Words, words words. 'Which' & 'That'

My well-worn copy of Strunk and White[1] encourages me to go on a “which hunt”, replacing uses of the word “which” with “that”. I remember reading this a long time ago, and since then I’ve made it a practice. But over time I forgot why I was doing it.

The “why” relates to what are known as restrictive and non-restrictive clauses in sentences. Restrictive clauses refer specifically to an object or event. An example of a restrictive clause in a sentence is “The satellite that no longer functions is still in orbit”. In this sentence the writer is referring to a specific satellite that is broken, but still in orbit.  “That” is used.

A non-restrictive clause adds information about an event or an object. And example of this is “The Landsat orbiter, which no longer functions, is still in orbit.”. Here the writer is talking about the Landsat satellite and telling the reader that, by the way, it no longer functions.  “Which” is appropriate here.

In my life as a copyeditor, I have, from time to time, made this mistake. The sharp authors out there have called

John @ ProofreadCanada

[1] Struck Jr., W., and E. White. 1979. The Elements of Style. Third Edition. Simon & Schuster, Needham Heights, MA.

Words, words, words. ‘In order to’ & ‘in terms of’

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

Words, words, words: Use use, don’t utilize or employ it

Using simple language when we write scientific papers is a modern and important communications approach.  Often this shows up in papers as word substitutions where a complicated term is written when a simple one will do. One of the word substitutions that I see all the time when I am proofreading articles is “employ” or “utilize” when the word “use” also fits.

In my dogeared copy of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, the first definition of “employ” is “use; keep in one’s service; busy”. They mean the same thing! This means that it is not wrong to say employ in place of use, but use is simpler, clearer and the right choice in many sentences. Similarly, the OED defines “utilize” as “make use of….”. Similar. Again, there are sentences where utilize would be okay. But if they mean the same thing, use “use” to simplify a sentence.

It is perfectly natural in science to try to find precise wording. Sometimes words with more syllables seem that way. “Use” seems generic, while “utilize” and “employ” are very specific. They are, but often in different contexts than in sentences where I often see them, well, used. Was this useful?

John @ ProofreadCanada

In Your Own Words

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Plagiarism is an issue that hangs over all scientists. It is essential to credit previous research and it is also important to not mis-state what researchers have previously discovered. Often, the best way to do this is to say it in the original author’s own words. But improperly managed, this is plagiarism. Particularly for scientists who don’t write English fluently, walking the line between plagiarism and mis-representation is a challenge.

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In my experience the best way to overcome this challenge is to describe previous research in your own words, no matter how clumsy this may seem at the beginning. Its almost a sure thing that you won’t be able to phrase it as well as the original author. But don’t worry about that at the beginning. As your paper works through the editing, proofreading and copyediting stages, this initial awkward wording will get improved. Try to find someone you can trust to edit your document, alerting them to passages with potential for either repeated phrases or need for clarification. It may take a few rounds of back-and-forth comments to get it right.

Rest assured. There are many ways to say the same thing in science. You do not have to repeat, word-for-word, the original authors’ passages. Often, restating them in your own terms will add clarity and context to previous findings. And trust the process.  A good editor, an alert proofreader and trusted colleagues will help you refer to important, earlier research without having to resort to quotation marks or, worse, plagiarizing their work.

John @ ProofreadCanada

What Kind of Editing do You Need?

There are almost as many types of editing as there are editors. If you need to know whether you need a technical (substantive) or stylistic edit, you should look at this great advice from Editors Canada on Youtube.

What's the difference between substantive editing and stylistic editing?

Canadian Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Physics

Dr. Donna Strickland of Guelph, Ontario, Canada becomes the first Canadian woman to win a Nobel Prize. Dr. Stickland is only the third woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics. And she did this with research she published as a graduate student. It was her first ever publication that won her the Nobel. What an inspiration!

