Page 119 - English for Writing Research Papers

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S1 could thus be rewritten as S2.

S2. Companies have to pay many taxes and occasionally may fail because of over-taxation.
Some [companies] resolve this problem by moving their headquarters to countries where
the tax rate is lower.

This problem is accentuated when authors use different words to express the same
concept over several paragraphs. For instance, in paragraph 1 the author uses the
word test , in paragraph 2 experiment , and in paragraph 3 trial . The reader cannot be

sure if test , experiment and trial all refer to the same scientific procedure or to two/
three different procedures.

Authors come up with ingenious solutions for not repeating the same word. One
device is to replace the key word with a generic description of it.

S3. *Our fi ndings demonstrate that treatment with chitosan resulted in the signifi cant protec-
tion of Arabidopsis leaves against the necrotrophic fungus Botrytis cinerea. This is
closely related to the fact that this compound is perceived by the plant as a powerful
elicitor.
S4. *The maximum solubility of mercury occurs in an oxygenated environment, which is the
typical condition found in soil. The principle forms that are found in soil are Hg(OH) 2
and HgCl 2 . With these ions, this metal can form soluble complexes that are …

Readers will probably understand that in S3 compound refers to chitosan , and in S4
that metal refers to mercury . But it will help readers if you repeat the word for them
( to the fact that chitosan is perceived, … these ions, mercury can form ), so that they
don’t have to read backwards to check. This is particularly important when the
generic word ( compound, metal ) appears several lines later than the original con-
crete word ( chitosan, mercury ).

So, be careful when you use words such as process, parameter, element, feature,
function to refer to a key word – can you be sure that your readers will associate
these generic words with the key word?

Sometimes it is not clear at all what the generic phrase refers to, as in this
example:

S5. *Moreover, it is strongly discouraged to restrain horses while monitoring their cardiac
activity, because this unnatural condition leads to stressing stimuli.

It seems like this unnatural condition refers to restraining horses, whereas in fact
the author was referring to monitoring the cardiac activity as being unnatural. The
simple solution, as always, is to repeat the key word (i.e. monitoring ).

S6. Moreover, it is strongly discouraged to restrain horses while monitoring their cardiac
activity, because such monitoring leads to stressing stimuli.