Tag: Language editing

• The English language contains hundreds of thousands of words, each with its own conventions of use
• Confusion often arises with pairs like 'affect'/'effect' and terms like 'evidence' or 'research' that can be nouns or verbs

This article discusses how to avoid sentence fragments, which may confuse readers and be considered problematic by journal editors.

• Using nouns as adjectives can help save space in your writing
• However, stacking nouns in a long string can create confusion for the reader

• "Main" and "mainly" are commonly confused words in English, although they should be used differently
• "Main" describes something that is principal, while "mainly" equates more to "for the most part"
• Several synonyms for each term can be used to add variety to a manuscript

Attributive nouns are nouns serving as an adjective to describe another noun. They create flexibility with writing in English, but they can cause confusion and should be used purposefully.

As part of our advice about concise writing, this article shows the problems with too many prepositions in writing and demonstrates how to avoid their overuse.

Word limits can be frustrating, but there are several ways to reduce your abstract's word count in a pinch.

Here, we highlight three additional strategies for concise writing: eliminating unnecessary spaces, repetition of units, and wordy transitions.

More information on how to use 'respectively.'