I would like to refer a reader in my research text to the source of information. I wrote in my thesis: “confer Proposition X” or “confer Section A”. However, the reviewers suggested I should use instead something like “we refer the reader to Proposition X”. I would like to avoid this long form, as I … Read more
I’m a graduate theology student, and I’m having some trouble with verb tenses. In my first chapter I explore the life and work of the author who is the subject of my study. I am often narrating in the past, but I also talk about particular things he wrote. I find myself saying things like: … Read more
I am writing an academic manuscript to describe the action of “digging certain stuff out.” For instance, given an image containing several pedestrians, my image analysis techniques can extract those pedestrians as separate small images. While “digging pedestrians out of the background image” seems legit, it sounds a bit too verbal to me. Therefore, I … Read more
I know that in a scientific paper or thesis made by a single author, it is common to use we. (This is also recommended at our university.) But what about when you alone are presenting a thesis work orally? At first glance, it is quite odd to use we when the work is written only … Read more
1. “I hope you are doing well” Will be it polite, if I write it in an email to Proff/start an email with it? He was ill, and we wrote me about it 2. Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to meet with me How to use this sentense in past tense? … Read more
Shameless cry for academic help here. I’m working on my thesis, which is a study that will focus on the compounding effect of group dynamics on persuasive technology. The control and treatment group will be given daily SMS notifications encouraging them to walk, but the control group will be participating as disparate individuals, and the … Read more
If a comma belongs next to a coordinating conjunction, it should precede (see Should I use a comma before "and" or "or"?, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/commas/extended_rules_for_commas.html). However, many of published research articles I’ve viewed as a psychology student, and I believe the majority of my textbooks, frequently place the comma after a coordinating conjunction. It’s extremely frustrating; it’s … Read more
When reporting the views of another person, what tense should I use? Here are three fragments of a paragraph from a text I am currently writing: “Another objection is that Friedman overestimates the importance…”, “Against [this], Wilfrid Hodges protests that… “, “…many arguments that Kant regarded as purely logical are…”. My intuition is that I … Read more
I am looking for a word I came across but forgot to note down. It describes that multiple pathways can lead to the same outcome — not in terms of physical paths but rather in terms of an abstract state being reached. The word is academic English and to me it seemed to originate from … Read more
In the following sentence: Since there are many row values at each step of the process, one approach we thought about is to aggregate all the row values into a single value What is the alternative of one “we thought about” in academic writing? Answer Since there are many row values at each step of … Read more
