Questions tagged [academia]
Questions related to academic English or English for academic purposes, i.e. the English used in higher education.
210
questions
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Capitalization. How do "-based" suffix behave when used on titles? [duplicate]
I'm writing an academic article title, and, for matter of capitalizations, I would like to know:
if "-based" is appended to a word, is "-based" treated as another word and should ...
2
votes
4
answers
116
views
Is "Fair Witness" an adequate alternative term for "whistle blower" in academia?
It was suggested to me to use the term "fair witness" instead of "whistle blower" (when proposing to design a university course about such topic, and potentially an academic study ...
-1
votes
2
answers
68
views
Term for creating Terminology
I’ve been struggling to remember a word for “creating discrete terminology.”
It feels like an academic word used in linguistics in the vein of “semiotics,” (but not dealing with signs, dealing with ...
0
votes
2
answers
77
views
Possessive Contraction over Equations and Mathematical/Physics Laws
In my mother language, Spanish, when we refer to a famous equation, say those for electromagnetism, we say "Ecuaciones de Maxwell". This translates, literally, as "Equations of Maxwell&...
-1
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2
answers
39
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More professional ways to express "something else I have learned" as the title of a slide
I am a PhD student and I was preparing a slide presentation for summarizing what I did and learned in the last year. My plan is first presenting research work progress and then showing what I have ...
0
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0
answers
32
views
Usage of "broaden the perspective"
I would like to ask if the phrase "broaden the perspective" can be used in academic papers or is there a way to write it better? The usage is the following:
"I believe that children ...
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
Em dash to introduce a quote
Is it fine to introduce a direct quote with an em dash? I want to briefly summarise a quote, while still giving it in full. Something like:
However, Smith (2021) argued that foo can in fact improve ...
0
votes
1
answer
91
views
Bachelor vs Engineer degree and thesis [closed]
So when it comes to my education I have earned an Engineer's degree at some European university, and my final thesis was some thing that I definitely would like to boast about before my future, ...
1
vote
0
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106
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manifests or manifests itself
The sentence (from University Physics book, the image of full text is attached):
The work done by nonconservative forces manifests itself as changes in the
internal energy of objects.
Can we delete ...
-1
votes
1
answer
56
views
Let us suppose vs Suppose [closed]
When should we use "Let us suppose", and when "Suppose" in science academic articles?
Example 1:
Suppose the electric field lines in a region of space are straight lines.
or
...
2
votes
3
answers
63
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A word to describe an assistant who knows when to ask me for help on cases he is not familiar with?
I have an assistant who helps me deal with some daily works.
Currently, he deals with everything on his own. Apparently, there are cases he is not familiar with, but he never reports them to me. So I ...
0
votes
3
answers
97
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How to describe a scenario that is close to the real conditions
I am writing a technical paper that includes economic analysis. In one section, I need to give a justification for choosing interest rates used in the study. I am trying to say the interest rates were ...
0
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0
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35
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Academic course repeats every week and every term. Succinct terminology to tell one from the other?
I am participating in an academic course that is multiple weeks long (the course spans a full term / a full semester). In some years, the whole course is offered multiple times a year (every term / ...
0
votes
1
answer
57
views
Single word request: cancer patients' prognosis is bad (serious)
I, a non-native English speaker, am writing an academic summary in medicine and I am trying to find a word for describing that cancer patients prognosis is bad. However, "bad" isn't an ...
0
votes
3
answers
111
views
Word for converting grades from one system to another?
Say I attended high score in country A, where students are given grades in the form of letters (A–F). I want to attend university in country B, where high school grades are in the form of numbers, say ...
0
votes
1
answer
44
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Dissertation: correct writing of a numbered list [closed]
Are there any grammatical rules for numbered lists (my university does not have a guideline for this)?
Which format would be correct for the given example of numbered objectives? Two things that I ...
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Is "arts" (a subject in schools) a singular noun?
When used as subject, is the word arts considered a singular noun or a
plural one?
Art is my favorite class at school this term.
Arts is? my favorite class at school this term.
