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Words and Phrases to Avoid in Academic Writing

Published on February 6, 2016 by Sarah Vinz . Revised on September 11, 2023.

When you are writing a dissertation , thesis, or research paper, many words and phrases that are acceptable in conversations or informal writing are considered inappropriate in academic writing .

You should try to avoid expressions that are too informal, unsophisticated, vague, exaggerated, or subjective, as well as those that are generally unnecessary or incorrect.

Bear in mind, however, that these guidelines do not apply to text you are directly quoting from your sources (including interviews ).

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Table of contents

Too informal, too exaggerated, too subjective, generally incorrect, other interesting articles.

Academic writing is generally more formal than the writing we see in non-academic materials (including on websites). It is also more formal than the ways in which we normally speak. The following words and phrases are considered too informal for a dissertation or academic paper.

Informal sentence starts

Some words are acceptable in certain contexts, but become too informal when used at the beginning of a sentence. You can replace these with appropriate  transition words  or simply remove them from the sentence.

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Using vague terms makes your writing imprecise and may cause people to interpret it in different ways. Always try to be as specific as possible.

Academic writing is usually unadorned and direct. Some adverbs of frequency (such as always and never ) and intensifiers (words that create emphasis, such as really ) are often too dramatic. They may also not be accurate – you’re making a significant claim when you say something is perfect or never happens.

These terms do sometimes add value, but try to use them sparingly.

Some words and phrases reveal your own bias. For instance, if you state that something will obviously happen, you are indicating that you think the occurrence is obvious – not stating a fact.

Expressing your opinion is appropriate in certain sections of a dissertation and in particular types of academic texts (such as personal statements and reflective or argumentative essays ). In most cases, though, take care when using words and phrases such as those below – try to let the facts speak for themselves, or emphasize your point with less biased language.

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Certain words and phrases are often used incorrectly, even by native speakers of a language. If you’re exposed to such mistakes often enough, you may start to assume they are correct – but it’s important that you don’t let them creep into your writing.

You should also bear in mind that some of these mistakes relate to things we all frequently mishear (for instance, we often think the speaker is saying would of instead of would have ).

In general, you should also try to avoid using words and phrases that fall into the following categories:

• Jargon (i.e., “insider” terminology that may be difficult for readers from other fields to understand)
• Clichés (i.e., expressions that are heavily overused, such as think outside of the box and at the end of the day )
• Everyday abbreviations (e.g., approx. , ASAP, corona, stats, info )
• Slang (e.g., cops , cool )
• Gender-biased language   (e.g., firemen , mankind )
• Generally unnecessary (e.g., redundant expressions that do not add meaning, such as compete with each other instead of simply compete)

Reflective reports and  personal statements  sometimes have a less formal tone. In these types of writing, you may not have to follow these guidelines as strictly. The preface or acknowledgements of a dissertation also often have a less formal and more personal voice than the rest of the document.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Sarah's academic background includes a Master of Arts in English, a Master of International Affairs degree, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. She loves the challenge of finding the perfect formulation or wording and derives much satisfaction from helping students take their academic writing up a notch.

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164 Phrases and words You Should Never Use in an Essay—and the Powerful Alternatives you Should

This list of words you should never use in an essay will help you write compelling, succinct, and effective essays that impress your professor.

Writing an essay can be a time-consuming and laborious process that seems to take forever.

But how often do you put your all into your paper only to achieve a lame grade?

You may be left scratching your head, wondering where it all went wrong.

Chances are, like many students, you were guilty of using words that completely undermined your credibility and the effectiveness of your argument.

Our professional essay editors have seen it time and time again: The use of commonplace, seemingly innocent, words and phrases that weaken the power of essays and turn the reader off.

But can changing a few words here and there really make the difference to your grades?

Absolutely.

If you’re serious about improving your essay scores, you must ensure you make the most of every single word and phrase you use in your paper and avoid any that rob your essay of its power (check out our guide to editing an essay for more details).

Here is our list of words and phrases you should ditch together with some alternatives will be so much more impressive.

Vague and Weak Words

What are vague words and phrases.

Vague language consists of words and phrases that aren’t exact or precise. They can be interpreted in multiple ways and, as such, can confuse the reader.

Essays that contain vague language lack substance and are typically devoid of any concrete language. As such, you should keep your eyes peeled for unclear words when proofreading your essay .

Why You Shouldn’t Use VAGUE Words in Essays

Professors detest vagueness.

In addition to being ambiguous, vague words and phrases can render a good piece of research absolutely useless.

Let’s say you have researched the link between drinking soda and obesity. You present the findings of your literature review as follows:

“Existing studies have found that drinking soda leads to weight gain.”

Your professor will ask:

What research specifically? What/who did it involve? Chimpanzees? Children? OAPs? Who conducted the research? What source have you used?

And the pat on the back you deserve for researching the topic will never transpire.

Academic essays should present the facts in a straightforward, unambiguous manner that leaves no doubt in the mind of the reader.

Key takeaway: Be very specific in terms of what happened, when, where, and to whom.

VAGUE Words and Phrases You Shouldn’t Use in an Essay

Flabby words and expressions, what are flabby expressions.

Flabby expressions and words are wasted phrases. They don’t add any value to your writing but do take up the word count and the reader’s headspace.

Flabby expressions frequently contain clichéd, misused words that don’t communicate anything specific to the reader. For example, if someone asks you how you are feeling and you reply, “I’m fine,” you’re using a flabby expression that leaves the inquirer none the wiser as to how you truly are.

Why Should Flabby Words be Removed from an Essay?

Flabby words are fine in everyday conversation and even blog posts like this.

However, they are enemies of clear and direct essays. They slow down the pace and dilute the argument.

When grading your essay, your professor wants to see the primary information communicated clearly and succinctly.

Removing the examples of flabby words and expressions listed below from your paper will automatically help you to take your essay to a higher level.

Key takeaway: When it comes to essays, brevity is best.

Flabby Words and Expressions You Shouldn’t Use in an Essay

Words to avoid in an essay: redundant words, what are redundant words.

Redundant words and phrases don’t serve any purpose.

In this context, redundant means unnecessary.

Many everyday phrases contain redundant vocabulary; for example, add up, as a matter of fact, current trend, etc.

We have become so accustomed to using them in everyday speech that we don’t stop to question their place in formal writing.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Redundant Words in Essays

Redundant words suck the life out of your essay.

They can be great for adding emphasis in a conversational blog article like this, but there is no place for them in formal academic writing.

Redundant words should be avoided for three main reasons:

• They interrupt the flow of the essay and unnecessarily distract the reader.
• They can undermine the main point you are trying to make in your paper.
• They can make you look uneducated.

The most effective essays are those that are concise, meaningful, and astute. If you use words and phrases that carry no meaning, you’ll lose the reader and undermine your credibility.

Key takeaway: Remove any words that don’t serve a purpose.

Redundant Words and Phrases You Shouldn’t Use in an Essay

Colloquial expressions and grammar expletives, what are colloquial expressions.

A colloquial expression is best described as a phrase that replicates the way one would speak.

The use of colloquial language represents an informal, slang style of English that is not suitable for formal and academic documents.

For example:

Colloquial language: “The findings of the study appear to be above board.”

Suitable academic alternative: “The findings of the study are legitimate.”

What are Grammar Expletives?

Grammar expletives are sentences that start with  here ,  there,  or  it .

We frequently use constructions like these when communicating in both spoken and written language.

But did you know they have a distinct grammatical classification?

They do; the expletive.

Grammar expletives (not to be confused with cuss words) are used to introduce clauses and delay the subject of the sentence. However, unlike verbs and nouns, which play a specific role in expression, expletives do not add any tangible meaning. Rather, they act as filler words that enable the writer to shift the emphasis of the argument. As such, grammar expletives are frequently referred to as “empty words.”

Removing them from your writing can help to make it tighter and more succinct. For example:

Sentence with expletive there : There are numerous reasons why it was important to write this essay. Sentence without expletive: It was important to write this essay for numerous reasons.

Why Should Colloquial Expressions and Grammar Expletives be Removed from an Essay?

While colloquial expressions and grammar expletives are commonplace in everyday speech and are completely acceptable in informal emails and chatroom exchanges, they can significantly reduce the quality of formal essays.

Essays and other academic papers represent formal documents. Frequent use of slang and colloquial expressions will undermine your credibility, make your writing unclear, and confuse the reader. In addition, they do not provide the exactness required in an academic setting.

Make sure you screen your essay for any type of conversational language; for example, figures of speech, idioms, and clichés.

Key takeaway: Grammar expletives use unnecessary words and make your word count higher while making your prose weaker.

Words and Phrases You Shouldn’t Use in an Essay

Nominalization, what is normalization.

A normalized sentence is one that is structured such that the abstract nouns do the talking.

For example, a noun, such as solution , can be structured to exploit its hidden verb, solve .

The act of transforming a word from a verb into a noun is known as normalization.

Should normalization be Removed from an Essay?

This is no universal agreement as to whether normalization should be removed from an essay. Some scholars argue that normalization is important in scientific and technical writing because abstract prose is more objective. Others highlight how normalizations can make essays more difficult to understand .

The truth is this: In the majority of essays, it isn’t possible to present an entirely objective communication; an element of persuasion is inherently incorporated. Furthermore, even the most objective academic paper will be devoid of meaning unless your professor can read it and make sense of it. As such, readability is more important than normalization.

You will need to take a pragmatic approach, but most of the time, your writing will be clearer and more direct if you rely on verbs as opposed to abstract nouns that were formed from verbs. As such, where possible, you should revise your sentences to make the verbs do the majority of the work.

For example,

Use: “This essay analyses and solves the pollution problem.”

Not: “This essay presents an evaluation of the pollution issue and presents a solution.”

While normalized sentences are grammatically sound, they can be vague.

In addition, humans tend to prefer vivid descriptions, and verbs are more vivid, informative, and powerful than nouns.

Key takeaway: Normalization can serve a purpose, but only use it if that purpose is clear.

normalization You Shouldn’t Use in an Essay

That’s a lot to take in.

You may be wondering why care?

Cutting the fat helps you present more ideas and a deeper analysis.

Don’t be tempted to write an essay that is stuffed with pompous, complex language: It is possible to be smart and simple.

Bookmark this list now and return to it when you are editing your essays. Keep an eye out for the words you shouldn’t use in an essay, and you’ll write academic papers that are more concise, powerful, and readable.

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Avoid These Words and Phrases in Your Academic Writing

When writing an academic essay, thesis, or dissertation, your professor or advisor usually gives you a rubric with detailed expectations to guide you during the process. While the rubric will identify the major requirements for the paper, it will probably not tell you what words or phrases you need to avoid. Whether you want to earn a stellar grade on your next paper or you're hoping to get published in an academic journal, keep reading to discover words and phrases you need to avoid in your academic writing.

"A great deal of"

I encounter the phrase a great deal of in most academic papers that I edit. Avoid using this vague phrase, because your academic writing should be specific and informative. Instead of saying a great deal of, provide exact measurements or specific quantities.

"A lot"

Similar to the previous phrase (a great deal of), a lot is too vague and informal for an academic paper. Use precise quantities instead of this overly general phrase.

"Always"

Avoid using the word always in your academic writing, because it can generalize a statement and convey an absolute that might not be accurate. If you want to state something about all the participants in your study, use specific language to clarify that the statement applies to a consistent action among the participants in your study.

It is almost a cliché to tell you to avoid clichés, but it is an essential piece of writing advice. Clichés are unoriginal and will weaken your writing. In academic writing, using clichés will erode your credibility and take away from all the research and hard work you have put into your project.

What qualifies as a cliché? According to Dictionary.com , A cliché is an expression, idea, or action that has been overused to the point of seeming worn out, stale, ineffective, or meaningless. Your words should be original, carry meaning, and resonate with your readers, and this is especially important for academic writing. Most clichés have been used so frequently in so many different contexts that they have lost their meaning. To eliminate clichés, scan your paper for any phrases that you could type into an internet browser and find millions of search results from all different topic areas. If you are unsure if your favorite phrases are overused clichés, consult this Cliché List for a comprehensive list.

Contractions

Academic writing should be formal and professional, so refrain from using contractions. Dictionary.com offers the following advice regarding contractions: Contractions such as isn't, couldn't, can't, weren't, he'll, they're occur chiefly, although not exclusively, in informal speech and writing. They are common in personal letters, business letters, journalism, and fiction; they are rare in scientific and scholarly writing. Contractions occur in formal writing mainly as representations of speech. When you proofread your paper, change any contractions back to the original formal words.

Double negatives

Double negatives will confuse your readers and dilute the power of your words. For example, consider the following sentence:

"He was not unwilling to participate in the study."

The word not and the prefix un- are both negatives, so they cancel each other out and change the meaning of the sentence. If you want to convey that someone reluctantly participated in the study, express that clearly and explicitly.

"Etc."

