Avoid Arrogance

Communicate Results Without Arrogance. Don’t Over-sell Your Results

Intensifiers are adjectives, adverbs and verbs used to strengthen nouns or verbs. Like hedge words, they can serve a purpose, but excessive use sounds arrogant. Limit the use of the following intensifiers:

Always Basic Central
Certainly Clearly Crucial
It is clear Obvious Prove
Quite Show Very
Table 1: Use these Intensifiers sparingly and where appropriate.

Instead of trying to convince the reader by using intensifiers, pay attention to your writing style. A well-crafted argument can be more persuasive than a statement that uses intensifiers.

Figure 1 clearly shows a marked increase in GFP reporter activity following transfection.

GFP reporter activity increased markedly following transfection (Figure 1).