Questions tagged [academia]
Questions related to academic English or English for academic purposes, i.e. the English used in higher education.
201
questions
1
vote
0answers
26 views
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
1answer
32 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
3answers
56 views
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
3answers
55 views
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
votes
0answers
30 views
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
1answer
47 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
3answers
47 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
1answer
30 views
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
2answers
216 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
0answers
23 views
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
2answers
88 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
1answer
87 views
"The problem under consideration" vs "The considered problem" vs "The problem considered"
I'm writing a research essay.
Is there any difference between the provided three variants? If there is, which is best to use?
0
votes
2answers
98 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
0answers
55 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
2answers
84 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
2answers
51 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
4answers
65 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
votes
0answers
23 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
0answers
29 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
2answers
105 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
2answers
45 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
5answers
75 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
0answers
38 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
0answers
336 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
0answers
192 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
0answers
41 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
1answer
75 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
0answers
105 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
0answers
109 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
0answers
53 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
0answers
37 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
0answers
38 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
3answers
151 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
1answer
41 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
0answers
23 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
2answers
87 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
0answers
22 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
vote
0answers
31 views
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
1k 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
votes
0answers
79 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
1answer
342 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
3answers
353 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
667 views
What does "is seen to be" mean?
I am writing an academic article and to give conservative opinion, I am thinking to use the following statement:
XXX is seen to give worse results and therefore excluded in our report.
I am ...
0
votes
1answer
184 views
Looking for single word to represent "degree of completion"
I am writing a paper. There is a term used in my work that represents "the degree of completion", i.e., 32% in the phrase "32% was completed". I tried "progress" but think it's not intuitive and "...
0
votes
0answers
47 views
capitalization of the word section, theorem,... if refering using both number and adjective/name
I have a question related to Capital letters in "Theorem", "Conjecture" etc, Capitalization of "Theorem 1" in mathematics papers, https://mathoverflow.net/questions/27693/...
1
vote
2answers
57 views
A better word/phrase to describe "a more..." in a scientific paper
I am writing a scientific paper on how a cancer staging system may be improved. However, I am a non-native English speaker, and I am concerned that my current title reflects that too much.
Please, ...
0
votes
2answers
433 views
Does "corroborate" in a scientific context imply confirmation rather "either confirmation or rejection" of findings from previous studies?
I am a non-native English speaker writing a scientific paper.
I have question concerning the word corroborate. In my native language, one might say that a research project aim to corroborate ...
0
votes
1answer
73 views
Should I use a hyphen in "patient tailored" vs "patient-tailored"?
Being a non-native English speaker, I was wondering which is most correct?
(1) Patient-tailored staging of xx carcinoma, or
(2) Patient tailored staging of xx carcinoma?
It is for a scientific ...
1
vote
0answers
57 views
Tense in Academic Writing
What is the correct tense when writing an academic paper? For example, assuming [1] is a reference, are the following sentences correct?
Alice et al. [1] showed that ...
[1] shows that ...
We show ...
0
votes
1answer
63 views
word usage in academic writing - possesses, beyond, ability [closed]
Could you help me to check if this sentence is ok?
Beyond having similar osmosis potential to polymer sponges, it is desirable that the covering material possesses the ability of being dispersed by ...
