Page 110 - English for Writing Research Papers

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If you refer your readers to a figure, you don’t need to describe the fi gure using
words like graphically or schematically . You don’t need to use many different syn-

onyms either to describe what kind of figure it is or to say what it shows. If possible
use active verbs – this fi gures shows x , rather than x is shown in this fi gure .
In your text, avoid duplicating information that can be easily found in tables and

figures. Just give the highlights.

5.17 Use the infinitive when expressing an aim
You can often save space by expressing your purposes and objectives in the shortest
form possible.

original version (ov) revised version (rv)
We use X for the purposes of showing the We use X to show how Y is suitable for
suitability of Y for the description of Z. describing Z.
In order to maximize channel utilization To maximize channel utilization …
…
The design of software is aimed at The software is designed to support
supporting multimedia services . multimedia services.
The software supports multimedia services.

5.18 Remove unnecessary commonly-known or obvious
information

Don’t include extended amounts of information that even non-expert readers will be
familiar with. The problem of including such information is that readers will feel
that they are not learning anything new, and thus will likely skip the paragraph. If
they start skipping paragraphs, then the risk is that they will skip both irrelevant
AND relevant paragraphs.

Only feed your readers with relevant information thereby reducing the readers’ ten-
dency to skim your text rather than read it in detail.