The abbreviation etc. is short for the Latin word et cetera , which means and others; and so forth; and so on. Dictionary.com specifies that etc. is used to indicate that more of the same sort or class might have been mentioned, but for brevity have been omitted. I discourage writers from using etc. in academic writing, because if you are writing an academic paper, you are writing to share information or scholarly research, and you are not conveying any new information with the abbreviation etc. Instead of writing etc., explicitly state the words or list that you are alluding to with your use of etc. If you absolutely must use etc. , make sure you only use it if readers can easily identify what etc. represents, and only use etc. at the end of lists that are within parentheses.

"For all intents and purposes" and "for all intensive purposes"

These two phrases are often used interchangeably, but you should avoid both of them in your academic writing. Avoid the second phrase in all of your writing: For all intensive purposes is an eggcorn (a word or phrase that is mistakenly used for another word or phrase because it sounds similar). For all intents and purposes is generally a filler phrase that does not provide any new information, so you can usually omit it without replacing it.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Idioms include phrases such as he kicked the bucket, and they are particularly problematic in academic writing, because non-native English speakers might not understand your intended meaning. Below are three of the idioms I encounter most frequently when editing academic papers:

• All things being equal : All things being equal is usually an unnecessary or redundant phrase that you can simply omit without replacing with anything else.
• In a nutshell : Instead of saying in a nutshell, use a more universal phrase such as in summary or in conclusion.
• On the other hand : Idioms such as on the other hand are informal and will weaken your paper. Instead of writing the phrase on the other hand, consider using conversely.

In-text ampersands ("&")

Do not use ampersands in place of the word and in sentences. Most style guides dictate that you use an ampersand for parenthetical in-text citations, but you need to spell out the word and in your paper. An ampersand within the text of your paper is too informal for an academic paper.

"I think"

You do not need to include the phrase I think when explaining your point of view. This is your paper, and it should contain your original thoughts or findings, so it is redundant to include the phrase I think. Doing so will weaken your writing and your overall argument.

"Never"

Similar to the word " always, " avoid using the word never in your academic writing. Always and never will overgeneralize your statements. If you absolutely must use never in your academic writing, make sure that you specify that it applies only to the participants in your study and should not be applied to the general population.

"Normal"

Avoid using subjective terms such a normal in your academic papers. Instead, use scientific or academic terms such as control group or standard. Remember that what you consider normal might be abnormal to someone else, but a control group or standard should be objective and definable.

Passive voice

Passive voice is one of the most frequent issues that I correct when editing academic papers. Some students think passive voice provides a more formal tone, but it actually creates more confusion for your readers while also adding to your word count. As the UNC Writing Center explained , The primary reason why your instructors frown on the passive voice is that they often have to guess what you mean. Most style guidelines (APA, MLA, Chicago) also specify that writers should avoid passive sentences. Whether you're writing your first draft or proofreading for what feels like the hundredth time, you can change passive sentences by making sure that the subject of your sentence is performing the action.

One way to look out for passive voice is to pay attention anytime you use by or was. These two words do not always indicate passive voice, but if you pay attention, they can help you spot passive voice. For example, the following sentence uses passive voice:

"The study was conducted in 2021."

If your style guideline allows you to use personal pronouns, specify a subject and reword the sentence to say:

"We conducted the study in 2021."

If your style guideline dictates that you avoid personal pronouns, you can make the sentence active by saying:

"The researchers conducted the study in 2021."

There are exceptions to most writing tips, but not this one: You should never use profanity in your academic writing. Profanity is informal, and many people might find it offensive, crude, or rude. Even if you enjoy creating controversy or getting a rise out of your readers, avoid profane words that might offend professors or other readers.

Academic writing can feel overwhelming, but hopefully this list of words and phrases to avoid in academic writing will help you as you navigate your next big assignment. Although there are exceptions to some items on this list, you will grow as a writer if you learn to avoid these words and phrases. If you consult your professor or advisor's rubric, adhere to style guidelines, and avoid the words or phrases on this list, you might even have fun the next time you have to stay up all night to finish an academic paper.

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Words To Avoid In Research Papers: Best Practices

In research papers, there are certain words that should be avoided. These include bias and discriminatory language, cliches, repetitiveness, wordiness, and inappropriate language that can damage credibility, undermine the argument, or alienate the audience.

Table of Contents

By using appropriate language, such as concrete and abstract words, denotation and connotation, and active voice, the research paper can communicate clearly and concisely. It is important to consider the language used in academic writing to ensure that the content is not unnecessarily complex and the credibility of the research is maintained.

Check out this Youtube video: “How to Use Sources in a Research Paper and Avoid Plagiarism” for valuable tips on words to avoid in research papers!

Commonly Misused Words

Affect vs. effect.

Affect is typically a verb, indicating an action that brings about change, like “The weather affected his mood.” On the other hand, effect is typically a noun, representing the result or change that occurs, as in “the drought’s effect on plant growth.” Remember, “A” for action (affect) and “E” for end result (effect).

Their, There, They’re

“Their” is a possessive pronoun showing ownership, like “It’s their car.” “There” signifies a location or place, such as “We’ll meet there.” “They’re” is a contraction for “they are.” For example, “They’re coming for dinner.”

Your vs. You’re

“Your” is a possessive adjective, indicating ownership, like “Your responsibility.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are.” For example, “You’re my best friend!”

Remember, picking the right word helps to convey your message clearly and effectively.

Unnecessary Filler Words

Basically, this filler word is often used to simplify complex ideas or to summarize a concept. In research papers, it’s best to replace “basically” with a more precise description or straightforward statement.

Using the word “very” in research papers can dilute the impact of the intended message. It’s advisable to find stronger adjectives or adverbs to convey the depth or intensity without relying on “very.”

In scholarly writing, “really” is an unnecessary intensifier that can weaken the effectiveness of the text. It’s beneficial to eliminate “really” and rephrase sentences using more descriptive and impactful language.

Biased Language

Biased language often creeps into research papers, and it’s crucial to be mindful of the language used to ensure inclusivity and sensitivity. When it comes to gender-specific pronouns, it’s best to steer clear of using terms like “he” or “she” when referring to a generic individual.

Instead, opt for gender-neutral pronouns such as “they” or rephrase the sentence to avoid gendered pronouns altogether.

Racially insensitive terms have no place in research papers. Words or phrases with racial connotations should be carefully scrutinized and eliminated.

For example, steer clear of terms with racially questionable origins such as “master bedroom” or phrases like “sold down the river,” as these can be offensive or triggering.

Similarly, religion-related language should be approached with sensitivity. Ensure that the language used in the research paper does not reflect prejudiced, stereotyped, or discriminatory views of specific religious groups.

It’s important to avoid language that may convey an undercurrent of superiority or misunderstanding based on religion.

To maintain objectivity, accuracy, and sensitivity in research papers, it’s crucial to avoid gender-specific pronouns, racially insensitive terms, and biased language related to religion. By doing so, researchers can ensure their work is inclusive, respectful, and free from potentially offensive language.

Informal Language

Contractions.

Using contractions in writing research papers should generally be avoided. This means combining two words by omitting letters and using an apostrophe, such as “can’t” instead of “cannot”.

While contractions are common in casual writing, they can make research papers appear less formal and professional. It’s best to use the full form of words to maintain a clear and scholarly tone.

Slang words

When crafting research papers, it’s crucial to steer clear of using slang words. Slang can come across as overly informal and may not be universally understood or accepted within academic or professional environments.

Words like “lit” or “extra,” popular in informal conversations, have no place in the formal context of a research paper. Opt for formal vocabulary to convey your ideas effectively.

Overused Phrases

Overusing the term “in conclusion” can make your writing sound repetitive and predictable. Instead, try using phrases like “to sum up”, “in summary”, or “to wrap up” to add variety and create a more engaging conclusion.

“It is important to note that”

While it’s essential to convey important information, using this phrase repeatedly can become monotonous. Consider using alternatives such as “it is crucial to emphasize”, “it is noteworthy that”, or “it is worth mentioning” to maintain a fresh and impactful tone.

“It should be mentioned”

Repetitively using the phrase “it should be mentioned” may cause your writing to sound dull. Explore alternatives like “it is notable that”, “it is necessary to highlight”, or “it is significant to point out” to add dynamism and clarity to your statements.

Avoiding overused phrases enhances the flow and impact of your writing, creating a more compelling and sophisticated piece. Always strive to keep your language fresh and engaging, as this will captivate and maintain your readers’ interest.

Clichés and Idioms

It’s no secret that clichés and idioms can be a dime a dozen in our everyday speech. We often hear phrases like “A dime a dozen” tossed around, portraying something as super common or easily obtainable.

It’s akin to saying that something is a penny in a jar-oh wait, dime, my bad! As for “Bite the bullet”, well, that’s like summoning bravery to endure a painful experience.

It’s as if you’re facing a challenging situation head-on and finding the courage to see it through. And finally, “Cut to the chase” is like skipping the trailers and jumping straight into the main movie.

It’s about getting to the point without the need for lengthy explanations or unnecessary details. So next time you hear an idiom, just remember, there’s more than meets the eye!

Ambiguous Terminology

Vague quantifiers (e.g., many, some, few).

In academic writing, it’s crucial to avoid vague quantifiers like “many,” “some,” and “few” as they lack specificity and can lead to ambiguity. Instead, strive to use precise quantitative terms such as “approximately 70%,” “a minority of,” or “a significant proportion of.” By employing specific quantifiers, you enhance the clarity and credibility of your research papers, ensuring that readers can grasp the exact magnitude or proportion being conveyed.

Unclear acronyms and abbreviations

When crafting research papers, steer clear of unclear acronyms and abbreviations to prevent confusion among readers. Always spell out the full term when introducing an acronym for the first time, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.

For instance, when referring to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the first time, subsequently use ‘NASA’ in the document. Additionally, avoid using ambiguous abbreviations without context, as this can impede the comprehension of your research paper.

A clearly defined glossary can also help elucidate any unfamiliar acronyms or abbreviations.

Remember, precision is paramount in academic writing to effectively communicate your research findings. By being mindful of these ambiguous terminologies, you can elevate the clarity and impact of your research papers.

Jargon and Technical Terms

Using industry-specific terms without explanation can make research papers hard for a general audience to understand. Instead of bombarding readers with technical jargon, strive to provide clear explanations or use relatable analogies.

For example, instead of using “API,” you might explain it as a “connector that allows different software to talk to each other.”

Overusing complex terminology for a general audience is like speaking in a foreign language to someone who doesn’t understand it. To avoid this, it’s crucial to strike a balance between using technical terms sparingly and ensuring they are well-explained when used.

For instance, rather than inundating readers with “A/B testing” without context, it’s better to briefly describe it as “comparing two different versions to see which one is more effective.”

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Here’s a curated list of products that can help you avoid words to avoid in research papers with ease. These recommendations are based on the relevance and usefulness of the products in improving language usage in academic writing.

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Grammarly Premium is a powerful writing assistant that can help you spot and correct grammar, punctuation, and style issues in your writing. It provides in-depth explanations for all your mistakes and offers suggestions for improvement. Check out Grammarly Premium to enhance the quality of your academic writing today.

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The emotion thesaurus: a writer’s guide to character expression.

The Emotion Thesaurus is a valuable resource for finding the right words to express emotions and descriptions in your research papers. It provides an extensive collection of physical, emotional, and mental responses that can enrich your writing. Explore The Emotion Thesaurus to elevate the language of your academic papers.

Pros and Cons of The Emotion Thesaurus:

The elements of style by william strunk jr..

The Elements of Style is a timeless guide to the principles of writing well and using appropriate language in research papers. It offers valuable insights into grammar, composition, and style, making it an essential resource for academic writing. Consider The Elements of Style to refine your language usage in research papers.

Pros and Cons of The Elements of Style:

Woe is i: the grammarphobe’s guide to better english in plain english.

Woe is I is a fun and informative guide to grammar and usage, providing clear explanations and memorable examples. It offers practical tips and strategies to avoid common language pitfalls in research papers. Get Woe is I to enhance the clarity and coherence of your academic writing.

Pros and Cons of Woe is I:

On writing well by william zinsser.

On Writing Well is a classic guide to nonfiction writing, emphasizing clarity, simplicity, and brevity in language usage. It provides valuable insights into crafting powerful and effective prose for research papers. Embrace On Writing Well to elevate the quality and impact of your academic writing.

Pros and Cons of On Writing Well:

Top recommended product for avoiding words to avoid in research papers.

If you’re looking for the best solution for using appropriate language in research papers, we highly recommend Grammarly Premium . Grammarly Premium offers comprehensive grammar, punctuation, and style assistance, helping you refine your language usage effectively and efficiently.

Ready to enhance the quality of your research papers? Check out Grammarly Premium today for the best results!

It is important to use appropriate language in research papers because it enhances the credibility and professionalism of the work. By using precise and clear language, the research findings can be effectively communicated to the audience, leading to a better understanding of the study.

Additionally, using the right language ensures that the research is taken seriously by the academic community and adds value to the scholarly conversation.

