It has long been known that…

I can’t remember the reference

This is of great theoretical and practical   importance

This is interesting to me

It has not been possible to provide definite   answers to these questions

The experiments didn’t work out

High purity/very high purity/ extremely high purity

Composition unknown

Three of the samples were chosen for detailed study

The results of the others didn’t make sense, so we   ignored them

Typical results are shown

Only the best results are shown

Although some detail has been lost in reproduction,   it appears to be clear from the original micro- graph that…

It is impossible to tell much from the original   micrograph

Agreement with the predicted curve was:

perfect excellent good

reasonably good satisfactory

fair

not perfect

as good as can be expected

Agreement with the predicted curve was:

good fair poor

very poor awful

really awful imaginary non-existent

These results will be reported at a later date

I might get round to this sometime if I don’t   change careers

It is suggested that… It is believed that… It seems   that…

I think that…

It is clear that much additional work is required   before a complete understanding can be reached

I don’t understand it

Unfortunately, a quantitative theory to account for   these effects has not yet been formulated

Neither does anyone else

Correct within an order of magnitude

Wrong

It is hoped that this work will stimulate further   research

This paper isn’t very good, but neither is anyone   else’s

It is obvious

…but impossible to prove