Page 105 - English for Writing Research Papers

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5.10 Cut redundant adjectives

Whenever you use an adjective decide if it really is necessary.
an acute dilemma, a real challenge, a complete victory, a novel solution, an interesting
result, an appropriate method
Only use an adjective and adverb if it adds precision to your sentence. If you really
think that such adjectives are necessary you should explain why something is novel ,
interesting , appropriate .
Don’t use pairs of adjectives or nouns that essentially mean the same thing. What
contribution, if any, do the words in square brackets below add to the reader’s under-
standing of the sentence?
This is [absolutely] necessary as the reader could interpret the sentence in a [completely]
different way.
This has made it possible to review the analysis of important [fundamental and practical]
problems [and phenomena] of engineering.
Numerical methods have increasingly become quick [and expedient] means of treating such
problems.
Equation 1 is [readily] amenable to numerical treatment.

The method lends itself [most amiably] to being solved by …

5.11 Cut pointless introductory phrases

Often you can avoid an introductory phrase when it is preceded by a heading. For
example, immediately after a heading entitled Results, the following phrases would
be completely redundant.

The salient results are summarized in the following.

The results of this work may be synthesized as follows.
Let us recapitulate some of the results obtained in this study.

Likewise, under a heading entitled Conclusions don't begin by saying:

In conclusion, we can say that …