Moreover, to avoid common pitfalls in language usage in academic writing, it is advisable to steer clear of using overly complex or ambiguous words. Instead, opt for simple and straightforward language that can convey the intended meaning without confusion or misinterpretation.

Furthermore, avoiding biased or overly emotional language is crucial to maintain objectivity and neutrality in the research paper. It is important to remember that using inclusive and respectful language also plays a significant role in creating an inclusive and diverse academic environment.

Finally, it is essential to proofread the research paper thoroughly to identify and eliminate any language errors, such as grammar and punctuation mistakes. Seeking feedback from peers or professors can also help in improving the language usage in the research paper.

By following these final tips, researchers can ensure that their language is appropriate, clear, and effective in communicating the research findings to the intended audience.

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10 Words to Avoid in Academic Writing

Table of contents, introduction.

Whether you’re a native English speaker or studying English as a second language It’s easy to fall into the trap of depending too heavily on stock academic words while learning the mechanics of formatting an academic paper.

Yet this attempt to make your writing sound more scholarly might actually cloud your message and frustrate your reader.

These academic phrases are frequently used to help in the transition from one concept to another. True, the use of a transitional word or phrase from time to time is necessary to connect concepts and keep your writing flowing.

It’s also true that professionalism and academic language are necessary to provide your work or research the authority it requires to convey your concepts. Unfortunately, there is a fine line between clarity and redundancy, thoroughness and overwriting.

This article contains 10 phrases that should not be used in an essay, or at least should not be used more than once. Some of the phrases listed below have become excessively clunky, predictable, or unnecessary.

Such content is viewed as a clear attempt to meet the word count without having to seek additional information. Yes, academic phrases and transition words are used in scholarly writing.

However, there are a few things that should be avoided at all costs. Avoid utilizing the following academic phrases to make your article more enjoyable to read.

The Words to Avoid in the Academic Writing are as Follows-

1. needless to say.

Well, why say it in the first place if it doesn’t have to be said? Or, if you’re still going to do it, why make the reader aware of the lack of necessity? This statement implies that the information that follows is obvious, assumed, or self-evident. It is comparable to the term “goes without saying.”

Yes, you’ll need to present such information to clarify things and show that you’ve done your research, as well as to establish that you’re an expert on the topic you’ve been given.

However, because you’ll be introducing it anyway, avoid words that will make your following sentences irrelevant. This kind of sentence turn readers off and make it appear as if you’ve just added words to meet the word count.

2. On the Other Hand

Certain sentences in the English language must be put together to make sense. You can’t have one without the other, and the connecting and contrasting words on the one hand…on the other hand are an example of an often misused pair.

Simply said, you can’t use the other hand without first including on the one hand. These academic words may typically be removed from your work, even when used correctly—to contrast connected ideas in support of your argument.

3. All of The

This is a bad way to say that everyone involved did something, was influenced in some way, or is a part of your story. That is not the case. It’s simply not a proper usage of language. When choosing words to use in your writing, avoid using phrases that are incorrect, such as this one.

This is a common blunder made by beginners. In fact, it is one of the most typical errors students make while attempting to make their writing more academic and professional. You’re not only using a clunky phrase when you add “of” after “all.” You’re also using the incorrect term.

The preposition ‘of’ is only required when it is followed by a pronoun, as in the sentence ‘’all of them”. When the next word is ‘the,’ however, the ‘of’ should not be included in the sentence.

4. However, Moreover and Furthermore

Transitional words certainly have a role in the English language, but it isn’t at the start of every sentence. However, moreover, and furthermore can be useful for guiding a reader from one concept to another or connecting sentences to maintain the flow and clarity of your academic writing when used sparingly and effectively.

5. First and Foremost

Is the phrase “first and foremost” truly necessary? Yes, this is a legit phrase that appears in a variety of literary works. When you’re given an essay to write and a word count to match, however, using words like these just makes it appear as if you’ve been slacking and trying to fill the pages with anything.

Don’t get me wrong: this is a beautiful sentence. However, using such a phrase in essays where you must give data and make arguments, is a waste of the reader’s time.

Is it really essential to use both ‘first’ and ‘foremost’ because they have the same meaning? If you want to arrange your facts and make a list, use only one introductory word: ‘first’ or ‘firstly.’ This will be followed by the words ‘secondly’ or ‘next,’ and will most likely be followed by the word ‘finally.’

In fact, if you can’t make the word count, it’s best to write less and contain only the most important information rather than unnecessary words. However, you may always reach out to our editing and proofreading service and ask for help – both with the research and the writing and definitely with the editing and proofreading.

6. In Order To

In order to is a phrase that is frequently used to help inexperienced English writers in understanding or structuring sentences. It’s also utilized by native English speakers who are learning a new language and translating it into English.

As a result, it’s not surprising that it appears in several examples of academic writing. In reality, in order to is an example of overwriting (i.e., using more words than are required) and may nearly always be written simply as to.

7. It is Important to Note That

What exactly is the meaning of this phrase? If you want to stress the importance of anything, you may simply say “importantly.” Instead, you could use nothing at all. Why bother the reader with such lengthy words when the term is merely clunky and your content can do just fine without it?

8. By Using

Prepositions have a habit of appearing in places where they are completely unnecessary.

By using, for example, is a phrase that many authors use without thinking about it. But hold on! Is it really necessary to include that two-letter word? Remove any needless word from your academic writing and write using instead.

9. In Excess Of

This sentence appears in a lot of essays lately. It’s a pompous, newly popular way of saying “more than” or “over.” It distorts the information and broadens the scope, which isn’t ideal for academic writing that relies on research and data.

10. In Relation To

Adding more filler words isn’t the best approach to improve your word count. The phrase in relation to, which happens in a variety of unfavorable contexts, is another classic example of wordiness. If you frequently use this phrase, try using the prepositions about, to, or with instead, and give your readers a break.

It’s great to aim for professional writing, but overly complex language can be misunderstood as intellectual. Many academic writers end up in the wordiness trap.

At TrueEditors , WriteSmartly , PaperTrue , Scribendi , Wordy , Editage , Enago , and Kibin , all offer experienced academic editors to refine your writing. We advocate for concise writing, more impactful than elaborate academic prose. Transitional words aren’t always necessary at the start of each sentence. When writing your paper, consider the alternatives listed above; your readers will appreciate the clarity.

In this list, no phrase is inherently bad, but some are unsuitable for academic writing due to vagueness or awkwardness. Our academic editors at these firms are committed to helping you identify and eliminate such pitfalls, ensuring your writing is polished and aligns with academic standards.

Choose an academic editing services according to your requirements and budget. Embrace clarity, reject ambiguity, and let your ideas shine.

-Isabell S.

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Best summarising strategies for students, words to avoid in academic writing.

“Very” creates an overstatement. Take the sentence, “She was very radiant.” Radiant is a powerful word already. Let it do its work alone without adding extra emphasis.

Words to use instead: genuinely, veritably, undoubtedly, profoundly, indubitably.

2. Of course

A reader is often unfamiliar with the material you are presenting. If you use of course , the reader may believe they are not smart enough or feel you are not explaining your material well enough. Simply present your case without fluff-language. If you feel you have to use “of course,” use the words below:

Words to use instead: clearly, definitely, indeed, naturally, surely.

It seems when we do not know how to describe an object or phenomena, we use “thing.” Writing, especially in the academic realm, is about being specific. Using “thing” does not provide any specificity whatsoever.

What to write instead: Discuss your subject directly. For instance:

“I loved the thing she did,” could be changed to, “I loved her salsa dancing on Friday nights by Makelmore Harbor.”

Do you know of a person, place, or phenomena that “always” does an action? “Always” is almost always not true.

What to write instead: Consider how often your subject does an action. Say someone at your work is consistently late, but is on time occasionally. Some people might write, “He is always late to work.” As an alternative, you could write, “He is late to work most of the time.” If you are writing a serious paper, consider going further and give exact numbers, such as, “He is late to work 88.6% of the time in the mornings, during the months of September, August, and May.”

Similar to “always,” do you know of any person, place, or object that “never” does a certain action?

What to write instead: Let us look at this sentence: “Maggie never lost her temper because she was a good girl.” A better way to approach this sentence would be to say, “Maggie rarely lost her temper, as she was brought up in believing that displaying her anger was the worst form of human expression.”

6. (Contractions) Can’t, won’t, you’ve…

When you are writing an essay, a research paper, or a review, you are presenting yourself as an expert or professional that wants to send your message across to an audience. Most readers are not wanting to be written to in a casual way. They expect we respect them and that respect is in the form of the language we use. Contractions show we are either lazy or are talking to a lower-level audience.

Instead of writing contractions, simply use the original form of the word.

Akin to “very,” it is not necessary to use and is a form of overstatement.

Words to use instead: extremely, remarkably, unusually, consequently, accurate.

Using “a lot” refers to a quantity, but it does not tell the reader how much exactly. Keep the idea of specificity in your mind when you write. It is better to state the exact amount or at least hand over an educated guess.

What to write instead:

Here is an incorrect sentence first: “I ate a lot of ice cream this morning.” The correct version: “I ate two dinner-sized bowls of ice cream this morning.”

It does not give an appropriate description of a subject. It is recommended to be more specific.

Words to use instead: commendable, reputable, satisfactory, honorable, pleasing.

What does “stuff” mean, anyways?

Words to use instead: belongings, gear, goods, possessions, substance.

This word is vague. It generally means “satisfactory,” but a reader cannot be entirely sure.

Words to use instead: admirable, cordial, favorable, genial, obliging.

A hollow word that does not add much value.

Words to use instead: precisely, assuredly, veritably, distinctly, unequivocally.

Sometimes, writers stamp “many” down on a page without realizing that it means almost nothing to a reader. If you want your audience to know about a quantity, why not state its specifics? But if you cannot provide the details, try these:

Words to use instead: copious, bountiful, myriad, prevalent, manifold.

14. In conclusion

Your readers know it is your conclusion by being the last paragraph(s) and that you are summarizing. There is no reason to state it is your conclusion.

What to write instead: Exclude cookie cutter phrases. Go straight to your summary and afterthought.

15. Firstly, secondly, thirdly…

Your readers knows where your first, second, and third body paragraphs are because they can count. You do not need to state the obvious.

What to write instead: Lead into your body paragraphs by beginning with a topic sentence that follows the concepts outlined in your thesis statement.

16. Finally/lastly

Your readers can see it is your ending point by being the last section in your paragraph(s). And even if the placement of your final point is not clear, there is no real reason to state that it is the last topic.

What to write instead: Write your transitions naturally, without plastic, pre-made phrases. Relate your transitions to the content that was before it.

17. Anything

“Anything” could be, well, “anything.” Specifics, specifics, specifics.

What to write instead: The common phrase, “It can be anything,” can be broken down into details that relate to your composition. Say you are writing about topics for poetry. Instead of stating that, “Poetry can be written about anything,” why not list some possibilities: “Your loneliness in a new city, a recent divorce, how an insect flies through wind filled with tree fluff, your disgust of politics in Buenos Aires, how you wished you could transform into a clock: all these topics and more are valid when writing poetry.”

18. Kind of

A casual version of saying:

“type of” “in the category of” “within the parameters of”

19. Find out

Imagine you are Sherlock Holmes. I bet when you finished a case, you would not say, “I found out the reason that….” No, you would be stately and expound, “I have examined , investigated, interrogated, discovered, realized that Mr. Shuman was tied counter-clockwise to the rope that was set by the food agency’s mole to convert a missionary to blasphemy.”

20. Various/variety

The fathers of ambiguity, these words does not relate to any concrete object, person, or phenomena. It is best to list the “various” or a “variety” of objects, people, or places you are examining in your piece of writing. But if you cannot come up with a proper list, you can insert one of the following words in place of various or variety :

What to write instead: discrete, disparate, diverse, multifarious, divergent.

Similarly, if you see any of these words in a paper, most likely it wasn’t written by a professional. Such works are better not to be trusted as reliable sources. Even the best essay writing services prove that knowledgeable writers avoid these constructions when completing tasks.

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Top Ten Phrases to Avoid in Scientific Writing

To eliminate clutter, it’s good to be aware of the list of overused phrases that interfere with clear writing. In some cases, these phrases are simply annoying because of overuse. In other cases, the phrases are repeatedly used in ways that are incorrect or misleading, or they are simply unnecessary. By cutting out the clutter, you’ll be sure to get your message through to your reader, whether it’s a colleague in your field, your professor (if you are a student), or a journal editor.

The types of words and phrases to watch out for can be divided into three categories: wordiness, redundant or imprecise terms, and clichés.

Try to revise your writing to keep only those words and phrases that are necessary.

1. Due to the fact of/that …

“Because” can usually be used instead of this wordy phrase.

Example: Due to the fact that more people are hiking in the Adirondacks, there have been more bear encounters.

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2. It should be noted that…

Example: It should be noted that there were only 15 subjects in the study.

Revision: The study consisted of 15 subjects.

