Practice technical paper writing style: passive voice in methods, hedging language, precise quantification, self-explanatory figures, and positioning contributions in related work.
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1 / 5
'_____ voice in methods sections' — which voice is conventional in academic methodology writing?
Passive voice is conventional in methods sections ('samples were prepared', 'the model was trained') to focus on the process rather than the actor, maintaining objectivity.
2 / 5
'Hedging language' in academic writing includes words like:
Hedging words ('suggests', 'indicates', 'appears to', 'may') express appropriate epistemic caution — acknowledging that results support a conclusion without claiming certainty beyond what the data shows.
3 / 5
'Precise quantification' means writing '3.2× speedup' rather than:
'Much faster' is vague and unacceptable in technical writing. '3.2× speedup' is precise, reproducible, and directly comparable to other published results.
4 / 5
'Figures must be _____.' What property ensures a figure communicates independently?
Figures must be self-explanatory — the caption and figure together should communicate the key finding without requiring the reader to search the body text for context.
5 / 5
'The related work section _____ the contribution.' What is the purpose of the related work section?
The related work section positions the paper's contribution relative to prior work — showing what is novel, what problem it solves differently, and why existing work does not already address it.