Mind your language

Category: Academics

Academic paper editing and proofreading companies go through ginormous amounts of word counts per day. And, the most common complain they have is regarding language quality. With the evolving nature of research, the rules of academic writing change more often than ever. It is, therefore, essential that every academic writer (fresh or experienced) is upbeat with the recent changes. Unbiased language is one of the most neglected, yet critical flaws in academic manuscripts. The time and effort invested by an academician in writing his/her paper may leave no scope for assessing if a certain sentence may sound derogatory or just plain wrong. Biased language is easier to ignore because it is not intentional and appears to be normal. Several manuals of style have their own set of rules to be followed in this regard, but here, we present some common instances and changes that may give your academic paper a much needed face-lift. Using gender-neutral language: This requires a considerable amount of extra effort, but it does save you or your editor considerable time when editing your academic paper before submission and improves your chances of getting published. Furthermore, subtly conveying sexism or using only masculine nouns and pronouns to denote men and women creates obscurity and confusion among readers. Few tips for gender-neutral language: Do not address every person as “man.” Substitute man with person or individual. For example: Instead of “average man” use “average individual”; instead of “mankind” use “humankind” or “people.” Use job titles free of stereotyping gender. For example, “flight attendant” instead of “stewardess”; “chairperson” instead of “chairman.” Refrain from using he/she and his/her specifically when referring to a general population. However, he/she is a considerably better alternative to “s/he.” This can be easily solved by pluralizing the sentence. For example, “A good teacher has good presentation skills to communicate his ideas.” Becomes “Good teachers have good presentation skills to communicate their ideas.” Discussing disability appropriately: Another common mistake committed by an academic writer is equating an individual with a disability to his/her disability. Depicting an individual as a victim or only a mere representation of his disability is considered extremely derogatory and crude. This practice in academic writing is now looked down upon, and therefore, must be avoided. Few tips for discussing disability appropriately: Use the word “patient” cautiously and preferably for an individual who is ill and is being medically treated. Avoid careless comparisons. For example, describing a control group as “nondisabled” and “without disabilities” is preferred over “normal.” Avoid exaggerating the limitations. Phrases, such as “the physically disabled” or “intellectually disabled person” overstate the scope of a disability and imply that these individuals are completely physically or mentally disabled. Discussing disease without bias: Phrases or sentence structures that differentiate the identity of an individual based on his/her clinical condition convey a really poor image of you as a researcher to your target audience. It demonstrates your poor professionalism and disrespect for your subject matter and audience. The American Medical Association’s style guide strongly enforces placing the individual before his or her condition. Few tips for discussing disease without bias: Avoid defining an individual by his/her disease. For example, writing “a patient with diabetes” is preferred over “a diabetic.” Defining an individual as “having a condition” instead of “being that condition” is considered less biased. For example, “the patient has diabetes” is preferred over “the patient is diabetic.” Avoid negative language that suggests victimization by a disease. For example, “afflicted with,” “suffering from,” and “victim of.” There are no set rules to transform biased language into unbiased language. Various contexts require various strategies. However, mindful writing on the part of academic writers definitely will improve the quality of manuscripts that are being churned out. For more reading, you can visit: http://www.amamanualofstyle.com/view/10.1093/jama/9780195176339.001.0001/med-9780195176339-chapter-11 (subscription required) http://www.apastyle.org/manual/related/index.aspx