Grammar & Language

Hello there and thank you for writing in to us. Many researchers have difficulties with writing research papers in English, and you are not alone! And it is true that one cannot always depend on their advisor for language and editing advice. Here are the options you can explore: Help from your peers: Reach out to your fellow graduate students or colleagues who are familiar with academic writing conventions and your subject matter. You can share drafts with them, and they can provide valuable feedback on the language, grammar, and academic tone. They might even offer useful tips. Professional editing services: There are numerous professional editing services available that cater specifically to academic writing like Editage. These services employ experienced editors with expertise in various fields and can provide comprehensive editing, proofreading, and formatting assistance. Online editing tools: Finally, while not a substitute for human editing, online tools such as ChatGPT can be useful for catching basic grammar, spelling, and style errors. These tools can be helpful for initial drafts before seeking more comprehensive editing assistance. As you mentioned, ChatGPT-like options have their limitations. They should be used carefully and in conjunction with human editing and review.  For high-quality academic writing at the Master’s...

Thank you for your question. I will try to address this based on my understanding of your question, if I have got it correctly! Please do comment and correct me if this is not what you were looking for.When you are about to start your research, you have got to find an interesting question. A question that is intriguing and full of uncertainty. As a researcher, you can approach this research question (the objective of a study) in two ways: countermeasure and path research.Countermeasures are the arguments which are set to nullify or obstruct the said research question or objective. All arguments will require extensive research. For some countermeasures, you will find exhaustive literature, and for some, you will face challenges given the nature of the problem. Depending on the availability of published research, reliable data, and characteristics of the problems, you can strategize a step-by-step plan of action that will give direction to your thought-process, enabling you to conduct research systematically within a set timeframe and produce quality results and detailed reporting.On the other hand, the developmental path (path research) is an approach leading you to the materialisation of the said objective after examination of pre-existing factors, aspects, and methods.

Thank you for your question!As you’ve identified, the difference between these three phrases is based on their describing three distinct types of relationships. “Related to” suggests that there is a direct relationship between two entities or two variables, but does not specify the nature of this relationship—this phrase is only an acknowledgement that a direct relationship exists. “Associated with” refers to a more general and unspecified relationship, which could be direct or indirect.In contrast, “correlated to” or “correlated with” is a descriptor for a specific type of statistical relationship between two variables wherein the magnitude of one has a quantifiable and predictable effect on the magnitude of the other. “Correlated with” is sometimes used colloquially to refer to non-statistical relationships, but this is strictly speaking incorrect, and the phrase should be reserved to describe this specific type of relationship.I hope this is helpful and lets you make more precise word choices in your writing!

The conclusion typically contains the author's final thoughts about the study findings, how they relate to the study aim, how the findings will be of relevance to future research, and what recommendations can be made basis the author's research. The final thoughts and concluding statements are usually written in the present tense, and if the author makes recommendations about the usage of the study findings as well as scope for further research, these are usually presented in the future tense.We hope this helps. All the best for your manuscript!

The conclusion typically contains the author's final thoughts about the study findings, how they relate to the study aim, how the findings will be of relevance to future research, and what recommendations can be made basis the author's research. The final thoughts and concluding statements are usually written in the present tense, and if the author makes recommendations about the usage of the study findings as well as scope for further research, these are usually presented in the future tense.We hope this helps. All the best for your manuscript!

Welcome to the Editage Insights Q&A Forum, and thanks for your question on writing the study background.   We have quite a few resources on writing the study background on the forum, site, and a related platform, R Upskill (which provides learning programs for researchers/academics). We have linked a few of these below. For more, you can search the forum/site and the platform using the relevant keywords.  How to write the background of your study  What is the best way of stating the background of a study?  How To Write Background Of The Study In Research?  Hope that helps. All the best for your study!   

We usually don't mention a 'complimentary' closing statement for formal newspaper articles. For articles in scientific magazines as well, you need not write 'Thank you' at end of your article. If you are the invited editor for a special edition of a magazine, you can certainly express your gratitude at the end of your letter, but again, this is preferential choice and not a rule.

Thank you for sharing your question. This question is a little unclear and doesn’t seem to be about research publishing which is what we normally talk about on the Q&A forum. :-)However, we are into editing (Editage), so here goes our answer:First of all, when “none” is followed by a plural noun (in this case, “characters”), it is recommended that the verb used is also in the plural form. In this case, "seems" will change to "seem". Moreover, “living lives” sounds a bit awkward and repetitive. Instead, since you seem to be referring to the lives of these characters, you could say “living their lives.” Considering what we’ve discussed, the first half of the sentence must change to “None of the characters seem to be living their lives.”Now, let’s talk semantics. You’ve chosen to join two independent clauses which don’t seem to have much in common in terms of meaning, using a semicolon. Note that a semicolon must only be used when two sentences are closely linked to each other. That doesn’t seem to be the case with the two clauses in this sentence.Therefore, coming to your question about changing the verb form, let’s look at the clause “they have (choose) themselves”...

By ‘literature write-up,’ we understand you mean ‘literature review.’ Now, do you mean an entire paper that is a literature review or only the literature review section of the paper that typically comes in the Introduction?Anyway, the answer is: it depends, and it’s quite possible to have multiple tenses in the literature review. (That’s why your basic question is right: What tenses should be used… rather than What tense should be used…) To know more, you may go through these resources (one of which is a similar question):What tense should I use when writing a literature review?The secret to using tenses in scientific writingAnd in case you are writing a literature review, you may find these articles helpful:A young researcher's guide to writing a literature reviewHow to write the literature review of your research paperHope that helps!

Well, this doesn’t seem to be around research or research publishing (which is what we, along with our parent brand, Editage, are about), unless of course, the guests were researchers. :) But we are into editing (Editage) and providing resources for researchers (Editage Insights), so here goes…Actually, here, the right word/phrase is not ‘together,’ but ‘along with.’ ‘Along with’ has a sense of accompaniment, whereas ‘together’ has a sense of being or doing something in tandem. In this sentence, the focus is on the mayor as the person of prominence, who is accompanied by his wife, rather than they going around welcoming people as a team or duo. Also, the punctuation, which is missing here (except for the period at the end), needs to reflect the focus on the mayor. Therefore, the really correct way of writing this sentence, with the right verb and punctuation, would be: The mayor, along with his wife, greets the guests at the party.For more such terms of common confusion, especially in research writing, you may refer to the following resources:What is the correct verb to use in my research paper?Is "a series" singular or plural?6 Types of word choice errors in scientific writing