Wallace Academic Editing
Common Academic English Issues We Address During Editing
Academic editing involves more than correcting spelling and grammar. Our editors also review sentence structure, word choice, clarity, concision, verb use, pronoun references, comparisons, and other language patterns that can make a manuscript harder to read.
- Academic tone and sentence structure
- Noun-to-verb revisions and stronger verb choice
- Pronoun clarity and removal of redundant wording
- Verb tense and subject-verb agreement
- Editing that aims to preserve the author's intended meaning
What Reviewer Feedback Can Reveal
Journal revision requests can involve both research-level concerns and language-level concerns. English editing can address the language and presentation issues, while research design, novelty, scope, methodology, and scientific contribution remain the author's responsibility.
Manuscript-level issues reviewers may raise
- Poor writing style or unclear English
- Limited novelty or contribution to the field
- Failure to follow manuscript instructions
- Poor-quality supporting figures
- Methodological concerns
- Mismatch with the journal's scope
- Weak discussion or inadequate references
- A title that does not clearly represent the study
English-writing issues found in historical reviewer feedback
- Redundancy and unnecessary wording
- Verb tense inconsistency
- Overuse or misuse of passive voice
- Weak verb choice
- Subject-verb agreement
- Incomplete comparisons
- Unclear pronoun references
- Unnecessary "It" and "There" constructions
- Overuse of nouns where stronger verbs are clearer
Historical context: The original Wallace page summarized comments collected from 64 electrical and mechanical engineering reviewers and editors over a three-year period. The frequency and importance of individual language issues can vary by author, discipline, manuscript type, and journal.
What We Review During English Editing
Our editors review grammar and usage while also looking for sentence-level patterns that affect clarity, readability, and academic tone. Authors remain in control of the manuscript and can review the changes before deciding what to accept.
- Active and passive voice
- Noun-to-verb revisions
- Stronger and more precise verbs
- Unnecessary "It" and "There" openings
- Pronoun clarity
- Redundancy and extra words
- Verb tense consistency
- Complete and clear comparisons
- Subject-verb agreement
Examples of Common Academic English Revisions
The examples below are retained from the original Wallace teaching page and show the kinds of sentence-level revisions that may improve clarity and concision.
Voice
Active voice revisions
"Generally, I think you could improve the whole paper by using more active voice sentences. It will improve the flow and allow the reader to follow your meaning." 1st Reviewer, Journal of Hydrology
Original: Identification of poor food, bad housing, inadequate hygiene and large families as the major causes of poverty was made by Jones (2005).
Modified: Jones (2005) identifies poor food, bad housing, inadequate hygiene and large families as the major causes of poverty.
Original: Consideration of whether countries work well on cross-border issues such as immigration is undertaken by Raul (2007).
Modified: Raul (2007) considers whether countries work well on cross-border issues such as immigration.
Word Form
Noun-to-verb revisions
"It seems that many of your errors come from your using nouns instead of verbs. This makes your sentence longer because you need additional 'meaningless' verbs to complete your sentences." Associate Editor, Journal of Retailing
Original: Enumeration of three reasons why the English language has become so important was made by Thompson (2006).
Modified: Thompson (2006) enumerates three reasons why the English language has become so important.
Original: Discussion of the challenges and strategies for facilitation and promotion of ERP is performed by Smith (2007).
Modified: Smith (2007) discusses the challenges and strategies for facilitating and promoting ERP.
Verb Choice
Using stronger verbs
"Another suggestion for your paper is to find a native editor to help you with your verb use. Strong verbs move sentences. Helping verbs often confuse the reader in your technical descriptions." Reviewer, Journal of Technology Management
Original: Smith (2003) asks the questions as to whether conventional methods are the best environment for execution.
Modified: Smith (2003) questions whether conventional methods are the best environment for execution.
Original: Smith (2008) makes use of examples of these various techniques as evidence that innovation continues.
Modified: Smith (2008) uses examples of these various techniques as evidence that innovation continues.
Sentence Structure
Avoiding unnecessary "It" and "There" constructions
"Your sentences are too long, especially your methods section! Try cutting them into individual units of complete thought instead of stringing together thoughts without stopping for breath." Reviewer, Journal of Water Resource Management
Original: It was vital that quantitative measures would usefully supplement and extend the qualitative analysis.
Modified: Quantitative measures must usefully supplement and extend qualitative analysis.
Original: It is necessary that the best method to adopt for this investigation was to determined by the committee.
Modified: The committee must decide the best method to adopt for this investigation.
Clarity
Clarifying pronoun references
"Line 12 on page 3 of your paper is an example of your ongoing problem using pronouns clearly. There are at least 3 different nouns 'it' could refer to. You must make your pronoun references clear!" 3rd Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging
Original: A case study approach was chosen, this allowed a closer observation of a single specimen.
Modified: A case study approach was chosen to allow a closer observation of a single specimen.
Original: In most recent studies, they measure X in four different ways.
Modified: In most recent studies, X is measured in four different ways.
Concision
Removing redundancy and extra words
"The whole paper should be shorter. I am confident that you could say everything you need to in 30% less space." Reviewer, IEEE Journal of Engineering Management
Original: It may be said that there are not fewer than one explanation which could this result.
Modified: There are several possible explanations for this result.
Original: The current study was unable, insofar as we could determine, to analyze these variables.
Modified: The current study was unable to analyze these variables.
Consistency
Maintaining appropriate verb tense
"Your discussion section changes verb tense often. Sometimes you change several times within a sentence. It makes it difficult to understand what has been done and what you are still planning to do." Reviewer, IEEE Signal Processing Letters
Original: All studies described as using the X procedure are included in the analysis.
Modified: All studies described as using the X procedure were included in the analysis.
Original: X will be synthesized using the same method that was detailed for Y, using CO2.
Modified: X was synthesized using the same method that was detailed for Y, using CO2.
Comparison
Completing comparisons
"Line 20 of page 2 should read, 'The finance department focuses on profits more than their department does.'" 1st Reviewer, Finance Review
Original: Country A funds high tech innovation more than Country B.
Modified: Country A funds high tech innovation more than Country B does.
Original: The device formulated in this experiment has higher luminance.
Modified: The device formulated in this experiment has higher luminance than conventional models.
Grammar
Subject-verb agreement and grammatical consistency
"Read the submission guidelines! English should be checked first! There are many basic errors that should have been corrected throughout this paper." Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
Original: This paper seek to address the following questions:
Modified: This paper seeks to address the following questions:
Original: However, there have been no controlled studies which compare difference in X and Y.
Modified: However, there have been no controlled studies which compare differences in X and Y.
Editing Supports Language Quality - Not Research Validity
English editing can improve how research is communicated, but it cannot correct weaknesses in study design, data quality, methodology, novelty, or journal fit.
Wallace focuses on the language and presentation of the manuscript: clarity, academic tone, grammar, sentence structure, terminology, concision, and consistency. Authors remain responsible for the research itself and for deciding whether each editorial change accurately reflects their intended meaning.
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