Page 102 - English for Writing Research Papers

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5.6 When drawing the reader's attention to something use

the least number of words possible
Occasionally, you may want to draw the reader’s attention to an important point.
You will do this more effectively if you use two words rather than ten. This will
produce a short sentence. Short sentences tend to stand out from the rest of the text,
and thus get noted more.

All the phrases below could be replaced by Note that …

It must be emphasized / stressed / noted / remarked / underlined …
It is interesting to observe that …

It is worthwhile bearing in mind / noting / mentioning that …

It is important to recall that …

As the reader will no doubt be aware …
We have to point out that …

5.7 Reduce the number of link words
While watching a film we unconsciously make hundreds of logical connections that

enable us to follow the story line easily. We certainly don’t think about the hours of

film that have been cut out. Readers too make connections as they move from sen-
tence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph. When papers reflect a clear, logical pro-

gression of ideas, the reader follows the argument without excessive promptings
such as:

It is worthwhile noting that …,
As a matter of fact …,

Experience teaches us that …

The following link words could all be replaced by since :

considering that , given that , due to the fact that , on the basis of the fact that , notwithstand-
ing the fact that , in view of the fact that , in consequence of the fact that

Now compare the two versions below. Note how some of the link words from the
OV have been removed in the RV, some have remained, and others have been added.