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20.6 Always have the referee in mind
The key factor when revising your paper is to have the referee in mind. Here are two
quite typical comments related to poor writing skills.

I often had to defer my interpretation of the meaning of a sentence until I had read it in its
entirety. Frequently I got lost in a series of subordinate clauses. The paper would thus ben-

efit from a major revision from a language point of view.
This paper could be improved considerably if the authors gave more consideration to their

readers. At times it was difficult to follow the logical connection of the authors’ ideas, and
on several occasions I was tempted to stop reading completely.
Referees often make a direct connection between the time and effort that an author
makes in presenting information, and how much time and effort the author has spent
in doing their research. If the information is presented badly, then the implication is
that the research may have been conducted badly too. Also it helps to remember that
referees make reports on manuscripts in their free time for no financial reward –

they are of much more benefit to you, than you are to them! To learn about how

reviewers write their reports see Chapter 11 in English for Academic Correspondence.

20.7 Check for clarity in the logical order of your

argumentation
In English it is considered good practice to state upfront what will be argued in an
article and how. As you re-read your manuscript make sure there is a logical progres-

sion of your argument. Don’t be influenced by how a paper might be written in your
own language. Kateryna Pishchikova, a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, says:
Russians tend to use long and complicated sentences. They often follow a “detective story”
logic according to which the reader has to follow the events or arguments as they unfold and
will only learn what the author is trying to say at the end. Overall, complexity, and not clar-

ity, is synonymous with good scientific or specialist writing.

So check that your key findings are not hidden in the middle of sentences or
paragraphs.

20.8 Be careful with cut and pastes

If you write your paper in conjunction with other authors you multiply the chances
of mistakes and ambiguity. Words such as it, that, this, one, former, latter and which
are potentially dangerous if the words they refer to are subsequently changed by
another author. For example, imagine Author 1 writes