TABLE OF CONTENTS This appendix is aimed at avoiding errors that the authors have seen in reading student papers and reviewing manuscripts for publication. Some of the examples are repeated from Chapter 1 for the convenience of the reader.
Avoid using large words where shorter ones would work just as well. For example, use freezing instead of solidification, test instead of experimental investigation, and needs instead of requirements.
A redundant word is an unnecessary word. Considering the high price of newsprint and book stock, we ought to watch for redundancies and pluck them from our writing as if we were picking ticks from a dog s back. Redundancies, like ticks, suck blood from our prose. Kilpatrick (1984)
Examples of excess verbiage are:
Example
Instead use
in order to
to
data points
data
at this point of time
now
Most uses of respectively can be eliminated without causing confusion. Process should be omitted in casting process, machining process, rolling process, etc.
Then can almost always be eliminated and should never be used more than once in the same paragraph. The following is a typical bad example: The specimen was cut and then mounted in Bakelite. Then it was ground and polished. Note that The specimen was cut, mounted in Bakelite, ground, and polished conveys the same meaning, but without the word then.
Avoid unnecessary redundancy. Instead of try out,
