When I was an undergraduate, our department had a small chalkboard (yeah, a real chalkboard) in the hall by the library where they would write weekly tips for students. Tips on studying, finding free food, conferences, upcoming special lectures and writing. One of those tips that I have never forgotten was a list of common, but meaningless expressions. The one I recall was “in order to”.
‘In order too’ sounds good, and in some cases can smooth out a sentence. But in scientific manuscripts where length of the paper matters, it is useful to keep in mind that ‘in order to’ means the same as ‘to’. Two whole words eliminated. Boom. When I am proofreading science papers I’ll usually take out ‘in order’ where I find them. Not always. Sometimes ‘in order to’ fits in the flow of the sentence. But often.
And, while I’m on the subject, I also see ‘in terms of’ used a lot. Same issue. Rearranging a sentence can eliminate the need to use this little, throw-away phrase. Changing “The data were collected in terms of height, density and greenness of the grass” can easily be changed to “Grass height, density and greenness data were collected”
Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference in easy to read text.
John @ ProofreadCanada