Page 360 - English for Writing Research Papers

351

13. Alarming errors, even if they could be easily corrected, gave the manuscript a sense of

carelessness that makes me hesitant to recommend it for revisions.
14. This would have been a question of high interest 10 years back.

15. I also would add that while I don’t have anything serious to complain about, I also see
this work as being pretty straightforward – there is no “big idea” that I see as especially
imaginative or creative. Again, it is extremely solid, just not necessarily sexy.

16. There are FAR too many analyses and results. The reader is swamped. It’s simply not

possible to take it all in. It needs to be pruned.
17. So, what is the point of this?
18. Words are used inappropriately—I count, for example, 13 instances of “unique”, but it is
used correctly only once.

19. Not sure how to say this diplomatically, but the manuscript is really dull.
20. The abstract says absolutely nothing, and I mean this literally.

(2) Read the sentences below and find the mistakes. Each sentence contains at least
one mistake. The mistakes can be (a) grammatical, (b) word choice, (c) punc-
tuation, or (d) spelling and typos.
1. In this contest the underling problem is that form an economic point the process is too
costly which would thus make it prohibitive to purchase.

2. This is the first time that such result is found in the filed of Nuclear Physics.

3. The samples were weighted (av. 5 g) and then subjected to Smith's method (Smiht et al,
2017) and each sample was associated to one of three categories.

4. In addiction in the final phase the micro-thin stripes of tissue have been examined under the
microsope.
5. The influence of the color of the structure was found to have a greater influence then the

type of behaviour.
You can find many more grammar, vocabulary and writing exercises in the follow-

ing books in the series:

English for Academic Research: Grammar Exercises
English for Academic Research: Vocabulary Exercises

English for Academic Research: Writing Exercises

************

According to Professor David Dunning, professor of psychology at Cornell University:

A full 94% of college professors state that they do ‘above average’ work, although it is
statistically impossible for virtually everybody to be above average.