Clarity and creativity: When to use two different words that mean the same thing

Academic writing in the hard sciences values clarity over poetry, even in contexts in which most other forms of English writing do not. This means that not all common writing advice applies.

A middle school teacher once told a young me not to use the same verb in three sentences in the same essay, even though all three subjects were doing the same thing. The teacher said it was boring, and—typical for the era—implied that it was lazy. I said I was just being clear.

Much of English instruction in the K-12 system leans toward vocabulary acquisition. High school juniors have to be told, usually more than once, that they should write “say” instead of “vociferate” in their college application essays. The transition from the in-school attitude of gaming the system for higher grades, either by showing off obscure words or large numbers of synonyms, does not mesh well with the adult world’s need for people to get to the point before everyone in the Thursday afternoon meeting succumbs to boredom-induced brain death.

In life science academic writing, it is almost always best to choose exactly one word and stick with it for the whole paper. I often tell clients, “I know the thesaurus says they’re synonyms, but don’t say ‘show’ in this sentence and ‘demonstrate’ in the next unless you mean you did two different things” (which sometimes they did).

The inverse of that, however, is that if you do mean two different things, then yes you should use different words, and this doesn’t only apply to verbs.

The word “element” means “essential piece.” It’s perfectly clear and correct to use on intangible things, as in “the elements of good laboratory technique include precision and efficiency.” But if your paper also discusses the elements of the periodic table, it might be best to save “element” for oxygen and carbon and choose “foundation” or “essential part” to refer to anything else.

Our audience doesn’t always read the articles as carefully as we write them. Some people skim them for the basics. The mistakes that this can cause are embarrassing enough in fields like literature or political science, but they don’t make the fume hood blow up or cause anything important to escape from sample vial #4.

Sets of synonyms to which this may apply:

• “Component,” “element,” and “part” (“part” can also mean “to separate”)
• “Important,” “significant,” “pronounced”
• “One” and “single” when “one” is used as an adjective, as in “one lung ventilation”
• “Higher,” “increased” (as adjective)
• “Old,” “older,” and “elderly.” In a weird twist of English, “older” means less old than “old” when applied to people.

Comment below with your opinions or any other sets of words you think should go on this list.