3. In consequence of this fact …

Example: In consequence of this fact, we really do not know how much of an impact daily exercise has on a person’s BMI.

Revision: Because of unreliable reporting and other factors, we really do not know how much of an impact daily exercise has on a person’s BMI.

4. It’s worth mentioning/it’s worth considering…

Example: It’s worth considering whether the recent storm patterns are connected to glacier melt.

Revision: Recent storm patterns may be connected to glacier melt.

5. Further research is needed…

Example: Further research is needed to determine how extensive the damage to the intestinal wall is .

Revision: Future studies will gauge the extent to which intestinal walls are damaged.

6. In this essay/paper/study, we will…

Generally, there is no need to announce what you will do. See what happens when you leave it out. Sometimes, however, this kind of metanarrative can be helpful in guiding your reader.

Imprecise and redundant terms

These are terms that are either redundant or are not quite correct. Imprecise terms may be colloquialisms, which have no place in scientific manuscripts.

7. End result

This phrase is redundant. In most cases, you can simply use “result” or “results.”

Example: The end result of more run-off is higher levels of bacteria in the water.

Revision: Higher levels of bacteria are caused by increased run-off.

8. On average

This is an imprecise term and should be avoided.

Example: Our results demonstrated that, on average, birds returned to the nest X number of times.

Revision: According to our results, birds returned to the nest an average number of X times.

Clichés are phrases that at one time may have been fresh and novel, but they’ve been used so many times that they have lost their impact. There are many, but here are two that will likely be spotted by journal editors.

9. Sheds light

This phrase is typically used in journal cover letters or abstracts.

Example: This research sheds light on why monkeys engage in these behaviors.

Revision: This research suggests some reasons why monkeys engage in these behaviors.

Alternatively, if your study produced convincing results, try this version:

Revision: This research determined why monkeys engage in these behaviors.

10. Paradigm shift

There are so many instances of science writers announcing a “paradigm shift” that this phrase has become virtually meaningless. It’s better to be more precise about what changed, if possible.

Example: Donaldson’s experiments resulted in a paradigm shift in current thought.

Revision: Donaldson’s experiments have had some influence on current thinking.

Although there are many more phrases that could be avoided in scientific writing, the ten phrases listed above are some of the most common. A good way to improve your writing is to proofread or edit your paper or essay with this list of phrases close by.

Be ruthless about cutting out what’s unnecessary and overused, and your ideas will be stronger and clearer!

Then, consider Falcon Scientific Editing’s English Language Editing Services if you require a second pair of eyes! View Samples of our Work and Reviews from Our Customers to learn more about us!

References:

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 30 th Anniversary Edition. New York: Harper Perennial, 2016.

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LifeVesting

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Seven Words You Can Never Say – in an Academic Paper

by Andy Wood on May 30, 2014

in Since You Asked

I make my living with words.

I decorate my house with words.

Okay, so my wife decorates our house with words.

I love to surround myself with words in my office or study.

I’ve been known to write or speak a few words.  Okay, a lot of words.

Words are fun and useful. Where would we be without them?  Not only do they communicate, but your choice of words reveals a lot about you – sometimes things you may not want someone to see or think.

Because I also work in the world of education, I see literally thousands of words every week.  Sometimes I see words from students that I have to stop and look up in the online dictionary.  For example, not long ago I had a student who loved to use the word “ken.”  For all I knew, she was using a man’s name.  Turns out, “ken” means “know” – and every single time you would have used the word “know,” she used the word “ken.”

Now I ken.  And you ken, too.

Anyway, in all the myriad of word possibilities, I have found seven words you should never use in an academic paper.

Only seven?  Far as I can tell.

All seven?  Definitely.  Use any of these and they say some things about you that you may not want to be said.

Now what’s tricky about these seven is that they’re common, ordinary words that you could use in conversation, blogs or magazine articles, fiction or popular writing, and they’re actually expected and complimented.  Use them on a research paper and someone will express their displeasure.

(Shhhh!  What’s that falling-in-a-hole sound I hear?  It’s your grade, sinking into the abyss, because you used one of the Seven Words You Can Never Say in an Academic Paper.)

Okay here they are… and if you don’t write academic papers (hey… who was that that said “hallelujah!”?), share this with somebody who does.  Or file it away for a couple of years, for when you go back to school.

1.  You/your

I have already used the word “you” 13 times in this little article.  It’s personal. Conversational. Totally fair game for informal writing.  But never – ever – EVER use the words “you,” “your,” “yourself” or any other member of the “second person” family in formal writing.

Count the stars in the sky if you can, and you’ll see how many papers I have read that start with something like, “Have you ever wondered…”

Okay I’m back.  I just went and beat my head against the brick wall of our back porch to relieve some of the frustration.

You are not writing your paper to your grandma, your teacher, or your friends.  Technically you’re writing it to the research community.  And they’ll think you’re less than intelligent if you address them as “you.”

Are there exceptions to this?  Only one – when you’re quoting someone verbatim and they use it.  That’s pretty much true of all these words.

Some more traditional styles also forbid the use of any kind of first person, which includes “we” and “I.”  They do this sometimes to the point of absurdity, forcing people to refer to themselves as “the learner” or “the writer” or something. APA papers are the exception that this rule – refer to yourself as “I” all you want.

That, however, is not what I’m referring to.  What I mean is, never refer to yourself as “we.”

Seriously?  Would people do that?

Yep. Happens all the time.  Since I teach for Christian universities, I like to blame the preachers for this because preachers frequently refer to themselves as “we.”  Or when they teach/preach, they may say something like, “Today we’re going to look at some of the most beautiful words ever written – the 23 rd psalm.”

In that setting, they’re correct.  But when a student sends me a paper that refers to one author (namely themselves) as “we,” the penalty flags will start to fly.  WHO is WE?  Unless you’re submitting a group project, never refer to yourself as more than one person.

Exception:  If you are presenting a group project of some sort, you may certainly refer to the group is “we” in an APA paper.  The Chicago/Turabian folks still need to get a life in this regard.

3. Say/Discuss

“As I said before…”

“In this paper I am going to discuss…”

Okay, call me picky.  I’m calling you names, too, and my names are meaner.

This is not as hardcore an error as the previous two, but your paper is a paper, not a talk.  You are presenting, not discussing.  Your paper may explore, examine, analyze, consider, evaluate, report, reflect, or a host of other things.  But it doesn’t “talk,” “say” or “discuss.”  If you are repeating a previous point, it’s ok to write something like, “as I mentioned previously” or “as stated earlier.”  It’s also OK to refer to an author’s work as speaking. (Example:  “Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is greater than any spiritual gift.”)  But try to be as precise as you can with your language. I think it’s better to word it:  “Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is greater than any spiritual gift.”

This one’s hard to catch.  It’s not a death knell to your paper, but if you can avoid it, I promise you somebody will be impressed with the quality of your work.

Here’s how this one works.  Two examples…

“In Ephesians 1:3 it says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

“In The Great Gatsby it says, ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one… just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”

It makes the point, and can even make for good preaching because it flies by so quickly, but it’s terrible writing.  “IT” doesn’t say anything.  People do.  Or the work does.  Far better to write:

“Ephesians 1:3 says…” or “Paul writes in Ephesians 1:3…”

In Fitzgerald’s opening to The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway says, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

5. Author  

I’ve been seeing this a lot in the last year or two. I blame the media.  If I’m a news reporter and I am introducing someone I have interviewed or researched for a general quote to a general audience, it’s totally appropriate to say, “Author Ken Blanchard…” or “ Ken Blanchard , co-author of The One Minute Manager …”

But if you are citing someone in a paper, guess what?  Everybody already knows they’re an author, and it’s silly and redundant and redundant (couldn’t resist) to refer to someone as “Author” anybody.  Just name him or her. Oh, and if it’s an APA paper, they don’t even want to know the author’s first name. There you would simply write something like, “Blanchard and Johnson (1985) refer to three simple management practices anyone can perform.”

6. Article/Book  

Never, ever write in a formal paper, “In an article…” Name the author and move on. For that matter, only in the rarest of occasions (and then only once, please!) should you name the title of a book or article.  Just author and date.

If you want to send your teacher into muttering hysterics, put this in your paper:  “In an article I read in the library…”

Yes.  Yes.  I have seen that.  More than once.

7. Assignment

Want to turn your name into a flashing neon sign that says, “ROOKIE”?  Start your paper with the words, “For this assignment…”

First of all, of course it’s an assignment unless you’re a Ph.D.-type publishing your own research.  And you already know this stuff, so why are you still reading this?

Second and more importantly, anything you write should make sense to some degree to a general audience. And guess what?  Most people don’t know what the assignment is and don’t care. But you may actually be surprised that they may care about the content of your paper.

Again, I know this may be in the “picky” zone.  But I promise if you want to be taken seriously as a student, researcher, or grad-school candidate, you will shoot yourself in the proverbial foot if you use this word.

Well, there they are… the Seven Words You Can Never Say In an Academic Paper.  Just one more thing, as a special added bonus…

Steer clear of contraction action.

Never – yes never – use contractions.

Tagged as: Academic Writing , Writing

Ain’t it funny the things we learn after we shoulda dun them anuther whay. This author heard it said once, “failure is not an option”. The writer of this comment takes issue with that. Failure is an option; its through trying and failing that the path becomes clearer for the “kening”. Do you think kening should have two n’s?

I am still laughing, Andy! This was great and brought back memories of writing that “perfect” paper in college. Blessings! Martha Orlando´s last blog post .. “Say Grace?”

Great post, Andy! Like, Martha, this brought back memories of my college days writing papers. Oh, and my thesis (master’s degree) did not have contractions–learned that in English class my freshman year of college.

Bob, you still crack me up. Careful about that second “n” though – Kenning is a completely different thing… at least according to Wikipedia. And don’t get me started on Wikipedia. 🙂

Bravo, Kim! Thank God somebody’s still teaching it.

Martha, what’s hilarious is that once we all get through all this formal writing stuff, we can then break the rules to our heart’s content. Though I’m sure Dr. Gardner, Mrs. Godwin, Mrs. Pinnell and a few other teachers I’ve known may take exception to that.

This is sort of like learning scales on the piano. Once we learn to demonstrate the proper, we can do the “improper” to great effect.

By the way, you will notice that “y’all” is not on this list, and for good reason. An elegant word if there ever was one.

Should the title read, ‘Seven Words to Leave Out of an Academic Paper’, rather than ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say’? The title you used uses the word ‘you’ and the word ‘say’. I had to put in my two-cents worth. 🙂

Well, since this is a blog, I cheated! Publisher’s privilege. Take THAT, Kate Turabian!

Thanks for the heads up. I am now wondering the word usage of my last paper.

Thank you for the list. After reading this post I examined my last two essays and found only one place where I had used one of the forbidden words. I had written “How do we [verb] and [verb] [noun]?” thinking that I ought to make an inclusive reference to the community that I was writing about, but should have instead typed, “How does one [verb] [noun]?” or, “How is [noun] [past tense verb]?” I now ken that I ought to pay better attention so I do not include personal pronouns.

This article is so good! It helped me a lot, Thank you.

I’m going to bookmark this for my last couple of papers.

Thanks for the heads up. After reading this post, I am almost scared to go back and read some of my previous assignments.

This is very helpful to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Andy. This is very helpful.

Nice tips! Just wanted to leave a comment regarding the use of “we”. It does find extensive use in certain academic subjects, primarily mathematics where it is used in basically all academic papers. Much of the text is comprised of deducing formulas and rewriting them. “We” is then used to include the reader. For example: “We then take expression (2.1) and compare it to (3.1) to conclude that…” “Considering that the above holds we see that…” “We then evaluate the funcation at x to get” Personally I really enjoy this form of writing since it makes me as a reader feel engaged.

Good point G.W. about certain applications – particularly when writing from a co-creating or educational perspective.

Words, words, words.

Re-thinking the utilization of first, second persons, and all of their cousins: “we, they, them, us, I, me (etc)”, has now has created some personal turmoil. Turning to Matthew 12:37 for comfort, did not really help: “For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned”. Yikes, even the Gospel writer failed.

Ha! That gospel writer, my friend, was gloriously free of academic writing, the American Psycho Association, and Kate Turabian’s ghost. As are you! (And as we can all wish for.)

Great Read Andy!

As technology causes society to move forward, words will be displayed and expressed in acronyms to reduce time. The knowledge and (what is now turning into) wisdom in this blog post makes sense more today compared to when the post was published.

Thanks for teaching me.

P.S. While writing this I kept going back and forth to the post to make sure I did not use those 7 words plus the bonus (contradictions) 🙂

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Paul’s cathedral|Wren, who had been the seventeenth century designer An enjoyable additional credit task for technology class is always to have your pupils interview a science professional and to produce a media story on them. The research specialist can be quite a laboratory specialist, a technology tutor, a doctor or possibly a biologist from the neighborhood.

