Glossary of Useful Research Phrases
Author Unknown
Handed down to me in typewritten form by Professor Haluk Kasnakoğlu some time around 1989 when I was an undergraduate students in the Economics Department at the Middle East Technical University.
It has long been known ...
- I didn’t look up the original reference.
A definite trend is evident ...
- These data seem practically meaningless.
Of great theoretical and practical importance ...
- Interesting to me.
While it has not been possible to provide definite answers to these questions ...
- This was an unsuccessful experiment but I still hope to get it published.
Three of the examples were chosen for detailed study.
- The others made no sense.
Typical results are shown.
- The best results are shown.
The most reliable results are those obtained by Ward.
- He was my grad assistant.
It is believed that ...
- I think.
It is generally believed that ...
- A couple of other guys think so too.
It is clear that much additional work will be required before a complete understanding of these phenomena is possible.
- I don't understand it.
Correct within an order of magnitude.
- Wrong.
It is hoped that this study will stimulate more work in this field.
- This is a lousy paper but so are the others in this crummy field.
Thanks are due to Joe Blotz for assistance with the experimental work and George Frink for valuable discussions.
- Blotz did the work and Frink explained to me what it meant.
Careful analysis of obtainable data ...
- Three pages were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of beer.
Statistically oriented projection of the findings.
- Wild guess.
Highly significant area for exploratory study.
- A totally useless topic suggested by my committee.
Note: This document was originally hosted at my personal web site at Cornell. I had to move it here after Cornell discontinued the service.