Part of the fun (and challenge) of editing your scientific writing is trying to iteratively refine the wording so that you deliver maximum value to your reader in the shortest possible space. Always, always think of your reader when you are editing your work. If you are early in the editing process, or need to shorten your manuscript to comply with word limits (e.g., when submitting applications for funding), the following tips will help you pare down that word count and keep your writing lean.
Fluff
In general, every piece of writing will contain so-called “fluff” words that can be categorised as unnecessary. These can usually be deleted from a manuscript outright without harming the legibility at all. We are trained to enjoy seeing these words in prose because they add flavour, but flavour adds no tangible value to a piece of scientific writing. Words like “really”, “very”, “literally”, “somewhat”, “sort of”, “quite”, etc., only serve to lengthen the text. Do a global search for each of these words and check each sentence you find them in. Read the sentence aloud without the word. Does it still make sense? If so, don’t be afraid to get rid of it. Don’t do a global delete, though – sometimes you might have a good reason to use one. Use your discretion, but be honest with yourself about whether you really need it.
Repetition
Some people may think that repeating a point makes it stronger in the reader’s mind, but all it does it take up valuable real estate in your manuscript – and for no good reason. Also, it can feel to your busy, busy readers that you’re wasting their time by making the same points ad nauseum. If you have to repeat a sentence to make your point there’s probably a more compact and punchy way of rearranging the sentences. Often, you can find “hidden” repetition that isn’t immediately obvious because the two similar phrases aren’t near each other. For example, if you make a point in one paragraph, and then make the same point (with different wording) in a few paragraphs’ time, you may not even notice until you read the whole text through. It’s amazing how easy easy it is to do this multiple times in just one thesis chapter. In these cases, if the point you’re making doesn’t have a good reason for being repeated you can probably rework both paragraphs into one. It’s worth doing this even if you have the space to spare in your thesis, because the more concise it is, the happier your examiners will be. Why make them read 200 pages if you can say everything you need to in just 100?
Another common tendency for scientists is to use two words that mean basically the same thing right beside each other, like “schematic diagram”, or “research work”. Just one will do!
Adverbs, for added pizzazz
You should also avoid repeating individual words too frequently – especially if they’re repeated in the same paragraph or section (a thesaurus is your best friend here). One common feature I find when I’m proofreading is that authors will have up to three favourite adverbs that get rotated at the start of each sentence to make the writing sound more professional. I do agree that adverbs are a lot of fun to use – the more archaic, the taller your invisible top hat – but when you see the same few being constantly repeated it can be jarring for the reader. The ones I see most commonly are; “furthermore”, “therefore”, “thus”, and “consequently”. One of the nice things about the English language is that it’s absolutely stuffed to the brim with adverbs you can choose from, so if you find you’re using any adverb more often than once per paragraph, grab a thesaurus (or use an online one) and search for a suitable synonym.
Unless you’re struggling to stick to a word limit, in which case, you can probably delete some if you use them a lot. Most of the time, they’re a “nice to have”, not a “must have”.
On that topic, it is possible to use adverbs to your advantage in chopping your manuscript down to size. Authors (especially in the sciences) have a tendency to use overly wordy little phrasings that make us feel fancy and literary. However, in many cases, a targeted, well-placed adverb can replace the entire phrase and save you several words in your word count, not to mention saving your readers from wading through Word Soup. We use these wordy phrases so often, usually without really thinking about it, that I can often cut pages out of a document just by replacing them all with appropriate adverbs. Some examples of common phases might be things like, “in addition to this…” (which you could just replace with “additionally”), or “it is without a doubt that…” (undoubtedly, or indubitably if you want to be extra fancy), or “due to the fact that…” (because or since), or my personal favourite, “it can be clearly seen that…” (clearly).
Get over the “hedge”
In the sciences, we tend to use the above-mentioned wordy phrases to “hedge our bets”, especially when discussing results because we want the reader to know we’re aware of any shortcomings in the research and aren’t overly confident. The keyword there being “overly”. If you have fairly discussed any weaknesses and biases in the study, and their impact on your results, it’s not necessary to continuously couch any vaguely positive statements with multiple hedge-words like “One might consider that…” or “It is possible to suggest…” or “It could be said that these results may show a possible effect…” as a pre-emptive defence. It’s unnecessarily negative.
