Here’s a dictionary of words I think are overused in scientific writing:
- Mechanism – sometimes means “I don’t know how it works”
- Putative – possible? Often used with other hedging words.
- Framework – general term that seems to add nothing
- Utilize – Usually utilized instead of “use” to inflate writing.
- Elucidate – a prerequisite for every introduction, which describes important mechanisms that “have yet to be elucidated”
- Broadly – can usually be omitted without consequence.
- Extremely – how can everything be extreme?
Another one that shows up all the time is respectively…
