I edit more than 200 academic manuscripts every year. They range in length from short assignments to 300-page dissertations––to everything in between. They’re written by students at schools across the country, studying a variety of fields, from nursing to engineering. The one commonality between these manuscripts? The overuse of two common words:
There is …
On the surface, these two words are harmless. They’re not poorly constructed or grammatically incorrect. Often, however, “there is” constructions are simply unnecessary. Since concision is key in academic writing, useless words have to go.
Let’s look at a few examples with and without the “there is” construction:
There were 22 students who participated in the study.
Revision: Twenty-two students participated in the study.
There were seven studies that supported these findings.
Revision: Seven studies supported these findings.
There are currently no studies that fill this gap.
Revision: No studies currently fill this gap.
These concise sentences deliver the same message––only more clearly, without the fluff. If you notice that you’re using a lot of “there are … that …” or “there are … who. …” constructions in your paper, you can probably eliminate most, if not all, of them. You can even do a quick search for “there is/was” and “there are/were” to see if you’re overusing them.
If you are? Well, you aren’t alone. Fortunately, with a quick revision, you can create a more concise sentence that delivers your message more effectively.