By using multiple hedge words to qualify your statements, all you’re doing is bloating your writing and leaving a negative impression in the mind of your reader about the value of your work. After all, you can achieve the same effect just using a single hedge word, so why use two, three, or four in the same sentence to amplify the doubts? Even if you’re speculating about possible conclusions that may be drawn from your results, you can still be brief. With phrases like “These results may show…” or “This suggests…” or “It is possible that…”, you can still show that your conclusions have a degree of uncertainty without casting a huge doubtful cloud over the value or validity of your research.
Add a splash of Latin
Nothing looks more literary than little bits of Latin everywhere. If you actually learned Latin at school, you may feel like Salt Bae as you sprinkle all this archaic seasoning into your manuscript. Just remember before you slip into your toga and sandals that if you use very obscure phrases that the reviewers need to look up, you’ll probably annoy them immensely. Fear not, though! There are still plenty of commonly used phrases that you can get away with. The best thing about them is that they can be very conveniently abbreviated, and using them may help you sneak in under the word limit or help you whittle away at your page count.
Note that full stops follow each abbreviated Latin word, except at the end of a sentence where it is suppressed in favour of the sentence-ending full stop. Generally, unless the style guide you’re following says otherwise, if they’re in the middle of a sentence they should be followed by a comma (except cf. which never takes a comma). For example, Caesar et al., is followed by a comma in the middle of a sentence, but at the end only has one full stop, as in Brutus et al.
If you didn’t do Latin at school, here is a list of the most common phrases you’ll find and what you can use them to replace.
| Abbreviation | Stands for… | Which means… | Can also replace… |
| cf. (1) | confer | “compare to/with” | “consult”, “see also” |
| e.g. (2, 4) | exempli gratia | “for the sake of example” | “for example”, “by way of example”, “for instance” |
| et al. | et alii | “and others” | (used to complete lists of authors) |
| etc. (3) | et cetera | “and the rest (of the things)” | “and so on”, “and so forth” |
| i.e. (4) | id est | “that is” or “it is” | “in other words”, “that means”, “that is to say” |
| i.o. | in illo ordine | “in that order” | “respectively” |
| vs. | versus | “facing” | “against”, “in opposition to”, “as opposed to” |
| viz. (2) | videlicet (from videre licet) |
“it is permitted to see” | “namely”, “that is to say” |
(1) This is generally only used to compare opposing or contrasting information (usually during a literature overview/introduction) provided by different references, otherwise you’d still use “see also” if comparing two references that largely agree.
(2) If you are only listing a couple of examples out of a much larger list, use e.g. to introduce it. If you’re listing most (or all) of the objects in a series then viz. is more appropriate since it implies a greater degree of completeness than e.g. does.
(3) If the list you’re providing has two or more objects in it, you should put a comma before the etc. For example, alpacas, llamas, etc.
(4) There is sometimes confusion about when to use e.g. or i.e.; in general, if you want to give examples of something to illustrate your point, use e.g., whereas if you want to expand on your point or explain it in an alternative way, i.e. is more appropriate.
Final note on Latin: It used to be common when spelling out Latin phrases in full to use italic font. Indeed, we use italics to highlight commonly-borrowed but non-English terms and phrases in our guides for the benefit of non-native English speakers. This convention seems to be falling out of fashion, and more quickly in some fields than others. Some journals only want specific Latin phrases set in italics, and some want all Latin to be set in normal, non-italicised font. I’ve heard tales of some rare holdouts who still want all Latin to be italicised. The best advice I can give here is to check with the style guide of your chosen journal (or your University, when it comes to your thesis) and see what they say. If they don’t say anything, check with your thesis advisor or some leading current papers and see what the convention is in your specific field. In the absence of any guidance whatsoever, then as long as you are consistent in your usage you shouldn’t run into too much trouble! If you want to avoid the issue altogether, use the abbreviated form, which is never italicised (much easier and less stressful!).
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