You’re able to provide additional items when the scholar gives about the individual they questioned to a presentation in class. http://www.Diplomat.org´s last blog post .. http://www.Diplomat.org

Regarding the use of “Author” and APA referencing. How do you avoid repeating their names throughout the text if you don’t use “Author”? Usually I’ll use the names in the first instance, and then following sentences will say “The authors state …” etc. Any advice about this?

This post is very good. Useful for me. Thanks for you post.

This is really helpful. I’m going to share this post with our students who need help writing formal texts. The numbered list makes it really easy to follow. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing these seven words that I can never write in academic writing. Danial´s last blog post .. All You Need To Know About The IELTS Speaking Test

I’ve gotten away with “In an article in Variety,” in pop culture conference papers, but “in an article published by” or in “Tome the Century” written by “Formative Author” usually needs to just list the publication and information and further citation any meaningful chain of influenced articles by the main mention. In an article I found in the database maintained by the college library doesn’t usually pass muster.

Referring to “the authors” after first naming them is fine. Just don’t use their name and “author” in the same phrase/sentence.

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Writing a Good Research Title: Things to Avoid

When writing manuscripts , too many scholars neglect the research title. This phrase, along with the abstract, is what people will mostly see and read online. Title research of publications shows that the research paper title does matter a lot . Both bibliometrics and altmetrics tracking of citations are now, for better or worse, used to gauge a paper’s “success” for its author(s) and the journal publishing it. Interesting research topics coupled with good or clever yet accurate research titles can draw more attention to your work from peers and the public alike.

It would be helpful to have a list of what should never go into the title of a journal article. With this “don’ts” list, authors could have a handy tool to maximize the impact of their research. Titles for research manuscripts need not be complex. It can even have style. They can state the main result or idea of the paper (i.e., declarative). Alternatively, they can indicate the subject covered by the paper (i.e., descriptive). A third form, which should be used sparingly, conveys the research in the form of an open question.

A Handy List of Don’ts

• The period generally has no place in a title (even a declarative phrase can work without a period)
• Likewise, any kind of dashes to separates title parts (however, hyphens to link words is fine)
• Chemical formula, like H 2 O, CH 4 , etc. (instead use their common or generic names)
• Avoid roman numerals (e.g., III, IX, etc.)
• Semi-colons, as in “;” (the colon, however, is very useful to make two-part titles)
• The taxonomic hierarchy of species of plants, animals, fungi, etc. is not needed
• Abbreviations (except for RNA, DNA which is standard now and widely known)
• Initialisms and acronyms (e.g., “Ca” may get confused with CA, which denotes cancer)
• Avoid question marks (this tends to decrease citations, but posing a question is useful in economics and philosophy papers or when the results are not so clear-cut as hoped for)
• Uncommon words (a few are okay, but too many can influence altmetric scoring)
• Numerical exponents, or units (e.g. km -1 or km/hr)
• Vague terms (e.g., “with” could be re-written with a more specific verb; “amongst” rectified by simpler word ordering)
• Cryptic/complex drug names (use the generic name if allowed to)
• Obvious or non-specific openings with a conjunction: e.g., “Report on”, “A Study of”, “Results of”, “An Experimental Investigation of”, etc. (these don’t contribute meaning!)
• Italics, unless it is used for the species names of studied organisms
• Shorten scientific names (not coli , but write instead Escherichia coli )
• Keep it short. Aim for 50 to 100 characters, but not more (shorter titles are cited more often) or less than 13 words

Related: Finished preparing your manuscript? Check out this post now for additional points to consider submitting your manuscript!

Use the List

Take some time out to look at a good research title example. It could be one that you liked or a recognized collection of best research titles. Discuss these with your colleagues and co-authors. Write several title drafts in various forms, either in the declarative or descriptive form, with or without a colon. Then use the list above as a guide to polish and winnow your sample research title down to an effective title for your manuscript.

A great title should interest the reader enough to make him/her want to download your paper and actually read it. Importantly, in selecting the words, aim to both pique the reader’s curiosity and sum up the research work done. Bear mind, too, that a good title should also ensure your publication is easily found. This is now crucial for digital indexing and archiving purposes.

Research Titles in the 21 st Century

Remember, a good research paper title is now essential. However, it is no substitute for good quality science and scholarship. Exaggerated or sensational titles, especially those that make unwarranted generalizations, may well get more attention from the media. Given the growing use of Twitter and other social media platforms, the research paper title is clearly gaining value and importance. Title research, therefore, is critical to understand what effect a given type or use of a research title has on its readership.

Did you like this post? Will it help you choose a good title for your next report/manuscript? Please share your comments in the section below.

Good article, but I think that before writing the title and the paper itself, you need to choose a topic for which to write and the topic should be simple and understandable for yourself.

Great post! Helped me in my research project title selection. Sharing it with my fellow classmates as well!

thank you. it helps me to choose my title as well.thanks

very useful and handy article

Yes its so very thankful to guided to me how to created research title

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Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review

Marco pautasso.

1 Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE), CNRS, Montpellier, France

2 Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), FRB, Aix-en-Provence, France

Literature reviews are in great demand in most scientific fields. Their need stems from the ever-increasing output of scientific publications [1] . For example, compared to 1991, in 2008 three, eight, and forty times more papers were indexed in Web of Science on malaria, obesity, and biodiversity, respectively [2] . Given such mountains of papers, scientists cannot be expected to examine in detail every single new paper relevant to their interests [3] . Thus, it is both advantageous and necessary to rely on regular summaries of the recent literature. Although recognition for scientists mainly comes from primary research, timely literature reviews can lead to new synthetic insights and are often widely read [4] . For such summaries to be useful, however, they need to be compiled in a professional way [5] .

When starting from scratch, reviewing the literature can require a titanic amount of work. That is why researchers who have spent their career working on a certain research issue are in a perfect position to review that literature. Some graduate schools are now offering courses in reviewing the literature, given that most research students start their project by producing an overview of what has already been done on their research issue [6] . However, it is likely that most scientists have not thought in detail about how to approach and carry out a literature review.

Reviewing the literature requires the ability to juggle multiple tasks, from finding and evaluating relevant material to synthesising information from various sources, from critical thinking to paraphrasing, evaluating, and citation skills [7] . In this contribution, I share ten simple rules I learned working on about 25 literature reviews as a PhD and postdoctoral student. Ideas and insights also come from discussions with coauthors and colleagues, as well as feedback from reviewers and editors.

Rule 1: Define a Topic and Audience

How to choose which topic to review? There are so many issues in contemporary science that you could spend a lifetime of attending conferences and reading the literature just pondering what to review. On the one hand, if you take several years to choose, several other people may have had the same idea in the meantime. On the other hand, only a well-considered topic is likely to lead to a brilliant literature review [8] . The topic must at least be:

• interesting to you (ideally, you should have come across a series of recent papers related to your line of work that call for a critical summary),
• an important aspect of the field (so that many readers will be interested in the review and there will be enough material to write it), and
• a well-defined issue (otherwise you could potentially include thousands of publications, which would make the review unhelpful).

Ideas for potential reviews may come from papers providing lists of key research questions to be answered [9] , but also from serendipitous moments during desultory reading and discussions. In addition to choosing your topic, you should also select a target audience. In many cases, the topic (e.g., web services in computational biology) will automatically define an audience (e.g., computational biologists), but that same topic may also be of interest to neighbouring fields (e.g., computer science, biology, etc.).

Rule 2: Search and Re-search the Literature

After having chosen your topic and audience, start by checking the literature and downloading relevant papers. Five pieces of advice here:

• keep track of the search items you use (so that your search can be replicated [10] ),
• keep a list of papers whose pdfs you cannot access immediately (so as to retrieve them later with alternative strategies),
• use a paper management system (e.g., Mendeley, Papers, Qiqqa, Sente),
• define early in the process some criteria for exclusion of irrelevant papers (these criteria can then be described in the review to help define its scope), and
• do not just look for research papers in the area you wish to review, but also seek previous reviews.

The chances are high that someone will already have published a literature review ( Figure 1 ), if not exactly on the issue you are planning to tackle, at least on a related topic. If there are already a few or several reviews of the literature on your issue, my advice is not to give up, but to carry on with your own literature review,

The bottom-right situation (many literature reviews but few research papers) is not just a theoretical situation; it applies, for example, to the study of the impacts of climate change on plant diseases, where there appear to be more literature reviews than research studies [33] .

• discussing in your review the approaches, limitations, and conclusions of past reviews,
• trying to find a new angle that has not been covered adequately in the previous reviews, and
• incorporating new material that has inevitably accumulated since their appearance.

When searching the literature for pertinent papers and reviews, the usual rules apply:

• be thorough,
• use different keywords and database sources (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar, ISI Proceedings, JSTOR Search, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science), and
• look at who has cited past relevant papers and book chapters.

Rule 3: Take Notes While Reading

If you read the papers first, and only afterwards start writing the review, you will need a very good memory to remember who wrote what, and what your impressions and associations were while reading each single paper. My advice is, while reading, to start writing down interesting pieces of information, insights about how to organize the review, and thoughts on what to write. This way, by the time you have read the literature you selected, you will already have a rough draft of the review.

Of course, this draft will still need much rewriting, restructuring, and rethinking to obtain a text with a coherent argument [11] , but you will have avoided the danger posed by staring at a blank document. Be careful when taking notes to use quotation marks if you are provisionally copying verbatim from the literature. It is advisable then to reformulate such quotes with your own words in the final draft. It is important to be careful in noting the references already at this stage, so as to avoid misattributions. Using referencing software from the very beginning of your endeavour will save you time.

Rule 4: Choose the Type of Review You Wish to Write

After having taken notes while reading the literature, you will have a rough idea of the amount of material available for the review. This is probably a good time to decide whether to go for a mini- or a full review. Some journals are now favouring the publication of rather short reviews focusing on the last few years, with a limit on the number of words and citations. A mini-review is not necessarily a minor review: it may well attract more attention from busy readers, although it will inevitably simplify some issues and leave out some relevant material due to space limitations. A full review will have the advantage of more freedom to cover in detail the complexities of a particular scientific development, but may then be left in the pile of the very important papers “to be read” by readers with little time to spare for major monographs.

There is probably a continuum between mini- and full reviews. The same point applies to the dichotomy of descriptive vs. integrative reviews. While descriptive reviews focus on the methodology, findings, and interpretation of each reviewed study, integrative reviews attempt to find common ideas and concepts from the reviewed material [12] . A similar distinction exists between narrative and systematic reviews: while narrative reviews are qualitative, systematic reviews attempt to test a hypothesis based on the published evidence, which is gathered using a predefined protocol to reduce bias [13] , [14] . When systematic reviews analyse quantitative results in a quantitative way, they become meta-analyses. The choice between different review types will have to be made on a case-by-case basis, depending not just on the nature of the material found and the preferences of the target journal(s), but also on the time available to write the review and the number of coauthors [15] .

Rule 5: Keep the Review Focused, but Make It of Broad Interest

Whether your plan is to write a mini- or a full review, it is good advice to keep it focused 16 , 17 . Including material just for the sake of it can easily lead to reviews that are trying to do too many things at once. The need to keep a review focused can be problematic for interdisciplinary reviews, where the aim is to bridge the gap between fields [18] . If you are writing a review on, for example, how epidemiological approaches are used in modelling the spread of ideas, you may be inclined to include material from both parent fields, epidemiology and the study of cultural diffusion. This may be necessary to some extent, but in this case a focused review would only deal in detail with those studies at the interface between epidemiology and the spread of ideas.

While focus is an important feature of a successful review, this requirement has to be balanced with the need to make the review relevant to a broad audience. This square may be circled by discussing the wider implications of the reviewed topic for other disciplines.

Rule 6: Be Critical and Consistent

Reviewing the literature is not stamp collecting. A good review does not just summarize the literature, but discusses it critically, identifies methodological problems, and points out research gaps [19] . After having read a review of the literature, a reader should have a rough idea of:

• the major achievements in the reviewed field,
• the main areas of debate, and
• the outstanding research questions.

It is challenging to achieve a successful review on all these fronts. A solution can be to involve a set of complementary coauthors: some people are excellent at mapping what has been achieved, some others are very good at identifying dark clouds on the horizon, and some have instead a knack at predicting where solutions are going to come from. If your journal club has exactly this sort of team, then you should definitely write a review of the literature! In addition to critical thinking, a literature review needs consistency, for example in the choice of passive vs. active voice and present vs. past tense.

Rule 7: Find a Logical Structure

Like a well-baked cake, a good review has a number of telling features: it is worth the reader's time, timely, systematic, well written, focused, and critical. It also needs a good structure. With reviews, the usual subdivision of research papers into introduction, methods, results, and discussion does not work or is rarely used. However, a general introduction of the context and, toward the end, a recapitulation of the main points covered and take-home messages make sense also in the case of reviews. For systematic reviews, there is a trend towards including information about how the literature was searched (database, keywords, time limits) [20] .

