GLOSSARY FOR RESEARCH REPORTS
                         (By C D Graham, Jr.)
 
 
When they write...                    What they REALLY mean is...
 
It has long been known that...        I haven't bothered to look up the
                                      original reference
 
... of great theoretical and          ...interesting to me
practical importance
 
While it has not been possible to     The experiments didn't work out,
provide definite answers to these     but I figured I could at least get
questions...                          a publication out of it
 
The W - Pb system was chosen as       The fellow in the next lab had some
especially suitable to show the       already made up
predicted behavior
 
High purity... Very high purity...    Composition unknown except for the
Extremely high purity...              exaggerated supplier claims of
Spectroscopically pure...
 
Three of the samples were chosen      The results of the others didn't
for the detailed study...             make sense and were ignored
 
...accidentally strained during       ...dropped on the floor
mounting
 
...handled with extreme care          ...not dropped on the floor
                                      throughout the experiments
 
Typical results are shown...          The best results are shown...
 
Presumably at longer times...         I didn't take time to find out
 
The agreement with the predicted
curve is
excellent/good/satisfactory/fair      fair/poor/doubtful/imaginary
 
...as good as could be expected       non-existent
 
these results will be reported at a   I might possibly get around to
later date                            this sometime
 
The most reliable values are those    He was a student of mine
of Jones
 
It is generally believed that...      A couple of other guys think so
                                      too
 
It might be argued that...            I have such a good answer for this
                                      objection that I shall now raise it
 
It is clear that much additional      I don't understand it
work will be required before a
complete understanding...
 
Unfortunately, a quantitative         Neither does anybody else
theory to account for this has not
been formulated
 
Correct within an order of            Wrong
magnitude
 
It is hoped that this work will       This paper isn't very good, but
stimulate further work in the field   neither are any others in this
                                      miserable subject
 
Thanks are to Joe Glotz for           Glotz did the work and Doe
assistance with the experiments and   explained what it meant
to John Doe for valuable
discussions