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Again, the first words of the sentence alert the reader that you are now going to
qualify the negative stuff you said before by offering some optimism. You could
also use some conditional sentences to show what might have been possible if you
had had different circumstances, or what might be possible in the future.

If we had managed to … then we might have been able to …

If we manage to … then we might be able to.

19.9 How should I relate my limitations to possible
future work?
Don’t attempt to lessen the negative impact of the limitations of your research (see
Chapter 9 ) by simply claiming that these limitations could be solved in ‘future

work’. Referees and editors can quickly see through this strategy and thus dismiss
your claims as being unfounded or vague. Instead, you need to give some details
regarding how they could be solved.

Below I will examine three examples of very poor paragraphs describing limitations
and future work. The italics are mine.

EXAMPLE 1 Although we obtained meaningful results, the present study is not without
limitations, which must be addressed in future research. First, the causal relationships in our
test model could be reversed by cross-sectional research. Future studies may employ experi-
mental and longitudinal designs to evaluate the causality implied in our model. Second, the
samples used in the study are only from Mainland China. We should take care when gener-

alizing these findings to other cultures.
The referees of Example 1 might ask themselves:

1. who is supposed to address the limitations - the author or the community?

2. why ‘must’ they be addressed ( must sounds very strong)?

3. why has the author used may (which indicates a 50-60 % probability) in rela-
tion to future studies?
4. who does we refer to - the author or the community?

5. why should we ‘take care’ and why should the findings be generalized?
6. what kind of ‘care’ should we take?
7. if the findings are going to be ‘generalized’, how might this be done and with

what possible outcome?