How can you organize the flow of the main body of the review so that the reader will be drawn into and guided through it? It is generally helpful to draw a conceptual scheme of the review, e.g., with mind-mapping techniques. Such diagrams can help recognize a logical way to order and link the various sections of a review [21] . This is the case not just at the writing stage, but also for readers if the diagram is included in the review as a figure. A careful selection of diagrams and figures relevant to the reviewed topic can be very helpful to structure the text too [22] .

Rule 8: Make Use of Feedback

Reviews of the literature are normally peer-reviewed in the same way as research papers, and rightly so [23] . As a rule, incorporating feedback from reviewers greatly helps improve a review draft. Having read the review with a fresh mind, reviewers may spot inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and ambiguities that had not been noticed by the writers due to rereading the typescript too many times. It is however advisable to reread the draft one more time before submission, as a last-minute correction of typos, leaps, and muddled sentences may enable the reviewers to focus on providing advice on the content rather than the form.

Feedback is vital to writing a good review, and should be sought from a variety of colleagues, so as to obtain a diversity of views on the draft. This may lead in some cases to conflicting views on the merits of the paper, and on how to improve it, but such a situation is better than the absence of feedback. A diversity of feedback perspectives on a literature review can help identify where the consensus view stands in the landscape of the current scientific understanding of an issue [24] .

Rule 9: Include Your Own Relevant Research, but Be Objective

In many cases, reviewers of the literature will have published studies relevant to the review they are writing. This could create a conflict of interest: how can reviewers report objectively on their own work [25] ? Some scientists may be overly enthusiastic about what they have published, and thus risk giving too much importance to their own findings in the review. However, bias could also occur in the other direction: some scientists may be unduly dismissive of their own achievements, so that they will tend to downplay their contribution (if any) to a field when reviewing it.

In general, a review of the literature should neither be a public relations brochure nor an exercise in competitive self-denial. If a reviewer is up to the job of producing a well-organized and methodical review, which flows well and provides a service to the readership, then it should be possible to be objective in reviewing one's own relevant findings. In reviews written by multiple authors, this may be achieved by assigning the review of the results of a coauthor to different coauthors.

Rule 10: Be Up-to-Date, but Do Not Forget Older Studies

Given the progressive acceleration in the publication of scientific papers, today's reviews of the literature need awareness not just of the overall direction and achievements of a field of inquiry, but also of the latest studies, so as not to become out-of-date before they have been published. Ideally, a literature review should not identify as a major research gap an issue that has just been addressed in a series of papers in press (the same applies, of course, to older, overlooked studies (“sleeping beauties” [26] )). This implies that literature reviewers would do well to keep an eye on electronic lists of papers in press, given that it can take months before these appear in scientific databases. Some reviews declare that they have scanned the literature up to a certain point in time, but given that peer review can be a rather lengthy process, a full search for newly appeared literature at the revision stage may be worthwhile. Assessing the contribution of papers that have just appeared is particularly challenging, because there is little perspective with which to gauge their significance and impact on further research and society.

Inevitably, new papers on the reviewed topic (including independently written literature reviews) will appear from all quarters after the review has been published, so that there may soon be the need for an updated review. But this is the nature of science [27] – [32] . I wish everybody good luck with writing a review of the literature.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to M. Barbosa, K. Dehnen-Schmutz, T. Döring, D. Fontaneto, M. Garbelotto, O. Holdenrieder, M. Jeger, D. Lonsdale, A. MacLeod, P. Mills, M. Moslonka-Lefebvre, G. Stancanelli, P. Weisberg, and X. Xu for insights and discussions, and to P. Bourne, T. Matoni, and D. Smith for helpful comments on a previous draft.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) through its Centre for Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity data (CESAB), as part of the NETSEED research project. The funders had no role in the preparation of the manuscript.

• Tips & Guides

How To Avoid Using “We,” “You,” And “I” in an Essay

• Posted on October 27, 2022 October 27, 2022

Maintaining a formal voice while writing academic essays and papers is essential to sound objective. 

One of the main rules of academic or formal writing is to avoid first-person pronouns like “we,” “you,” and “I.” These words pull focus away from the topic and shift it to the speaker – the opposite of your goal.

While it may seem difficult at first, some tricks can help you avoid personal language and keep a professional tone.

Let’s learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

What Is a Personal Pronoun?

Pronouns are words used to refer to a noun indirectly. Examples include “he,” “his,” “her,” and “hers.” Any time you refer to a noun – whether a person, object, or animal – without using its name, you use a pronoun.

Personal pronouns are a type of pronoun. A personal pronoun is a pronoun you use whenever you directly refer to the subject of the sentence. 

Take the following short paragraph as an example:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. Mr. Smith also said that Mr. Smith lost Mr. Smith’s laptop in the lunchroom.”

The above sentence contains no pronouns at all. There are three places where you would insert a pronoun, but only two where you would put a personal pronoun. See the revised sentence below:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. He also said that he lost his laptop in the lunchroom.”

“He” is a personal pronoun because we are talking directly about Mr. Smith. “His” is not a personal pronoun (it’s a possessive pronoun) because we are not speaking directly about Mr. Smith. Rather, we are talking about Mr. Smith’s laptop.

If later on you talk about Mr. Smith’s laptop, you may say:

“Mr. Smith found it in his car, not the lunchroom!” 

In this case, “it” is a personal pronoun because in this point of view we are making a reference to the laptop directly and not as something owned by Mr. Smith.

Why Avoid Personal Pronouns in Essay Writing

We’re teaching you how to avoid using “I” in writing, but why is this necessary? Academic writing aims to focus on a clear topic, sound objective, and paint the writer as a source of authority. Word choice can significantly impact your success in achieving these goals.

Writing that uses personal pronouns can unintentionally shift the reader’s focus onto the writer, pulling their focus away from the topic at hand.

Personal pronouns may also make your work seem less objective. 

One of the most challenging parts of essay writing is learning which words to avoid and how to avoid them. Fortunately, following a few simple tricks, you can master the English Language and write like a pro in no time.

Alternatives To Using Personal Pronouns

How to not use “I” in a paper? What are the alternatives? There are many ways to avoid the use of personal pronouns in academic writing. By shifting your word choice and sentence structure, you can keep the overall meaning of your sentences while re-shaping your tone.

Utilize Passive Voice

In conventional writing, students are taught to avoid the passive voice as much as possible, but it can be an excellent way to avoid first-person pronouns in academic writing.

You can use the passive voice to avoid using pronouns. Take this sentence, for example:

“ We used 150 ml of HCl for the experiment.”

Instead of using “we” and the active voice, you can use a passive voice without a pronoun. The sentence above becomes:

“150 ml of HCl were used for the experiment.” 

Using the passive voice removes your team from the experiment and makes your work sound more objective.

Take a Third-Person Perspective

Another answer to “how to avoid using ‘we’ in an essay?” is the use of a third-person perspective. Changing the perspective is a good way to take first-person pronouns out of a sentence. A third-person point of view will not use any first-person pronouns because the information is not given from the speaker’s perspective.

A third-person sentence is spoken entirely about the subject where the speaker is outside of the sentence.

Take a look at the sentence below:

“In this article you will learn about formal writing.”

The perspective in that sentence is second person, and it uses the personal pronoun “you.” You can change this sentence to sound more objective by using third-person pronouns:

“In this article the reader will learn about formal writing.”

The use of a third-person point of view makes the second sentence sound more academic and confident. Second-person pronouns, like those used in the first sentence, sound less formal and objective.

Be Specific With Word Choice

You can avoid first-personal pronouns by choosing your words carefully. Often, you may find that you are inserting unnecessary nouns into your work. 

Take the following sentence as an example:

“ My research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

In this case, the first-person pronoun ‘my’ can be entirely cut out from the sentence. It then becomes:

“Research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

The second sentence is more succinct and sounds more authoritative without changing the sentence structure.

You should also make sure to watch out for the improper use of adverbs and nouns. Being careful with your word choice regarding nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives can help mitigate your use of personal pronouns. 

“They bravely started the French revolution in 1789.” 

While this sentence might be fine in a story about the revolution, an essay or academic piece should only focus on the facts. The world ‘bravely’ is a good indicator that you are inserting unnecessary personal pronouns into your work.

We can revise this sentence into:

“The French revolution started in 1789.” 

Avoid adverbs (adjectives that describe verbs), and you will find that you avoid personal pronouns by default.

Closing Thoughts

In academic writing, It is crucial to sound objective and focus on the topic. Using personal pronouns pulls the focus away from the subject and makes writing sound subjective.

Hopefully, this article has helped you learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

When working on any formal writing assignment, avoid personal pronouns and informal language as much as possible.

While getting the hang of academic writing, you will likely make some mistakes, so revising is vital. Always double-check for personal pronouns, plagiarism , spelling mistakes, and correctly cited pieces. 

 You can prevent and correct mistakes using a plagiarism checker at any time, completely for free.

Quetext is a platform that helps you with all those tasks. Check out all resources that are available to you today.

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How to Choose and Use Keywords in Research Papers

Academic writing is vital for PhD student and researchers, and identifying appropriate keywords in research papers is a crucial part of the process. However, not many academics understand the importance of keywords in research papers and why you need to get this right. When used well, keywords in scientific papers ensure more accurate indexing and allow search engines to find your work from the large amounts of information available online.

With more research articles and journals available to researchers, it is important to choose and use keywords in research papers effectively to maximize the reach and impact of your research article by making it easier to discover, access, and reference by a diverse audience. In this article, we’ll discuss how to choose and effectively use keywords in research papers to improve your visibility and help you reach your intended audience.

How to choose keywords in research papers

Choosing the right keywords in research papers is critical because the quality of online search results is directly related to the quality of the keywords used. A well-chosen keyword can help your paper get discovered, while a poorly chosen keyword can lead to your paper being overlooked. Here are some simple steps to choose the right keywords for your research paper. 1

Understand the research question or topic

Know the central theme of your research paper and write down keywords that are most relevant and will capture the essence of your work. Examining your research question or topic closely can also help you identify keywords in research papers that are frequently used in your field of study.

Check standard author guidelines

Most reputed journals mention specific instructions regarding the number and length of keywords in research papers. Be sure to check the author guidelines carefully as some even suggest that authors choose from a set of predetermined keywords for scientific papers covering specific research topics.

Create a pool of relevant keywords

When shortlisting keywords in research papers, consider your target audience and keep in mind what they typically use to search for articles on topics like yours. A good idea would be to use phrases or word clusters that are used repeatedly in your manuscript as readers will also likely be using these to search online. Add synonyms and different phrases that describe your concept (avoid newly coined terms or unusual abbreviations) to increase the chances of your research being discovered. You can also ask your supervisor or consult experts in your field to identify the most relevant keywords in research paper.

Pick specific, 2-4-word phrases as keywords

Single words often lead to false matches or are misconstrued so it’s advised to choose keywords that are phrases with 2-4 words, and not longer. It’s important also to be specific when choosing keywords in research papers to ensure your work stands out. For example, if the paper is about leg pain, use alternative and more specific phrases like leg cramps, spasms in the leg, or muscular leg pain to help your work stand out from generalized online searches on pain.

Use optimized keywords in research papers

Maximize your potential visibility by using optimized keywords in research papers. For example, authors writing on medical and health-related topics can find help with keywords and terms by looking through the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus. The MeSH thesaurus also includes effective and popular keywords and terms that are used in PubMed and other databases. 2 Similarly, online search engines also index scholarly literature across an array of disciplines.

How to include keywords in research papers

Once you have identified the most relevant keywords for your scientific papers, the next step is to include them effectively. Optimizing your academic writing with keywords is a straightforward process that requires some attention to detail. Here are some tips on how to include keywords in research paper and what to avoid.

Include keywords in title and abstract

The title and abstract are the first sections people read when searching for scholarly articles and understanding the relevance of your work. Include keywords in research paper titles and add the most important keywords in abstract of your research paper. This will help search engines and academic databases quickly identify the central theme of your research paper and categorize your work correctly. However, note that some journals do not advise using keywords that overlap with words used in your research paper title. 2

Add keywords across all sections

Try to use keywords strategically in all sections of your research paper, including the introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. However, while adding keywords in research papers, ensure they read naturally and are in context to maintain the quality of your academic writing. Subheads are another good way to use keywords as they allow readers to quickly scan your paper. Creating descriptive subheadings that include the main keywords in research papers work well to guide readers smoothly through your article.

Use variations of main keywords

Apart from the list of shortlisted keywords for your topic, make sure you also use variations of your keywords in research papers to ensure it is easily found by readers. Using synonyms and related terms that describe the same concept can help increase the visibility of your paper in online searches while ensuring the main keywords in scientific papers don’t seem spammy and make your writing seem repetitive.

Refer to highly cited works on similar topics

Check relevant journal databases or conduct a quick online search to see how keywords have been used in previously published papers in your field. If you can find the right papers for the keywords you are searching for, you know that it has used keywords effectively. This may give you an idea not only on how and where to use keywords in research papers but may also help you formulate or add to your chosen keywords.

