(An essay -How to write an academic paper (part3: Short Sentences

Today, one of the most difficult challenges for student is writing an academic paper. While knowledge and oratory are what students need more in the professional world, writing a research paper demands more than these two skills.

This essay is aimed at students or researchers in any field of study who wish to write a research paper in English. This article is useful for both inexperienced and experienced authors (also authors whose first language are English or not). It helps You to increase your chances of acceptance of your manuscript.

The essay is divided into several parts and each part will be published every Tuesday through this weblog.   

With a long sentence, the listener or reader may have forgotten the end by the time that the speaker or writer has reached the final few words that they are going to say or write, even though the listener or reader may be paying particular attention, whether it is late or early and whether they are tired or alert.

With short sentences, the listener gets the whole thing in one go. Easy to remember. Easy to understand. More powerful communication.

There is a natural pause after a sentence. This gives the other person space in which to consider what is said. This also adds 'thoughtfulness' to what is being said.

Too many short sentences and the effect is like a long sentence where the message gets lost or the listener feels battered by the repeated impact. 

This chapter shows you high to create shorter sentences.

3.1 Think above all about the reader

Whether they are Nobel Prize winners, Oxford professors, or first-year university

students, all readers prefer sentences that they:

• only need to read once

• don’t have to read slowly because the sentence does not require intense concentration

• can process word by word and thus understand the build-up of the author’s

3.2 The longer your sentence, the greater the chance it will be misunderstood

The referee of the paper where the following sentence appeared, asked the author to “delete this sentence or rewrite so that it means something sensible”. ‘Sensible’ means something that makes sense. Note: I have changed the key words in this sentence to protect the author, but the structure is identical.

Even if the occurrence of this particular form of pulmonary tumor occurs on a rare basis, since the behavior of these tumors is extremely difficult to predict and the histological features resembling a discrete cell tumor may lead to misdiagnose a C2 tumor as a C1 tumor, it would be of interest to characterize those lesions and to take them into account in the differential diagnosis of hereditary or congenital tumors.

3.3 Short sentences are not a sign of inelegance and superficiality

 Some non-native researchers feel inadequate because they are unable to express themselves in the same way as they would in their own language. This is particular true for researchers in the humanities and social sciences, where authors often express opinions rather than solely hard facts. Before I hold writing courses with PhD students, I give them a questionnaire. One question is: ‘What for you is the most difficult aspect of writing in English? 

3.4 Why and how long sentences are created

Long sentences contain one or more of the following:

1. a link word or phrase (e.g. and, moreover, in fact, although, due to the fact that).

2. a list of items, most of which are qualified (i.e. by enumerating their characteristics). This is typical when authors describe a procedure that has many parts or some equipment / software that has many components.

3. one or more semicolon or colon, or a lot of commas. This is typical of an author who does not want to waste time organizing his/her thoughts in a way that will be clearer to the reader.

Link words and punctuation are used either add to or qualify the preceding part of   the sentence, or to introduce a new idea. The resulting sentence in all three cases is often too long to be understood easily on a first reading.

3.5 and

In the OV below, and is used in two different ways:

(1) to join two verbs (speak and write) and two nouns (English and Italian) x

(2) to add additional information (and that this is true … and to this end)

In the first case there is no problem, but the second usage makes the sentence too long (65 words). The revised version rearranges the order in which the information is given, and divides the sentence into three parts.

• original version

The aim of this paper is to confirm that how we speak and write generally reflects the way we think and that this is true not only at a personal but also at a national level, and to this end two European languages were analyzed, English and Italian, to verify whether the structure of the language is reflected in the lifestyle of the respective nations.

• revised version

How we speak and write generally reflects the way we think and act. This paper aims to prove that this thesis is true not only at a personal but also at a national level. Two European languages were analyzed, English and Italian, to verify whether the structure of the language is reflected in the lifestyle of the respective nations.

3.6 as well as

as well as is used to add some additional information. It is often used as an alternative to and when the sentence might otherwise contain too many ands and would thus confuse the reader. If using as well as will create a very long sentence, it is best to break the sentence. However, you cannot begin the new sentence with as well as. Instead you have to repeat some part of the previous sentence, as in the two RVs below

• original version

This finding could be explained by the specific properties of gold, silver and platinum as well as by the conditions in which these metals were found, for example silver was found in ...

• revised version

This finding could be explained by the specific properties of gold, silver and platinum. Another explanation could be the conditions ...

3.7 Other link words that introduce additional information: moreover, in addition, furthermore

 The techniques used for dealing with and (Sect. 3.5) can also be used for sentences containing words and phrases that have a similar meaning to and such as in addition, furthermore, and moreover.

• original version

The treatments are very often expensive and technically difficult, moreover their effectiveness very much depends on ...

• revised version

The treatments are very often expensive and technically difficult. Moreover, their effectiveness very much depends on ...

3.8 Link words that compare and contrast: whereas, on the other hand; although, however

You cannot always break up a long sentence that contains a link by beginning a new sentence using that link word. This is because not all link words can be used at the beginning of a sentence. For example, when whereas is used to compare two findings in one long sentence, it should be replaced with on the other hand when the sentence is split into two.

The use of although and however is the same as with whereas and on the other hand, respectively.

Although can only be used in a two-part sentence, where one part depends on the other. For example:

3.9 Link words that give explanations: because, since, as, in fact

 Words such as since and although are often used in a subordinate clause at the beginning of a sentence, as in S1 below.

S1. *Since English is now spoken by 1.1 billion people around the world and is used as a lingua franca in many international business and tourism scenarios between people of different languages and between native English speakers and non-native speakers, the learning of foreign languages in the United Kingdom has suffered a huge decline.

The problem with S1 is that readers are forced to carry an idea in their head before they understand how this idea relates to the idea in the main clause (in italics). It would be much easier for readers to understand if S1 was split into two parts and rewritten as in S2.

S2. English is now spoken by 1.1 billion people around the world and is used as a lingua franca in many international business and tourism scenarios between people of different languages and between native English speakers and non-native speakers. The consequence is that the learning of foreign languages in the United Kingdom has suffered a huge decline.