A Guide to Effective Scientific Communication 
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Phrase                               Translation 
----------------------------------------------------------------- 
It has long been known               I haven't bothered to look up 
                                            the reference 
 
It is believed                       I think 
 
It is generally believed             A couple of guys think so too 
 
It is not unreasonable to            If you believe this, you'll 
       assume                               believe anything 
 
Of great theoretical importance      I find it kind of interesting 
 
Of great practical importance        I can get some mileage out of it 
 
Typical results are shown            The best results are shown 
 
3 samples were chosen for further    The others didn't make sense, so 
       study                                we ignored them 
 
The 4 hour determination may not     I dropped it on the floor, but 
       be significant                       scooped most of it up 
 
The significance of these results    Look at the pretty artifact 
       is unclear 
 
It has not been possible to          The experiment was negative, but at 
provide definitive answers                   least I can publish the data 
                                             somewhere 

Correct within an order of            Wrong 
       magnitude 
 
It might be argued that               I have such a good answer for this 
                                             objection that I shall now 
                                             raise it 
 
Much additional work will be          This paper is not very good, but neither 
required			      is that of anyone else 
 
These investigations proved           My grant is going to be renewed 
       highly rewarding 

It is clear that much additional      I didn't understand it.
work will be required before a
complete understanding

It is to be hoped that this work      This paper is not very good, but 
will stimulate further work in	      neither are any of the others on
this field			      this miserable subject.

It is intuitively obvious to the      Don't ask me to explain it because
most casual observer that	      I don't understand it either.