Why can’t we just say ...
0
votes
0
answers
25
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Should we not use abbreviations at all in academic writing? [duplicate]
I submitted a paper to a computer science conference, and the reviewer mentioned that I should correct grammar/writing issues throughout the paper.
Some of the things he/she mentioned:
don't -> do ...
-1
votes
2
answers
132
views
More formal way of saying "taking almost all"
I am trying to revise the following statement:
A takes almost all the rewards which are usually given to clients contributing important attributes.
The takes almost all seems not very formal and ...
2
votes
1
answer
340
views
"The problem under consideration" vs "The considered problem" vs "The problem considered" [closed]
I'm writing a research essay.
Is there any difference between the provided three variants? If so, which is best to use?
0
votes
2
answers
573
views
Looking for a verb that means division into multiple branches
I am looking for a verb that describes division into multiple branches. The context is an academic report that describes a graph that contains four curves over the range of -3 to 3. Over half the ...
1
vote
0
answers
61
views
What are the rules for pluralising abbreviations?
Especially in academic writing, pluralisation of abbreviations is a very handy device: ‘p’→‘pp’¹ is ‘page’→‘pages’, ‘ed’→‘edd’ becomes ‘editors’, ‘ll’ is ‘lines’, ‘nn’ is ‘notes’.² The rule (given ‘ed’...
2
votes
2
answers
156
views
"Consent" in passive voice to refer to subject giving consent?
I noticed a usage I consider odd while copy editing, and I'm hoping someone can explain it. Here are two examples from published academic work:
Participants were consented to the study between 13 ...
0
votes
2
answers
60
views
Is there a more popular alternative to the term 'flexibilization'?
Flexibilization refers to the changing work practices by which firms no longer use internal labor markets or implicitly promise employees lifetime job security, but rather seek flexible employment ...
0
votes
4
answers
81
views
Violence incidents or violent incidents? [closed]
In an academic paper I discuss violent situations. Is it correct to refer to this as 'violence incidents'? Or should I refer to it as 'violent incidents' instead?
0
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0
answers
33
views
Saying a period of time of -ties (ex: the 80s to 90s) for a research paper correctly
I'm trying to write a sentence that mentions a specific period of time, though I'm not sure if I wrote it correctly or not. Here's what I have.
We have succeeded in the era of the 1960s to 1980s
...
1
vote
0
answers
36
views
Using "Sequence" in music context
As a part of my academic paper, I wish to use the "Sequence" word.
Here is the problem:
As you can see in the picture, the "Start Time" of each note is mentioned on the time axis. ...
2
votes
2
answers
141
views
left arrow, left-pointing arrow, or leftwards arrow? [closed]
In the context of a figure caption referencing a left-pointing arrow in the figure in the following parenthetical way:
Fig. 1 | ... Here I describe some process (left arrow). ...
A colleague ...
0
votes
2
answers
50
views
How to say that something doesn't get divided?
For my work, I cluster genes in a way that some genes can be in a cluster of size 10, and others in a cluster of 1, i.e. the gene is a singleton and has no other genes to cluster with. After that, I ...
0
votes
5
answers
78
views
Choosing the right title for my academic publication [closed]
I'm writing a computer science paper where the concept is "many small pieces would work better that a single big one". Basically the collaboration of multiple small entities would be better ...
0
votes
0
answers
41
views
"What is x?" as a non-question title
I am working on my PhD thesis. I would like to have section title like "What is x"? (Specifically, "What is Information Flow Security?") However, I wish to avoid rhetorical ...
0
votes
0
answers
981
views
"In the preceding paragraph" vs "in the last paragraph"
I am writing an academic paper.
After finishing paragraph A, I want to refer to A in paragraph B, which follows A.
I am confused with choosing "in the preceding paragraph" or "in the ...
0
votes
0
answers
630
views
"Represent" vs "stand for" vs "means"
I am writing an academic paper.
I wrote the following sentences
Notation A ↔ B stands for that A corresponds to B. Qualid and ident
stand for qualified identifiers and simple identifiers,
...
