Page 109 - English for Writing Research Papers

91

5.15 Reduce your authorial voice

Readers will not appreciate being continually given a commentary on what you are

doing in your paper, as in the fi rst five examples in the OV below. Also, avoid we to
refer to you and your readers, as in the last example.

original version (ov) revised version (rv)
As in the previous case we observe that There are three distributions of this
there are three distributions of this measure:
measure:
We can identify two categories of users.. There are two categories of users..
It is now time to turn our attention, in the The rest of the paper focuses on the
rest of the paper, to the question of.. question of …
We find it interesting to note that x = y. Interestingly, x = y.

As we can see in Fig. 1, for each network Figure 1 highlights that there is a series of
we have a series of different relationships. different relationships for each network.

For more on this topic see 7.6 , 7.7 and 7.8 .

5.16 Be concise when referring to figures and tables

The RVs below highlight how it is not difficult to be concise when referring to fi g-

ures and tables.

original version (ov) revised version (rv)
Figure 1 shows schematically / gives a Figure 1 shows a comparison of two
graphical representation of / components.
diagrammatically presents / pictorially
gives a comparison of two components
From the graphic / picture / diagram / Figure 3 shows / highlights / reports that …
drawing / chart / illustration / sketch / plot
/ scheme that is depicted / displayed /
detailed / represented / sketched in
Figure 3, we can say that …
The mass spectrum, reproduced in the The mass spectrum (Fig. 14) proved that …
drawing in Figure 14, proved that …
We can observe / As can be seen from Table 3 highlights that …
Table 3 that …
From an analysis / inspection of Table 3 it
emerges that …