Error-Free Research Writing
Master five filters for producing error-free scientific prose
Research articles permeated with language errors are more likely to be rejected for publication. This course identifies 22 specific error types across five categories and gives you practical strategies to eliminate them from your writing.
The Five Filters
Spot the 5 Errors
Hover over the highlighted phrases to reveal each error type. All five filters are represented. The text is fully readable without interaction.
Error-free scientific research articles are more likely to be accepted for publication than those permeated with error. This chapter identifies, describes, and explains how to avoid 22 common language errors. Scientists need to master the genres of scientific abstracts, reports, research articles and dissertations to conform to the generic expectations of the community of practice. Based on a systematic analysis of the pedagogic literature, some categories of errors were identified in scientific research articles namely accuracy, brevity, clarity, objectivity, and formality. To gain a more in-depth understanding of the errors, I conducted a corpus investigation of scientific articles. A corpus of 200 draft research articles submitted for internal review at a research institute with university status was compiled, annotated, and analyzed. This investigation showed empirically the types of errors within these categories that can get in the way of publication success. In total, 22 specific types of language errors were identified. These errors are explained, and ways for overcoming each of them are described.