Page 370 - English for Writing Research Papers

361

Don’t underestimate editors and reviewers when they ask for a ‘linguistic revision’.
Here is what one editor wrote after the authors revised the technical aspects of their
paper but failed to address English language issues:

This new revision does address many of the concerns regarding the technical substance of
the manuscript. Unfortunately, the English writing (which the reviewers raised, and which
was explicitly listed as requirement #2 in the review summary) continues to be an issue
(in fact, the newly revised portions have the most language issues). There are problems with
word order, commas, (missing or incorrect) articles, duplicated or missing words, logical
inconsistencies, and general grammar issues throughout.

There will therefore need to be yet another minor revision, after which point I hope the
manuscript will be in an acceptable state.

Let me stress the fact that improving the writing is *not* optional. If the manuscript comes
back with significant remaining language issues, then it will unfortunately have to be

rejected.

See Chapter 13 in English for Academic Correspondence to learn how to communi-
cate with editors.

20.15 A tip for using professional editing agencies

If you decide to use the services of a professional editing agency, ensure that you

request a certificate that certifies that the English of your manuscript has been edited
by a native English speaking editor. You can then send this certifi cate to the editor
along with your manuscript.
This should help you to deal with reviewers whose own English is not suffi ciently
good to judge the quality of your English, but who claim that your ‘English needs to be
revised by a native speaker’ maybe because you have a non-English surname.

Of course, this means that you need to choose a good English editor to do the job,
otherwise the reviewer might be right!!

See 13.5 in English for Academic Correspondence to learn more about using editing

agencies.

20.16 A final word from the author: Let’s put a bit of fun

into scientifi c writing!

There’s a tendency in the academic world to take oneself and one’s discipline very
seriously. This seriousness often leads to extremely tedious presentations at confer-
ences where presenters feel obliged to be mega formal. An over inflated sense of