Long time ago, when I earned my living as a research fellow, I thought reading academic editing tips was a waste of time. I wasn’t a writer, and scholarly writing wasn’t prose. My paper had to communicate the results of my research, and it had to be free of mistakes, but the writing style wasn’t important.
Now, as a freelance English editor, I know the quality of the language does matter. It can influence referees’ impression of a paper and, in turn, the editorial decision of the journal editor.
One reason might be a psychological bias called the halo effect. This is “the phenomenon whereby we assume that because people are good at doing A they will be good at doing B, C and D”, as The Economist explains it.
The reverse phenomenon is called the negative halo. It may lead some referees—those who do not try to combat this unconscious bias—to assume that a poorly written paper contains less-than-perfect science.
Many scientists know about this bias and do their best to combat it. However, even when they make a purely unbiased, objective decision when evaluating a manuscript, journal editors appreciate well-written papers. That’s because good writing has two powerful qualities: clarity and effectiveness.
In this guide I’m discussing several academic editing tips that can help you improve your manuscript and its likelihood of being accepted for publication.
Academic editing tips from a freelance editor
To help you make more informed decisions when writing scholarly papers, I’ve gathered some language editing tips from the papers I’ve worked on recently.
Replace “this paper studies” with “in this paper we study”
There’s nothing wrong with the phrase this paper studies. Many copyeditors will leave it unchanged.
But if you think about it, the paper cannot study anything. You do. And you did. The paper did nothing, except being written by you. So, writing In this paper, we present the results of our study is better style.
Keep paragraphs short: One idea per paragraph
Break down long paragraphs, to give readers time to pause and digest an idea before they move on to the next. Keep your paragraphs short, but don’t be telegraphic.
A good rule of thumb is to ensure each paragraph expresses one idea only. When you switch to a new idea or change the direction of an argument, start a new paragraph.
Remember there shouldn’t be a sharp transition from one idea to another. Use transition phrases and words between paragraphs. Doing so will help you ensure your story doesn’t look disjointed.
Befriend “because”
This academic editing tip is straightforward. Do not use complicated phrases when you mean because. Because is a powerful word. Because is a clear word. Replace the following phrases or words with because and you’ll improve the concision and clarity of your writing.
- as a result
- due to the fact that
- given that the
- because of the fact that
- by reason of
- considering that
- given the fact that
- seeing that
- in view of the fact that
- as
- since
Reference figures in parentheses
To improve concision, reference figures and tables and parentheses rather then in the body of the sentence. Compare the following examples:
As illustrated in Figure 1, our data show…
Our data show… (Figure 1)
In the first example, writing as illustrated in is unnecessary, because you are referring to a figure, whose point is to illustrate something. If you want to be even more concise, you can eliminate Our data show and write the results directly. Mention the figure in parentheses.
As the graph in Figure 2 shows, the data points are scattered…
The data points are scattered (Figure 2)
Again, you can delete the words As the graph in Figure 2 shows and the sentence doesn’t lose its meaning.
So, if you want your writing to be concise, or you want to decrease the word count of your manuscript, leave out the descriptive phrase as illustrated by or as the graph X shows.
Be assertive
It’s your research, and you know it better than anyone else. So, instead of beating around the bush, say what you mean. You’ll make your statements more powerful and credible. The side benefit is concision.
Here are three examples of weak clauses and how to edit them to improve the writing style.
Weak: The results of our analysis seem to suggest that…
Better: Our analysis suggests that…
Weak: An analysis of Y leads us to conclude that it could be interpreted
Better: We interpret Y as…
Weak: The proposed approach in this paper is…
Better: In this paper, we propose…
If you’re not sure whether you should use the pronouns I, we, and our in academic writing, read my post Is it acceptable to use “we” in scientific papers?
Think twice before using a thesaurus: Repetitions aren’t mistakes
If you need to repeat a term more than a few times in a sentence, it probably needs editing. So, consider rewriting or rewording the sentence so it doesn’t bother the eye or the ear.
But if you need to repeat a word twice in a sentence, don’t be afraid to do so. Repetition is not incorrect.
If you use a thesaurus to look for synonyms because you want to avoid repetitions, the result can be funny, awkward, or just annoying. Consider this sentence as an example:
A decrease in X shows a reduction in Y because of a decline in Z.
In this case, it’s better to edit the sentence.
There is a correlation between….
It can be difficult to know whether you should avoid repetition. However, a trick that can help you decide is to read the text aloud. Language wasn’t made for the eyes, but for the ear.
So, when you read the sentence aloud, do the repetitions bother your ear? If yes, edit the sentence. Otherwise, keep it as it is.
Use acronyms to help your readers, not make their life harder
I have to mention acronyms in this list of academic editing tips. They may seem like a minor topic compared to the rest, but how you use them makes a big difference to your writing.
The whole point of using acronyms is to speed up reading. You achieve this goal when you need to repeat a term many times in a manuscript.
However, if you introduce acronyms for terms that appear only a couple of times in your paper, you’re going to slow down your readers, not help them.
When they read the acronym for the first time, they’ll make an effort to remember what it stands for. But if you’ve used the acronym sparsely, by the second time your readers come across it, they might not remember what it means. They’ll have to go back to the earlier pages for the explanation.
There’s no strict rule on how many times a term should appear in a paper before the introduction of an acronym is warranted. Some style guides say three or four times per section. Your journal manuscript preparation guidelines might give you other instructions.
If your publisher has no guidelines on acronyms, put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Does the acronym help them read the text faster? If yes, use the acronym. Otherwise, spell out the term each time.
Don’t “note” or “mention”, just write what you mean
When writing your research paper, you may need to make a comment that’s too important to place in the footnotes. You might be tempted to introduce it with words such as
- it is worth noticing,
- it is worth mentioning,
- as a note, or
- it should be noted that.
These words are just filler text. You can safely remove them, to improve concision.
In some cases, however, using such introductory text before a comment can make your writing appear more conversational. If that’s what you want, use them. Otherwise, aim for concision.
Use etc. in parentheses
The travel-size version of Latin et cetera, etc., is a useful abbreviation. However, in formal writing, etc. is just as unsightly to publishers as ketchup on pizza is to Italians.
Many journals copyeditors replace etc. in text with and so on or and so forth. So, in academic writing, consider using etc. only in parentheses and footnotes. Per APA Style, for example, etc. should be used only in parenthetical material.
Ready to improve your academic writing skills?
Writing clearly and effectively can help you get published, so perfecting your writing skills is worth the effort. As well as reading books on academic writing and practicing as much as you can, seek advice from people who are knowledgeable about academic writing. Getting timely and constructive feedback on your writing will make you a better academic writer.
The academic editing tips in this article can help you when you edit your own research paper. If you need to hire a freelance editor, send me a message at editor@languageediting.com.
Related posts:
- Write your research paper outline
- Is it acceptable to use “we” in scientific papers?
- My list of the best academic writing books
Last revised on 1 November 2023
