1. By: Premala Nair Krishnakutty
Summary from
ENGLISH FOR WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS by
adrian.wallwork@gmail.com.

2. 3.0 Why this chapter is important?
 Short sentences earns more readers
 Your journal will be immediately catch the referees
eyes and the chances to be published will be more
 In this chapter, we will learn how to make short
sentences

3. 3.1 Think above all about the reader
 All readers prefer sentences that they:
 Only need to read once
 They don’t have to read it slowly has it does not require
intense concentration
 Can understand writers logic by reading or process, word by
word rather than understanding it at the end of the sentences
 The average length of the sentences becoming shorter and
shorter over the centuries
 During Shakespeare’s  45 words
 150 years ago  29 words
 Today’s experts 15 and 18 words

4. 3.2 The longer your sentence, the greater
the chance it will be misunderstood
 Below shows example of a sentence where the referee has
rejected and asked the author to write something sensible:-
“Even if the occurrence of this particular form of pulmonary tumor occurs
on a rare basis, since the behavior of these tumors is extremely
difficult to predict and the histological features resembling a discrete
cell tumor may lead to misdiagnose a C2 tumor as a C1 tumor, it
would be of interest to characterize those lesions and to take them into
account in the differential diagnosis of hereditary or congenital tumors.”

5. 3.2 The longer your sentence, the greater
the chance it will be misunderstood
 From the referee’s point of view, this sentence make no sense as
for them usually, they do not have enough time to interpret the
authors trying to explain thus they need simplified version of the
content
 The author then rewrote the sentence as shown below:-
“This particular form of pulmonary tumor appears to be extremely
rare. Its behavior is extremely difficult to predict. Moreover, the
histological features, which resemble a discrete cell tumor, may mean that
a C2 tumor is misdiagnosed as a C1 tumor. It would thus be interesting to
characterize these lesions and to take them into account in the
differential diagnosis of hereditary or congenital tumors.”

6. 3.2 The longer your sentence, the greater
the chance it will be misunderstood
 The authors view is more clear when the sentences has
been break down to 11, 7, 22 and 24 words, making a
total of 64 words as the original version was 71 words
 There are few more example in the book, you may refer
the diagram, showing the original and revised version

7. 3.3 Short sentences are not a sign of
inelegance and superficiality
 Some non-native researchers feels that they couldn’t express themselves as they would by
using their own language
 Humanity and social sciences author usually expresses opinions rather than hard facts
 A survey has been done by author to PhD students before the writing course, particular
students expresses view as below:
 Question: What for you is the most difficult aspect of writing in English?
 In Art History, long sentences used to descriptions, attributions and reasons
 Hard to translate an article into English because of difficulty in choosing the right
words
 Sometimes the student feels she lose some shades of meaning
 long sentences are NOT ‘absolutely necessary’
 E.g. : the Viennese art historian, Ernst Gombrich wrote many of his books in English
rather than in his native German
 most widely accessible art history books ever published, because it is written in
a clear, simple, unpretentious style
 After 4 years, the author contacted the student to check whether he could use her quote
about art history in this book.
 Since the writing course she managed to write 7 books in English
 She now writes directly in English using simpler way to get her work published

8. 3.4 Why and how long sentences are
created
 Long sentences contain one or more of the following:
 a link word/phrase (e.g. and, moreover, in fact, etc)
 a list of items, most of which are qualified (e.g. specifying a characteristics)
 one or more semicolon or colon
 also caused by adding too many parts to the main clause
 S1: We did several surveys, which all gave the same result.
(Easy to read)
 S2: We did several surveys aimed at investigating whether stress increases in
proportion to the number of children a couple has and each survey led to the same
result, i.e. that there is no correlation, thus confirming the hypothesis that stress in
the family is generally connected to factors other than size.
(Possible to understand on a first reading but reader might want to
divide it Into 3 parts to get better understanding)
 S3: We did several surveys aimed at investigating whether stress increases in
proportion to the number of children a couple has. Each survey led to the same
result, i.e. that there is no correlation. This confirmed the hypothesis that stress in
the family is generally connected to factors other than size.
(Reader can understand easily because it is written in 3 blocks clearly)

9. 3.5 And
 And is used in 2 different ways
 to join two verbs (speak and write) and two nouns (English and Italian)
 to add additional information (and that this is true .. and to this end)
 Eg1: Using “AND” creating long sentences
 In this comparison the RV replaces first and with full stop to reduce the length
 The second and cannot be simply replaced with full stop instead it is replaced with also

10. 3.6 as well as
 Used to add some additional info
 Used as alternative for and
 If use as well as, it will make longer sentences so it is better to break the
sentences
 However, cannot start a sentence using as well as instead we need to repeat
some part

11. 3.7 Other link words that introduce additional
information: moreover, in addition, furthermore
 these words have similar meaning as “and”

12. 3.8 Link words that compare and contrast: whereas,
on the other hand; although, however
 take note that not all link words can be used at the beginning of a sentence
 this example shows the usage of although and however
 some link words such as because, since, as are used in the middle of sentences, when you
split the sentences, it cannot be used to begin the sentence