0
votes
0
answers
71
views
"During the proof search" vs "during searching the proof"
I am writing an academic paper and use "during searching the proof" in my paper.
But my friend suggested me to use "during the proof search".
I also feel "during the proof ...
0
votes
1
answer
208
views
Founding father/mother or founding figure?
I'm quoting an author who is known as the "founding father" of a scientific discipline. However, I feel that I want to make it sound less patriarchal. Of course, many disciplines had women ...
0
votes
0
answers
287
views
Could we say "discuss future work"?
I am writing my thesis. I have a sentence
Finally, we conclude the thesis and discuss future work in Section 6.
My friend told me that "discuss future work" was not appropriate, and I ...
0
votes
0
answers
584
views
"one is ... another is ... " and "the first is ... the second is ...."
I am writing an academic paper. I use the following representations:
However, up to now, far too little attention has been devoted to two
problems of the state-of-the-art proof automation systems. ...
0
votes
0
answers
85
views
"make them widely used" and "lead to them being widely used"
I have two alternatives in an academic paper. The first is
Additionally, the expressive logic foundations of ITPs lead to them
being widely used
The other is
Additionally, the expressive logic ...
0
votes
0
answers
44
views
"constructing proofs directly by hand" or "directly constructing proofs by hand"
There are two alternatives for a sentence
Nevertheless, developing automatically verifiable proofs by proof assistants usually takes more time than constructing proofs directly by hand.
and
...
0
votes
0
answers
55
views
How to express the "multiple" of one thing's advantage over another?
For example, car A runs at a speed of 30 km/h, and car B at a speed of 90 km/h. How can I express the multiple of B faster than A?
B has 3 times advantage over A in speed.
B has 2 times advantage ...
0
votes
3
answers
220
views
Whilst or while, etc - Oxford Spelling
I am writing an academic paper and would like to use the Oxford spelling throughout. (I am native British.) I read that Oxford spelling generally follows British English other than a few exceptions, ...
0
votes
1
answer
98
views
worry vs worries
I saw them go through unemployment and worry about putting food on the table.
I saw them go through unemployment and worries of putting food on the table.
Which is grammatically correct?
0
votes
0
answers
29
views
Is this sentence correct? ( adj+noun order)
"...possibly generated by the damages intensification of the hexagonal lattice caused by the repeated impact of the steel balls during the milling process."
First of all, from my point of view, damage ...
0
votes
2
answers
97
views
Is this sentence correct? Could you please help me?
This process has been used to aggregate CNTs into metal matrices such as silicon, copper, aluminum and nickel.
It sounds ambiguous to me since I cannot tell by who, when or to what extent has this ...
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
Is this collocation correct?
"This process was used to identify..."
I am not sure if "used" is correctly used here along with the word "process". Do you think it is correct, or should I replace it with "performed" or "carried out"...
1
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0
answers
34
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Is this sentence correct in the way that "and" is used?
"It is a relatively inexpensive process, and also preserves the involved materials in the solid-state, avoiding possible phase limitations."
It doesn't sound so good to me, but I am not a native ...
2
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Convention of writing percentage range
I am writing to inquire the convention of writing the following percentage range in academic writing:
We reduce the extra cost from 99.9% to 12%--24% (depending on different configuration schemes).
...
0
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0
answers
197
views
Is "get stuck" a proper term in academic writing?
I am writing to inquire the usage of "get stuck" in academic writing. Here is my draft:
this design could get stuck in a bad local minima and therefore is not desired.
I use Google Scholar to ...
1
vote
1
answer
909
views
The phrase "too simple"
I've seen three different peer reviewers criticize parts of scientific manuscripts as being "too simple", with little elaboration as to what changes are desired or what it means to be "too simple". ...
4
votes
3
answers
533
views
What can I call a longer passage in an academic work (text equivalent to "Figure")?
I want to number blocks of texts in my work (parts of a movie script or something the creators said) so that I can refer to them throughout the essay. Is there an equivalent to 'Figure' to label these ...