Uni-edit English Writing Tip 013

What’s wrong with “the present study”?

Difficulty: Intermediate

Uni-edit English Editors are accustomed to seeing the self-referential
phrase “the present study”, which an author uses in a paper to refer to
itself or accompanying research. It’s not a particularly technical term,
nor is it subject-specific: it appears in the natural sciences and
social sciences with equal frequency. Most Asian languages have a word
with exactly this meaning: for example, 本研究 in both Chinese (běn
yánjiū) and Japanese (hon-kenkyuu), so it’s easy for non-native speakers
of English to translate directly from their native language.

However, English has several ways to refer to the present study. Are you
confident that you have all of the options in your writer’s toolbox
already?

Using “the present study” correctly

The phrase “the present study” is most commonly encountered in a paper’s
purpose statement.

The present study investigated individual and environmental factors of
adults with mental disorders, and their relationships with psychiatric
medication compliance.

Another common construction is the prepositional phrase “in the present
study”. In these cases, we recommend using first person or active voice
to enhance clarity and conciseness, although passive voice is also
possible.

In the present study, we investigated individual and environmental
factors of adults with mental disorders, and their relationships with
psychiatric medication compliance.

Individual and environmental factors of adults with mental disorders
were investigated in the present study, as well as their relationships
with psychiatric medication compliance.

In addition, the phrase “the current study” seems to be used less
frequently than “the present study”, but it is exactly synonymous with
it, and therefore you can use it in exactly the same ways.

Only using “the present study” is poor style

So why can’t you just use “the present study” all the time? There is no
grammatical problem with using “the present study” all the time, but
there is a style problem. It is considered poor English style to use the
same words and phrases over and over again: readers assume the author is
repeating themselves because they have nothing new to say, or they lose
focus or get bored or confused because they cannot distinguish the
current information from identically worded previous information.

The two options below share two advantages. The first is conciseness.
Each option below is shorter than “the present study”. In sections like
the Abstract, where word counts are strict, using one of the options
below is a simple way to save yourself one or two words at each
instance.

The second advantage is reduction of markedness. Markedness is a broad
linguistic concept, but in the context of vocabulary and reader
comprehension, it means that commonly used words require less mental
effort to read than uncommonly used words. Therefore, minimizing your
use of unnecessarily complex phrases (i.e., phrases where simple phrases
would also suffice) allows readers to focus their energy on
understanding subject-matter-specific language, which is often
necessarily complex.

Incidentally, saving space and reducing markedness are two of the main
reasons for using acronyms. Which sentence is easier to read below:
Sentence 1 or Sentence 2?

Sentence 1: Researchers from the United States of America are working on
using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats
technology to edit segments of deoxyribonucleic acid in an attempt to
treat various heart conditions. Sentence 2: Researchers from the USA are
working on using CRISPR technology to edit segments of DNA in an attempt
to treat various heart conditions.

Alternative 1: First person voice

First-person pronouns like “we” and “our” are very common, and so using
them creates low markedness. It is usually obvious from phrases like “We
found” and “Our results show” that you are referring to the present
study.

Our results demonstrate that female gender may predict lower
continuation rates for rational emotive therapy.

But there’s a potential problem: What if you discuss the results of
multiple studies you have authored? In this context, “our results” could
refer to the results of the present study, or to the results of a
previous study.

Common words can serve as a simple solution: “here” for the former case,
and “previous” or “past” for the latter case.

In a previous study, we found that rational emotive therapy showed
similar efficacy rates regardless of gender. However, our results here
demonstrate that female gender may predict lower continuation rates for
this treatment.

Alternative 2: “This study”

“This study” can generally be used in the same ways as “the present
study”. You don’t need to learn different sentence patterns in order to
use it naturally and correctly.

This study investigated individual and environmental factors of adults
with mental disorders, and their relationships with psychiatric
medication compliance.

Be careful, however, in paragraphs where you talk about or compare the
results of multiple studies:

Our study’s findings corroborate those of Smith et al. (2013), who found
that antidepressant compliance depends on several environmental factors,
such as living environment. However, this study’s emphasis on one kind
of medication means it remains unclear whether other types of medication
show the same trend.

In this case, does the author mean “their study”: i.e., Smith et al.’s
focus on antidepressants only? Or does the author mean “the present
study”: i.e., our study’s focus on one kind of medication? You can see
that “this study” can create ambiguity when you mention multiple studies
in the same paragraph.

The phrase “the present study” has a precise meaning, but it is rarely
encountered outside of academic English. By using it, you can be sure
that your meaning will be conveyed, but by using it exclusively, your
writing will sound stiff, unnatural, and uncompelling.

The alternatives above should give you excellent opportunities to
enhance your communication by utilizing more natural and common English
words like “this” and “here”. By improving your command of their nuances
in this single context, you will likewise improve your unconscious
understanding of the implicit relationships and referents of these
common words in all English media you read. Why not experiment in your
next research paper? There’s no time like the present!

END OF TIP