Avoid irrelevant keywords and overstuffing

Finally, it is important to use only relevant keywords in research papers as irrelevant keywords can mislead readers and result in your paper being excluded from relevant searches. Also make sure you are not using too many keywords in research papers. Force-fitting keywords could make your writing seem cluttered and confusing; your work may also be penalized for keyword stuffing by online search engines. It’s best to stick to a few specific, relevant keywords that accurately reflect your research and use them strategically to ensure your article is coherent and engaging for readers.

Identifying effective keywords for research papers must be a priority for researchers and not an afterthought in their manuscript writing and publishing journey. The use of right keywords not only offers readers easier access to your paper through online searches, but it also significantly increases the frequency of citations. Therefore, be sure to choose and use keywords in your research paper with care. All the best!

Keywords are specific terms or phrases that encapsulate the essence of a research paper’s content. They represent the main ideas, concepts, and themes addressed in the paper. These terms aid in categorization, indexing, and searching for relevant articles in academic databases. Typically located in the abstract or article header, keywords provide a quick overview of the paper’s focus, helping researchers and readers gauge its relevance to their interests.

Identifying keywords is vital for effective research because it enhances discoverability. Researchers use keywords to navigate vast databases efficiently, ensuring they find relevant papers on their topic. Precise keywords ensure that articles align closely with a researcher’s needs, saving time and effort. Well-chosen keywords improve a paper’s visibility, increasing its chances of being found and cited. Accurate keyword selection improves the dissemination of knowledge and facilitates collaboration among scholars by facilitating access to related works.

Keywords serve several key purposes in research papers. Firstly, they aid in information retrieval. By including relevant terms, researchers make their work easily discoverable by peers. Secondly, keywords enhance the paper’s visibility, increasing its chances of being cited and referenced. Thirdly, keywords establish a common language for researchers within a particular field, facilitating communication. Lastly, they offer a concise snapshot of the paper’s core themes, assisting readers in quickly determining the paper’s applicability to their own work or interests.

References:

• George, E. Identifying keywords for scientific papers: A simple 5-step guide. Researcher.Life Blog. Available online at https://researcher.life/blog/article/identifying-keywords-for-scientific-papers-a-simple-5-step-guide/
• Herron, C. How to Choose the Best Keywords for Your Research Manuscript. Redwood Ink. Available online at https://redwoodink.com/resources/how-to-choose-the-best-keywords-for-your-research-manuscript

Related Reads:

• 3 Easy Ways for Researchers to Improve Their Academic Vocabulary
• Scientific Writing Style Guides Explained
• Research Paper Writing: A 15-Point Academic Writing Checklist
• 5 Reasons for Rejection After Peer Review

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Title, Abstract and Keywords

The importance of titles.

The title of your manuscript is usually the first introduction readers (and reviewers) have to your work. Therefore, you must select a title that grabs attention, accurately describes the contents of your manuscript, and makes people want to read further.

An effective title should:

• Convey the  main topics  of the study
• Highlight the  importance  of the research
• Be  concise
• Attract  readers

Writing a good title for your manuscript can be challenging. First, list the topics covered by the manuscript. Try to put all of the topics together in the title using as few words as possible. A title that is too long will seem clumsy, annoy readers, and probably not meet journal requirements.

Does Vaccinating Children and Adolescents with Inactivated Influenza Virus Inhibit the Spread of Influenza in Unimmunized Residents of Rural Communities?

This title has too many unnecessary words.

Influenza Vaccination of Children: A Randomized Trial

This title doesn’t give enough information about what makes the manuscript interesting.

Effect of Child Influenza Vaccination on Infection Rates in Rural Communities: A Randomized Trial This is an effective title. It is short, easy to understand, and conveys the important aspects of the research.

Think about why your research will be of interest to other scientists. This should be related to the reason you decided to study the topic. If your title makes this clear, it will likely attract more readers to your manuscript. TIP: Write down a few possible titles, and then select the best to refine further. Ask your colleagues their opinion. Spending the time needed to do this will result in a better title.

Abstract and Keywords

The Abstract is:

• A  summary  of the content of the journal manuscript
• A time-saving  shortcut  for busy researchers
• A guide to the most important parts of your manuscript’s written content

Many readers will only read the Abstract of your manuscript. Therefore, it has to be able to  stand alone . In most cases the abstract is the only part of your article that appears in indexing databases such as Web of Science or PubMed and so will be the most accessed part of your article; making a good impression will encourage researchers to read your full paper.

A well written abstract can also help speed up the peer-review process. During peer review, referees are usually only sent the abstract when invited to review the paper. Therefore, the abstract needs to contain enough information about the paper to allow referees to make a judgement as to whether they have enough expertise to review the paper and be engaging enough for them to want to review it.

Your Abstract should answer these questions about your manuscript:

• What was done?
• Why did you do it?
• What did you find?
• Why are these findings useful and important?

Answering these questions lets readers know the most important points about your study, and helps them decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Make sure you follow the proper journal manuscript formatting guidelines when preparing your abstract.

TIP: Journals often set a maximum word count for Abstracts, often 250 words, and no citations. This is to ensure that the full Abstract appears in indexing services.

Keywords  are a tool to help indexers and search engines find relevant papers. If database search engines can find your journal manuscript, readers will be able to find it too. This will increase the number of people reading your manuscript, and likely lead to more citations.

However, to be effective, Keywords must be chosen carefully. They should:

• Represent  the content of your manuscript
• Be  specific  to your field or sub-field

Manuscript title:  Direct observation of nonlinear optics in an isolated carbon nanotube

Poor keywords:  molecule, optics, lasers, energy lifetime

Better keywords:  single-molecule interaction, Kerr effect, carbon nanotubes, energy level structure

Manuscript title:  Region-specific neuronal degeneration after okadaic acid administration Poor keywords:  neuron, brain, OA (an abbreviation), regional-specific neuronal degeneration, signaling

Better keywords:  neurodegenerative diseases; CA1 region, hippocampal; okadaic acid; neurotoxins; MAP kinase signaling system; cell death

Manuscript title:  Increases in levels of sediment transport at former glacial-interglacial transitions

Poor keywords:  climate change, erosion, plant effects Better keywords:  quaternary climate change, soil erosion, bioturbation

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Can You Use First-Person Pronouns (I/we) in a Research Paper?

Research writers frequently wonder whether the first person can be used in academic and scientific writing. In truth, for generations, we’ve been discouraged from using “I” and “we” in academic writing simply due to old habits. That’s right—there’s no reason why you can’t use these words! In fact, the academic community used first-person pronouns until the 1920s, when the third person and passive-voice constructions (that is, “boring” writing) were adopted–prominently expressed, for example, in Strunk and White’s classic writing manual “Elements of Style” first published in 1918, that advised writers to place themselves “in the background” and not draw attention to themselves.

In recent decades, however, changing attitudes about the first person in academic writing has led to a paradigm shift, and we have, however, we’ve shifted back to producing active and engaging prose that incorporates the first person.

Can You Use “I” in a Research Paper?

However, “I” and “we” still have some generally accepted pronoun rules writers should follow. For example, the first person is more likely used in the abstract , Introduction section , Discussion section , and Conclusion section of an academic paper while the third person and passive constructions are found in the Methods section and Results section .

In this article, we discuss when you should avoid personal pronouns and when they may enhance your writing.

It’s Okay to Use First-Person Pronouns to:

• clarify meaning by eliminating passive voice constructions;
• establish authority and credibility (e.g., assert ethos, the Aristotelian rhetorical term referring to the personal character);
• express interest in a subject matter (typically found in rapid correspondence);
• establish personal connections with readers, particularly regarding anecdotal or hypothetical situations (common in philosophy, religion, and similar fields, particularly to explore how certain concepts might impact personal life. Additionally, artistic disciplines may also encourage personal perspectives more than other subjects);
• to emphasize or distinguish your perspective while discussing existing literature; and
• to create a conversational tone (rare in academic writing).

The First Person Should Be Avoided When:

• doing so would remove objectivity and give the impression that results or observations are unique to your perspective;
• you wish to maintain an objective tone that would suggest your study minimized biases as best as possible; and
• expressing your thoughts generally (phrases like “I think” are unnecessary because any statement that isn’t cited should be yours).

Usage Examples

The following examples compare the impact of using and avoiding first-person pronouns.

Example 1 (First Person Preferred):

To understand the effects of global warming on coastal regions,  changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences and precipitation amounts  were examined .

[Note: When a long phrase acts as the subject of a passive-voice construction, the sentence becomes difficult to digest. Additionally, since the author(s) conducted the research, it would be clearer to specifically mention them when discussing the focus of a project.]

We examined  changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences, and precipitation amounts to understand how global warming impacts coastal regions.

[Note: When describing the focus of a research project, authors often replace “we” with phrases such as “this study” or “this paper.” “We,” however, is acceptable in this context, including for scientific disciplines. In fact, papers published the vast majority of scientific journals these days use “we” to establish an active voice.   Be careful when using “this study” or “this paper” with verbs that clearly couldn’t have performed the action.   For example, “we attempt to demonstrate” works, but “the study attempts to demonstrate” does not; the study is not a person.]

Example 2 (First Person Discouraged):

From the various data points  we have received ,  we observed  that higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall have occurred in coastal regions where temperatures have increased by at least 0.9°C.

[Note: Introducing personal pronouns when discussing results raises questions regarding the reproducibility of a study. However, mathematics fields generally tolerate phrases such as “in X example, we see…”]

Coastal regions  with temperature increases averaging more than 0.9°C  experienced  higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall.

[Note: We removed the passive voice and maintained objectivity and assertiveness by specifically identifying the cause-and-effect elements as the actor and recipient of the main action verb. Additionally, in this version, the results appear independent of any person’s perspective.] 

Example 3 (First Person Preferred):

In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk.  The authors confirm  this latter finding.

[Note: “Authors” in the last sentence above is unclear. Does the term refer to Jones et al., Miller, or the authors of the current paper?]

In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk.  We confirm  this latter finding.

[Note: By using “we,” this sentence clarifies the actor and emphasizes the significance of the recent findings reported in this paper. Indeed, “I” and “we” are acceptable in most scientific fields to compare an author’s works with other researchers’ publications. The APA encourages using personal pronouns for this context. The social sciences broaden this scope to allow discussion of personal perspectives, irrespective of comparisons to other literature.]

Other Tips about Using Personal Pronouns

• Avoid starting a sentence with personal pronouns. The beginning of a sentence is a noticeable position that draws readers’ attention. Thus, using personal pronouns as the first one or two words of a sentence will draw unnecessary attention to them (unless, of course, that was your intent).
• Be careful how you define “we.” It should only refer to the authors and never the audience unless your intention is to write a conversational piece rather than a scholarly document! After all, the readers were not involved in analyzing or formulating the conclusions presented in your paper (although, we note that the point of your paper is to persuade readers to reach the same conclusions you did). While this is not a hard-and-fast rule, if you do want to use “we” to refer to a larger class of people, clearly define the term “we” in the sentence. For example, “As researchers, we frequently question…”
• First-person writing is becoming more acceptable under Modern English usage standards; however, the second-person pronoun “you” is still generally unacceptable because it is too casual for academic writing.
• Take all of the above notes with a grain of salt. That is,  double-check your institution or target journal’s author guidelines .  Some organizations may prohibit the use of personal pronouns.
• As an extra tip, before submission, you should always read through the most recent issues of a journal to get a better sense of the editors’ preferred writing styles and conventions.

Wordvice Resources

For more general advice on how to use active and passive voice in research papers, on how to paraphrase , or for a list of useful phrases for academic writing , head over to the Wordvice Academic Resources pages . And for more professional proofreading services , visit our Academic Editing and P aper Editing Services pages.

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What the data says about abortion in the U.S.

Pew Research Center has conducted many surveys about abortion over the years, providing a lens into Americans’ views on whether the procedure should be legal, among a host of other questions.

In a  Center survey  conducted nearly a year after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that  ended the constitutional right to abortion , 62% of U.S. adults said the practice should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Another survey conducted a few months before the decision showed that relatively few Americans take an absolutist view on the issue .

Find answers to common questions about abortion in America, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, which have tracked these patterns for several decades:

How many abortions are there in the U.S. each year?

How has the number of abortions in the u.s. changed over time, what is the abortion rate among women in the u.s. how has it changed over time, what are the most common types of abortion, how many abortion providers are there in the u.s., and how has that number changed, what percentage of abortions are for women who live in a different state from the abortion provider, what are the demographics of women who have had abortions, when during pregnancy do most abortions occur, how often are there medical complications from abortion.

This compilation of data on abortion in the United States draws mainly from two sources: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, both of which have regularly compiled national abortion data for approximately half a century, and which collect their data in different ways.