There are two kinds of calls you get at 4:58 a.m. — the bad news kind, or the kind where someone tells you you've won the Nobel Prize in Physics. pic.twitter.com/Pg0Vl7Dbl5

— CBC News: The National (@CBCTheNational) October 3, 2018

Create, kill and humiliate: essential steps to writing research papers

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There are many reasons why the world’s most cited papers appear in Nature and Science. For sure some of this has to do with reputation. You can trust that the papers published here describe important research. But also, because they are short. Quick to read, short papers have broad appeal. Scientific brevity is very difficult to achieve but can improve your changes of getting manuscripts accepted and your paper cited. The essential steps to writing a short, accurate and impactful scientific paper are to create, kill and humiliate.

Writing is the obvious first step. This is the creative stage after your research is done where you should feel free to write down everything you have learned and how important it is. Don’t hold back at this stage. If it takes you 10,000 words, 8 figures and a dozen tables to describe your fantastic research, then do it. You should feel good about this stage. So, fill your boots and put it all on the page.

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An editor friend of mine says that the toughest part of science is the editing stage. Here you have to kill your favourites. Pause after your writing stage, take a very critical view of your work. Then cut, cut, cut. And cut some more. What you are aiming for is the essential information that describes your work, its context, the findings and your interpretation. Of course, the principle of replicability cannot be violated, so you have to completely describe what you’ve done. But not more than that. A common mistake is to leave in data that you clearly spent a lot of effort to collect but is not essential to your paper. Take a deep breath and cut it out. This hurts.

It is humiliating to hand your best ideas over to someone who you know will cut it to pieces. But this is an inevitable step in science. Before you send your paper to the journal, your supervisor or graduate committee, have someone proofread it. You’ll be surprised how much this will improve your work. Try to find someone who is not scared to give honest feedback and identify the paper’s essential bits. You’ll feel hurt when you get your paper back, covered in red. But your science will be better.

Writing, editing, proofreading. The final, essential steps in the scientific process. Master these steps and your research will make that leap from a great idea to a high impact contribution to your field.

John @ ProofreadCanada

Tragedy for an International Student in Canada

International students in Canada have held a vigil for a colleague who took his own life after losing his visa to stay in Canada. Read more here in the Pie News.

International Students are Choosing Canada

The Conference Board of Canada has reported that the number of students coming to Canada from other countries has tripled in the last 10 years. Although Canada’s reputation as a welcoming nation is part of the reason for this surge, the main reason is the quality of the education international students can get here. Read the report here

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A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Effective use of figures and tables is such an important skill to learn for preparing scientific papers that will have an impact. Journals love them, but not too much. The key is to get the balance right.

A few, clear figures that demonstrate key results that would be painful to describe in words. Use colour only if absolutely necessary; colour is more expensive to print and many of your readers will struggle to tell colours apart. Spend some time crafting a succinct but descriptive figure caption. A reader should be able to understand what your figure means without having to refer to the text in the paper. Make sure you cite the figure in your manuscript text, but don’t rewrite the figure caption there. Simply describe the result supported by the figure reference.

My PhD supervisor told me once that using a table in a presentation shows that you don’t know what you are talking about. While tables might be a Powerpoint™ sin, they have an important place in a scientific manuscript. Particularly if you have quantitative data that you want current and future scientists to be able to use, put the data in a table. Follow the journal’s table formatting guidelines. Again, a clear and descriptive caption is important, but you don’t need to repeat the caption in your text. If you want to include a table, but it is too long or complex for the journal, consider including it as supplementary material.

You’d be surprised to know how many people will read your paper by skimming the abstract and flipping to your figures and tables. If they find what they are looking for there, they will read, and cite your paper. This is what you are after. So, take some time to carefully craft effective figures and tables. You won’t regret it.

John @ ProofreadCanada

Numbers of students studying abroad continues to rise

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published their Education at a Glance Report. It shows that the number of international students in higher education programs worldwide continues to accelerate. The PIE News breaks it down for you in a recent blog

Writing in English is Strange

When you are writing a scientific article, you should follow some simple guidance that applies to writing anything in English.

There is no question that writing anything in English is a challenge. But there are some simple rules that you can follow to get the fundamentals right.

Here is a great read from the Guardian that is entertaining and so true.