as a category of persons, or should we avoid using it as an adjective (or both or none)? Does it vary ...
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How much is too much when defining and explaining terms in depth in a dissertation?
When writing a dissertation for a PhD in computer science, where the research is interdisciplinary, is it OK to define and include in depth explanation for an extraordinarily large amount of ...
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Best tips for writing sessions [closed]
I've got a fair amount of writing ahead of me in the coming months and I'm here to ask you all for some strategies for grinding some good writing. I know only of the pomodoro technique, which ...
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