The language of academia revealed

[banksmiranda]

Here's something an on-campus friend of mine showed me - something his TA kept posted on his door. To you academics on Style Forum, no offense intended. Enjoy. The Language of Academia Revealed The following list of phrases and their definitions might help you understand the mysterious language of (political) science and medicine. These special phrases are also applicable to anyone (crazy enough to be) reading a Ph.D. Dissertation or academic paper. "IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN"... I didn't look up the original reference. "A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT"... These data are practically meaningless. "WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS"... An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published. "THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY"... The other results didn't make any sense. "TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN"... This is the prettiest graph. "THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT"... I might get around to this sometime, if pushed/funded. "IN MY EXPERIENCE"... Once. "IN CASE AFTER CASE"... Twice. "IN A SERIES OF CASES"... Thrice. "IT IS BELIEVED THAT"... I think. "IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT"... A couple of others think so, too. "CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE"... Wrong. "ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS"... Rumor has it. "A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS"... A wild guess. "A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA"... Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of iced tea. "IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS"... I don't understand it. "AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES"... They don't understand it either. ""THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOTZ FOR ASSISTACE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO CINDY ADAMS FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS"... Mr. Blotz did the work, and Ms. Adams explained to me what it meant. "A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY"... A totally useless topic selected by my committee. "IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS FIELD"... I quit.

 

[T4phage]

Did you atttend one of my presentations???

 

[LA Guy]

Thanks for that. I realize that I've been using "It is commonly known" and "It has long been known" interchangeably, erroneously believing them to be synonymous. Sigh, I'm going to write some corrections I guess.

 

[banksmiranda]

Good to know that you Ph.D. folk can laugh about it.

 

[kalra2411]

Amazing. All I need to know now is who came up with it?

 

[banksmiranda]

Wish I knew who came up with it - wish I could say it was me. Â

 

[T4phage]

Thanks for that. Â I realize that I've been using "It is commonly known" and "It has long been known" interchangeably, erroneously believing them to be synonymous. Â Sigh, I'm going to write some corrections I guess.

You should avoid those term anyway when presenting a paper for publication.

 

[LA Guy]

You should avoid those term anyway when presenting a paper for publication.

Really? But my poor presentation/article/poster would feel so naked without its clothing of general agreements, commonly accepted knowledge and ability to stimulate further investigations in a very interesting area of research

 

[T4phage]

Quote:

You should avoid those term anyway when presenting a paper for publication. Â
Really? Â But my poor presentation/article/poster would feel so naked without its clothing of general agreements, commonly accepted knowledge and ability to stimulate further investigations in a very interesting area of research Â

ZING..

 

[A Harris]

Thanks for a good laugh.

 

[MikeF]

While serving as a law clerk, we often joked that the only time we begun a sentence with "obviously" was when the proposition that followed was unobvious, and the only time we described something as "trite law" was when we could find no authority for it.