Language and grammar for research articles – day 3: more word order for sentences
Free PreviewThe subject and verb should be close to each other
The verb contains important information about the subject and they should be near to each other to help the reader understand what the sentence is about. Delaying the verb can make the sentence hard to follow.
For example, some authors have written:
Our findings centered around 3 main ideas pertaining to national adaptation and implementation of WHO EML.
This is easier to read than:
Our findings, pertaining to national adaptation and implementation of WHO EML, centred around 3 main ideas.
Put the subject in early
Having the subject as early as possible in the sentence will help the reader to understand what the sentence is about. This will not always be possible, but at the beginning of paragraphs, it is important to have the subject early so that people who are scanning will not miss it.
For example, some authors used the following sentence at the start of a paragraph:
To date, our understanding has been extremely limited regarding the dynamics of transport accumulation and associated spatial distribution.
Would be better written as:
Our understanding of the dynamics of transport accumulation and associated spatial distribution, has been extremely limited to date.
Avoid using qualifying phrases between the subject and the verb
Qualifying words and phrases can be added to sentences to give more detail without changing the meaning. However, the would ideally not be added between the subject and verb because they can interrupt the flow and make the sentence harder to read.
For example some authors have written:
Our data, together with that of Van Cauwenberghe et al., provide the first evidence of global sinks for microplastic debris.
Which could be better written as:
Our data provide the first evidence of global sinks for microplastic debris, along with the data of Van Cauwenberghe et al.
This does not mean that you should not try to add qualifying phrases or clauses within sentences. These can be added easily enough and add to the information for the reader. For example:
In contrast with studies on the effects of large plastic debris, which mostly document entanglement and ingestion, there are few studies examining the biological effects of microplastics.
Keep the verb close to the direct object
When a verb is followed by two possible objects, make sure that the direct object (the thing that is given or received of the action of the verb) comes before the indirect object (the thing that is affected by the verb as a recipient). Typically the direct and indirect object are found with verbs followed by ‘to’ and ‘with’.
For example some authors may have written the following:
The main limitation of this study is, within the 1st group, the small number of people with cancer.
But this would have been better expressed as:
The main limitation of this study is the small number of people with cancer in the 1st group.
Extract for more sentence structure
Read the extract below to look at the sentence structure and see how these authors have placed the subject, verb and direct and indirect objects.
Terrestrial reproduction and parental care drive rapid evolution in the trade-off between offspring size and number across amphibians
Abstract
The trade-off between offspring size and number is central to life history strategies. Both the evolutionary gain of parental care or more favorable habitats for offspring development are predicted to result in fewer, larger offspring. However, despite much research, it remains unclear whether and how different forms of care and habitats drive the evolution of the trade-off. Using data for over 800 amphibian species, we demonstrate that, after controlling for allometry, amphibians with direct development and those that lay eggs in terrestrial environments have larger eggs and smaller clutches, while different care behaviors and adaptations vary in their effects on the trade-off. Specifically, among the 11 care forms we considered at the egg, tadpole and juvenile stage, egg brooding, male egg attendance, and female egg attendance increase egg size; female tadpole attendance and tadpole feeding decrease egg size, while egg brooding, tadpole feeding, male tadpole attendance, and male tadpole transport decrease clutch size. Unlike egg size that shows exceptionally high rates of phenotypic change in just 19 branches of the amphibian phylogeny, clutch size has evolved at exceptionally high rates in 135 branches, indicating episodes of strong selection; egg and tadpole environment, direct development, egg brooding, tadpole feeding, male tadpole attendance, and tadpole transport explain 80% of these events. By explicitly considering diversity in parental care and offspring habitat by stage of offspring development, this study demonstrates that more favorable conditions for offspring development promote the evolution of larger offspring in smaller broods and reveals that the diversity of parental care forms influences the trade-off in more nuanced ways than previously appreciated.
This extract is taken from: Furness AI, Venditti C, Capellini I (2022) Terrestrial reproduction and parental care drive rapid evolution in the trade-off between offspring size and number across amphibians. PLOS Biology 20(1): e3001495. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001495