13. 3.9 Link words that give explanations:
because, since, as, in fact
 Words like since and although are usually used in a subordinate clause
at the beginning of the sentences
 When use since at the beginning of a sentence, we should have some
idea on how it relates to the main clause

14. 3.9 Link words that give explanations:
because, since, as, in fact
 words like since and as also require a dependent
clause, look below example

15. 3.10 Link words that express consequences: owing to,
due to, as a result of, consequently, thus etc.
 These words are used to explain or describe something, example show
as below
Split into 3
to get
clearer
picture

16. 3.11 Which and relative clauses
 used to add information

17. 3.11 Which and relative
clauses
 When the sentences are long, it will be difficult to understand, example as below
Original Version (ov)
English is now the world’s international
language and is studied by more than
a billion people in various parts of the
world thus giving rise to an industry of
English language textbooks and teachers,
which explains why in so many schools
and universities in countries where English
is not the mother tongue it is taught as the
first foreign language in preference to, for
example, Spanish or Chinese, which are two
languages that have more native speakers
than English.
Revised Version (rv)
English is now the world’s international
language and is studied by more than
a billion people in various parts of the
world thus giving rise to an industry of
English language textbooks and teachers.
This explains why in so many schools and
universities in countries where English is
not the mother tongue it is taught as the first
foreign language. For example, English is
taught in preference to Spanish or Chinese,
which are two languages that have more
native speakers than English.
Using THIS
either
standalone or
with a noun it
help to
reduce the
length of the
sentence

18. 3.11 Which and relative
clauses
 More example using which

19. 3.12 - ing form
 Used to link phrases which will make the sentences longer
 Another word can be used to form a new sentence
original version (ov)
Using automatic translation software (e.g.
Google Translate, Babelfish, and Systran)
can considerably ease the work of researchers
when they need to translate documents thus
saving them money (for example the fee
they might have otherwise had to pay to a
professional translator) and increasing the
amount of time they have to spend in the
laboratory rather than at the PC.
revised version (rv)
Using automatic translation software
(e.g. Google Translate, Babelfish, and
Systran) can considerably ease the work
of researchers when they need to translate
documents. Such software saves them
money, for example the fee they might
have otherwise had to pay to a professional
translator. It also increases the amount of
time they have to spend in the laboratory
rather than at the PC.

20. 3.13 in order to
 Used to express rationale of a procedure or line
 If rationale is more than 15 words, need to split it to a new
sentences

21. 3.13 in order to
 Two technique used in RV
- either say what you did and then why you did it
-or give your rationale and then say what you did

22. 3.14 Excessive numbers of
commas
 Commas used to lists (OK)
 Commas used in sentence, make the sentence longer, as shown below
original version (ov)
As a preliminary study, in an attempt to
establish a relationship between document
length and level of bureaucracy, we analyzed
the length of 50 European Union documents,
written in seven of the official languages
of the EU, to confirm whether documents,
such as reports regarding legislative and
administrative issues, vary substantially in
length from one language to another, and
whether this could be related, in some way,
to the length of time typically needed to
carry out daily administrative tasks in those
countries (e.g. withdrawing money from
a bank account, setting up bill payments
with utility providers, understanding the
clauses of an insurance contract). The results
showed that …
revised version (rv)
Our aim was to see if there is a direct
relationship between the length of
documents produced in a country, and the
length it takes to do simple bureaucratic
tasks in that country. Our hypothesis was:
the longer document, the greater the level of
bureaucracy.
In our preliminary study we analyzed
translations from English into seven of the
official languages of the European Union.
We chose 50 documents, mostly regarding
legislative and administrative issues. We
then looked at the length of time typically
needed to carry out daily administrative tasks
in those countries. The tasks we selected
were withdrawing money from a bank
account, setting up bill payments with utility
providers, and understanding the clauses of
an insurance contract.
The results showed that ...
Lazy
writing
More
words,
easier
to
follow
Logical
order and
separate
sentences
1.Rationale
2. Investigation
3. Connection

23. 3.15 Semicolons
 Not commonly used
 Instead replace it with full stop
 Semicolon also do make the sentence long

24. 3.16 Semicolons in lists
 Only use when dividing lists where the lists relates to
each other
S1: *The partners in the various projects are A, B and C,
P and Q, X and Y and Z.
S2: The partners in the various projects are A, B and C;
P and Q; X; and Y and Z.

25. 3.17 Phrases in parentheses
 Do not use it unless to list
 It also make the sentences longer
 Should be avoided to give explanations or examples

26. 3.18 Summary
 Doesn’t matter if your sentence is short the information will still be the
same
 The slides above teaches you on how to make reader understand on the
first reading
 To increase readability
 don’t separate the subject from its verb using more than 8–10 words
 avoid adding extra information to the end of the main clause, if the main
clause is already about 15–20 words long
 check to make sure that a sentence has a maximum of 30 words, and don’t
use more than three or four 30-word sentences in the whole paper
 consider beginning a new sentence if the original sentence is long and
contains one or more of the following (or equivalents): and, which, a link
word, the -ing form, in order to
 maximize the use of periods (.). Use the minimum number of commas (,),
avoid semicolons (;) and parentheses
 don’t worry about repeating key words. If dividing up a long sentence
into shorter sentences means that you have to repeat key words, this is not a
problem.