The CDC data that is highlighted in this post comes from the agency’s “abortion surveillance” reports, which have been published annually since 1974 (and which have included data from 1969). Its figures from 1973 through 1996 include data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and New York City – 52 “reporting areas” in all. Since 1997, the CDC’s totals have lacked data from some states (most notably California) for the years that those states did not report data to the agency. The four reporting areas that did not submit data to the CDC in 2021 – California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey – accounted for approximately 25% of all legal induced abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to Guttmacher’s data. Most states, though,  do  have data in the reports, and the figures for the vast majority of them came from each state’s central health agency, while for some states, the figures came from hospitals and other medical facilities.

Discussion of CDC abortion data involving women’s state of residence, marital status, race, ethnicity, age, abortion history and the number of previous live births excludes the low share of abortions where that information was not supplied. Read the methodology for the CDC’s latest abortion surveillance report , which includes data from 2021, for more details. Previous reports can be found at  stacks.cdc.gov  by entering “abortion surveillance” into the search box.

For the numbers of deaths caused by induced abortions in 1963 and 1965, this analysis looks at reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. In computing those figures, we excluded abortions listed in the report under the categories “spontaneous or unspecified” or as “other.” (“Spontaneous abortion” is another way of referring to miscarriages.)

Guttmacher data in this post comes from national surveys of abortion providers that Guttmacher has conducted 19 times since 1973. Guttmacher compiles its figures after contacting every known provider of abortions – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, and it provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond to its inquiries. (In 2020, the last year for which it has released data on the number of abortions in the U.S., it used estimates for 12% of abortions.) For most of the 2000s, Guttmacher has conducted these national surveys every three years, each time getting abortion data for the prior two years. For each interim year, Guttmacher has calculated estimates based on trends from its own figures and from other data.

The latest full summary of Guttmacher data came in the institute’s report titled “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2020.” It includes figures for 2020 and 2019 and estimates for 2018. The report includes a methods section.

In addition, this post uses data from StatPearls, an online health care resource, on complications from abortion.

An exact answer is hard to come by. The CDC and the Guttmacher Institute have each tried to measure this for around half a century, but they use different methods and publish different figures.

The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2021. It found there were 625,978 abortions in the District of Columbia and the 46 states with available data that year, up from 597,355 in those states and D.C. in 2020. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 607,720.

The last year for which Guttmacher reported a yearly national total was 2020. It said there were 930,160 abortions that year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 916,460 in 2019.

• How the CDC gets its data: It compiles figures that are voluntarily reported by states’ central health agencies, including separate figures for New York City and the District of Columbia. Its latest totals do not include figures from California, Maryland, New Hampshire or New Jersey, which did not report data to the CDC. ( Read the methodology from the latest CDC report .)
• How Guttmacher gets its data: It compiles its figures after contacting every known abortion provider – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, then provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond. Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s in part because they include data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 states. ( Read the institute’s latest full report and methodology .)

While the Guttmacher Institute supports abortion rights, its empirical data on abortions in the U.S. has been widely cited by  groups  and  publications  across the political spectrum, including by a  number of those  that  disagree with its positions .

These estimates from Guttmacher and the CDC are results of multiyear efforts to collect data on abortion across the U.S. Last year, Guttmacher also began publishing less precise estimates every few months , based on a much smaller sample of providers.

The figures reported by these organizations include only legal induced abortions conducted by clinics, hospitals or physicians’ offices, or those that make use of abortion pills dispensed from certified facilities such as clinics or physicians’ offices. They do not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained  outside of clinical settings .

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The annual number of U.S. abortions rose for years after Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure in 1973, reaching its highest levels around the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. Since then, abortions have generally decreased at what a CDC analysis called  “a slow yet steady pace.”

Guttmacher says the number of abortions occurring in the U.S. in 2020 was 40% lower than it was in 1991. According to the CDC, the number was 36% lower in 2021 than in 1991, looking just at the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported both of those years.

(The corresponding line graph shows the long-term trend in the number of legal abortions reported by both organizations. To allow for consistent comparisons over time, the CDC figures in the chart have been adjusted to ensure that the same states are counted from one year to the next. Using that approach, the CDC figure for 2021 is 622,108 legal abortions.)

There have been occasional breaks in this long-term pattern of decline – during the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, and then again in the late 2010s. The CDC reported modest 1% and 2% increases in abortions in 2018 and 2019, and then, after a 2% decrease in 2020, a 5% increase in 2021. Guttmacher reported an 8% increase over the three-year period from 2017 to 2020.

As noted above, these figures do not include abortions that use pills obtained outside of clinical settings.

Guttmacher says that in 2020 there were 14.4 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Its data shows that the rate of abortions among women has generally been declining in the U.S. since 1981, when it reported there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age range.

The CDC says that in 2021, there were 11.6 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. (That figure excludes data from California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.) Like Guttmacher’s data, the CDC’s figures also suggest a general decline in the abortion rate over time. In 1980, when the CDC reported on all 50 states and D.C., it said there were 25 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

That said, both Guttmacher and the CDC say there were slight increases in the rate of abortions during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Guttmacher says the abortion rate per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 rose from 13.5 in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020. The CDC says it rose from 11.2 per 1,000 in 2017 to 11.4 in 2019, before falling back to 11.1 in 2020 and then rising again to 11.6 in 2021. (The CDC’s figures for those years exclude data from California, D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.)

The CDC broadly divides abortions into two categories: surgical abortions and medication abortions, which involve pills. Since the Food and Drug Administration first approved abortion pills in 2000, their use has increased over time as a share of abortions nationally, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. now involve pills, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. The CDC says 56% of U.S. abortions in 2021 involved pills, up from 53% in 2020 and 44% in 2019. Its figures for 2021 include the District of Columbia and 44 states that provided this data; its figures for 2020 include D.C. and 44 states (though not all of the same states as in 2021), and its figures for 2019 include D.C. and 45 states.

Guttmacher, which measures this every three years, says 53% of U.S. abortions involved pills in 2020, up from 39% in 2017.

Two pills commonly used together for medication abortions are mifepristone, which, taken first, blocks hormones that support a pregnancy, and misoprostol, which then causes the uterus to empty. According to the FDA, medication abortions are safe  until 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Surgical abortions conducted  during the first trimester  of pregnancy typically use a suction process, while the relatively few surgical abortions that occur  during the second trimester  of a pregnancy typically use a process called dilation and evacuation, according to the UCLA School of Medicine.

In 2020, there were 1,603 facilities in the U.S. that provided abortions,  according to Guttmacher . This included 807 clinics, 530 hospitals and 266 physicians’ offices.

While clinics make up half of the facilities that provide abortions, they are the sites where the vast majority (96%) of abortions are administered, either through procedures or the distribution of pills, according to Guttmacher’s 2020 data. (This includes 54% of abortions that are administered at specialized abortion clinics and 43% at nonspecialized clinics.) Hospitals made up 33% of the facilities that provided abortions in 2020 but accounted for only 3% of abortions that year, while just 1% of abortions were conducted by physicians’ offices.

Looking just at clinics – that is, the total number of specialized abortion clinics and nonspecialized clinics in the U.S. – Guttmacher found the total virtually unchanged between 2017 (808 clinics) and 2020 (807 clinics). However, there were regional differences. In the Midwest, the number of clinics that provide abortions increased by 11% during those years, and in the West by 6%. The number of clinics  decreased  during those years by 9% in the Northeast and 3% in the South.

The total number of abortion providers has declined dramatically since the 1980s. In 1982, according to Guttmacher, there were 2,908 facilities providing abortions in the U.S., including 789 clinics, 1,405 hospitals and 714 physicians’ offices.

The CDC does not track the number of abortion providers.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that provided abortion and residency information to the CDC in 2021, 10.9% of all abortions were performed on women known to live outside the state where the abortion occurred – slightly higher than the percentage in 2020 (9.7%). That year, D.C. and 46 states (though not the same ones as in 2021) reported abortion and residency data. (The total number of abortions used in these calculations included figures for women with both known and unknown residential status.)

The share of reported abortions performed on women outside their state of residence was much higher before the 1973 Roe decision that stopped states from banning abortion. In 1972, 41% of all abortions in D.C. and the 20 states that provided this information to the CDC that year were performed on women outside their state of residence. In 1973, the corresponding figure was 21% in the District of Columbia and the 41 states that provided this information, and in 1974 it was 11% in D.C. and the 43 states that provided data.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported age data to  the CDC in 2021, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women ages 40 to 44 accounted for about 4%.

The vast majority of women who had abortions in 2021 were unmarried (87%), while married women accounted for 13%, according to  the CDC , which had data on this from 37 states.

In the District of Columbia, New York City (but not the rest of New York) and the 31 states that reported racial and ethnic data on abortion to  the CDC , 42% of all women who had abortions in 2021 were non-Hispanic Black, while 30% were non-Hispanic White, 22% were Hispanic and 6% were of other races.

Looking at abortion rates among those ages 15 to 44, there were 28.6 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic Black women in 2021; 12.3 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women; 6.4 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic White women; and 9.2 abortions per 1,000 women of other races, the  CDC reported  from those same 31 states, D.C. and New York City.

For 57% of U.S. women who had induced abortions in 2021, it was the first time they had ever had one,  according to the CDC.  For nearly a quarter (24%), it was their second abortion. For 11% of women who had an abortion that year, it was their third, and for 8% it was their fourth or more. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

Nearly four-in-ten women who had abortions in 2021 (39%) had no previous live births at the time they had an abortion,  according to the CDC . Almost a quarter (24%) of women who had abortions in 2021 had one previous live birth, 20% had two previous live births, 10% had three, and 7% had four or more previous live births. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2021, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation,  according to the CDC . An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and about 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

About 2% of all abortions in the U.S. involve some type of complication for the woman , according to an article in StatPearls, an online health care resource. “Most complications are considered minor such as pain, bleeding, infection and post-anesthesia complications,” according to the article.

The CDC calculates  case-fatality rates for women from induced abortions – that is, how many women die from abortion-related complications, for every 100,000 legal abortions that occur in the U.S .  The rate was lowest during the most recent period examined by the agency (2013 to 2020), when there were 0.45 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. The case-fatality rate reported by the CDC was highest during the first period examined by the agency (1973 to 1977), when it was 2.09 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. During the five-year periods in between, the figure ranged from 0.52 (from 1993 to 1997) to 0.78 (from 1978 to 1982).

The CDC calculates death rates by five-year and seven-year periods because of year-to-year fluctuation in the numbers and due to the relatively low number of women who die from legal induced abortions.

In 2020, the last year for which the CDC has information , six women in the U.S. died due to complications from induced abortions. Four women died in this way in 2019, two in 2018, and three in 2017. (These deaths all followed legal abortions.) Since 1990, the annual number of deaths among women due to legal induced abortion has ranged from two to 12.

The annual number of reported deaths from induced abortions (legal and illegal) tended to be higher in the 1980s, when it ranged from nine to 16, and from 1972 to 1979, when it ranged from 13 to 63. One driver of the decline was the drop in deaths from illegal abortions. There were 39 deaths from illegal abortions in 1972, the last full year before Roe v. Wade. The total fell to 19 in 1973 and to single digits or zero every year after that. (The number of deaths from legal abortions has also declined since then, though with some slight variation over time.)

The number of deaths from induced abortions was considerably higher in the 1960s than afterward. For instance, there were 119 deaths from induced abortions in  1963  and 99 in  1965 , according to reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is a division of Health and Human Services.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published May 27, 2022, and first updated June 24, 2022.

Support for legal abortion is widespread in many countries, especially in Europe

Nearly a year after roe’s demise, americans’ views of abortion access increasingly vary by where they live, by more than two-to-one, americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state, most latinos say democrats care about them and work hard for their vote, far fewer say so of gop, positive views of supreme court decline sharply following abortion ruling, most popular.

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6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When

• Rebecca Knight

Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances call for different approaches.

Research suggests that the most effective leaders adapt their style to different circumstances — be it a change in setting, a shift in organizational dynamics, or a turn in the business cycle. But what if you feel like you’re not equipped to take on a new and different leadership style — let alone more than one? In this article, the author outlines the six leadership styles Daniel Goleman first introduced in his 2000 HBR article, “Leadership That Gets Results,” and explains when to use each one. The good news is that personality is not destiny. Even if you’re naturally introverted or you tend to be driven by data and analysis rather than emotion, you can still learn how to adapt different leadership styles to organize, motivate, and direct your team.

Much has been written about common leadership styles and how to identify the right style for you, whether it’s transactional or transformational, bureaucratic or laissez-faire. But according to Daniel Goleman, a psychologist best known for his work on emotional intelligence, “Being a great leader means recognizing that different circumstances may call for different approaches.”

• RK Rebecca Knight is a journalist who writes about all things related to the changing nature of careers and the workplace. Her essays and reported stories have been featured in The Boston Globe, Business Insider, The New York Times, BBC, and The Christian Science Monitor. She was shortlisted as a Reuters Institute Fellow at Oxford University in 2023. Earlier in her career, she spent a decade as an editor and reporter at the Financial Times in New York, London, and Boston.

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