Leon Yip

Common Clauses In Academic Papers in Layman Terms

My girlfriend sent me a list of common clauses used in academic papers translated into layman terms and I just had to post this up for everyone to see. I’ve read many many academic papers and I can’t help but laugh at this. I hope you enjoy this.

By Dyrk Schingman:

• IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN
  I didn’t look up the original reference.
  
  
• A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT
  These data are practically meaningless.
  
  
• WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS
  An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.
  
  
• THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY
  The other results didn’t make any sense.
  
  
• TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN
  This is the prettiest graph.
  
  
• THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT
  I might get around to this sometime, if pushed/funded.
  
  
• THE MOST RELIABLE RESULTS ARE OBTAINED BY JONES
  He was my graduate student, his grade depended on this.
  
  
• IN MY EXPERINCE = once
  
  
• IN CASE AFTER CASE = Twice
  
  
• IN A SERIES OF CASES = Thrice
  
  
• IT IS BELIEVED THAT = I think.
  
  
• IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT
  A couple of other guys think so too.
  
  
• CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE = Wrong.
  
  
• ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS = Rumorhas it.
  
  
• A STATISTICALLY ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS
  A wild guess.
  
  
• A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA
  Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of beer.
  
  
• IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS
  I don’t understand it.
  
  
• AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES
  They don’t understand it either.
  
  
• THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR ASSISTANCE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO ANDREA SCHAEFFER FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS
  Mr. Blotz did the work and Ms. Shaeffer explained to me what it meant.
  
  
• A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY
  A totally useless topic selected by my committee.
  
  
• IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS FIELD
  I quit.

20 January 2010

• Tags
• academic
• research

I’m seeing a whole lot of activity going on with Haiti. Why didn’t we all help this country long before this happened? Why is it that we naturally sit and wait until a disaster happens before we act on it?

14 January 2010

• Tags
• haiti