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Tips for crafting effective compare and contrast essays.

Comparing and contrasting is a common method used in academic writing to analyze the similarities and differences between two or more subjects. Whether you are a student working on an assignment or a professional writing a research paper, mastering the art of compare and contrast essays can greatly enhance your writing skills.

In this article, we will explore useful tips and provide examples to help you create compelling and well-structured compare and contrast essays. From understanding the purpose of the essay to organizing your thoughts and arguments effectively, we’ll cover key strategies to ensure your essay is clear, concise, and engaging.

Guide to Writing Successful Compare and Contrast Essays

Compare and contrast essays can be a challenging but rewarding type of academic writing. By comparing and contrasting two or more subjects, you can deepen your understanding of complex topics and improve your critical thinking skills. To help you write effective compare and contrast essays, follow these tips:

1. Choose an appropriate topic: Select two or more subjects that have some similarities and differences. This will make it easier to compare and contrast them effectively.

2. Develop a clear thesis statement: Your thesis statement should clearly state the purpose of your essay and the main points you will be comparing and contrasting.

3. Create a structure: Organize your essay in a way that makes it easy for the reader to follow. You can use a point-by-point or block structure, depending on your preference.

4. Provide evidence: Support your comparisons with evidence from the subjects you are analyzing. This could include quotes, statistics, or examples.

5. Use transitions: Transition words and phrases help to guide the reader through your essay and make it easier to follow your arguments.

6. Revise and edit: After you have written your essay, be sure to revise and edit it carefully. Check for grammar and spelling errors, as well as clarity and coherence.

By following these tips, you can write successful compare and contrast essays that impress your readers and demonstrate your understanding of the subjects you are analyzing.

Understanding the Essay Structure

When writing a compare and contrast essay, it is crucial to follow a clear structure to ensure that your arguments are presented effectively. The basic structure of this type of essay typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction: This section provides an overview of the topics being compared and contrasted. It should also include a thesis statement that highlights the main point of the essay.

Body Paragraphs: The body of the essay is where you provide detailed comparisons and contrasts between the two subjects. Each paragraph should focus on a specific point of comparison and include evidence to support your arguments.

Conclusion: In the conclusion, you should summarize the main points of the essay and restate the thesis. This section should also provide a final thought or insight to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

By following this structure, you can ensure that your compare and contrast essay is well-organized and easy for readers to follow.

Choosing the Right Topics

When it comes to writing a compare and contrast essay, choosing the right topics is crucial. The topics you select will determine the focus of your essay and set the tone for the rest of your writing. Here are some tips for choosing the right topics:

• Choose topics that have a clear connection: Make sure the topics you choose have some similarities and differences that you can explore in your essay. This will help you create a meaningful comparison.
• Opt for topics that interest you: Select topics that you find engaging and meaningful. This will make the writing process more enjoyable and will help you stay motivated throughout.
• Consider your audience: Think about who will be reading your essay and choose topics that will resonate with them. Consider their interests and preferences when selecting your topics.
• Avoid overly broad topics: Make sure the topics you choose are specific enough to allow for a focused comparison. Overly broad topics can lead to a lack of depth in your analysis.
• Look for unique angles: Try to find topics that offer a fresh perspective or unique angle for comparison. This will make your essay more interesting and engaging to your readers.

Gathering and Organizing Information

Before you start writing a compare and contrast essay, it is essential to gather and organize all the necessary information. Begin by selecting the subjects you want to compare and contrast. Make sure they have enough similarities and differences to make your essay informative and engaging.

Once you have chosen your topics, gather relevant information from credible sources. This can include books, academic journals, articles, and reputable websites. Take detailed notes and highlight key points that you can use in your essay. Organize your information in a systematic way to make it easier to reference and use while writing.

Consider creating a T-chart or Venn diagram to visually map out the similarities and differences between your subjects. This can help you see the relationships between the two topics more clearly and guide your essay structure.

By effectively gathering and organizing information, you will set a strong foundation for your compare and contrast essay and ensure that your arguments are well-supported and coherent.

Developing a Strong Thesis Statement

One of the key elements of a successful compare and contrast essay is a strong thesis statement. Your thesis statement should clearly outline the main points you will compare and contrast in your essay. It should also convey your overall argument and the significance of the comparison. Here are some tips for developing a strong thesis statement:

By following these tips, you can develop a strong thesis statement that sets the foundation for a well-organized and effective compare and contrast essay.

Writing the Essay: Tips and Tricks

When writing a compare and contrast essay, it’s important to keep in mind a few tips and tricks to make your essay effective and engaging. Here are some strategies to help you craft a compelling piece:

1. Begin with a Strong Thesis Statement:

Start your essay with a clear and concise thesis statement that highlights the main points of comparison and contrast. This will help guide your reader through the rest of the essay and provide a roadmap for your argument.

2. Organize Your Essay Carefully:

Structure your essay in a logical and coherent manner. You can choose to arrange your points by subject or point-by-point, but make sure your essay flows smoothly from one section to the next.

3. Use Transition Words:

Transition words and phrases like “similarly,” “in contrast,” and “however” can help signal the relationship between different ideas and improve the overall coherence of your essay.

4. Provide Concrete Examples:

To illustrate your points effectively, include specific examples and evidence to support your comparisons. This will add depth and credibility to your argument.

5. Revise and Edit:

Finally, don’t forget to revise and edit your essay before submitting it. Check for spelling and grammar errors, ensure your ideas are clear and well-supported, and make any necessary adjustments to improve the overall quality of your writing.

By following these tips and tricks, you can write an effective compare and contrast essay that engages your reader and effectively communicates your ideas.

Examples of Compare and Contrast Essays

1. Online Learning vs. Traditional Classroom Learning

This essay compares and contrasts the benefits and drawbacks of online learning and traditional classroom learning. It discusses factors such as convenience, interaction with instructors, and learning outcomes.

2. iOS vs. Android: A Comparison of Smartphone Operating Systems

This essay delves into the differences between iOS and Android operating systems, comparing their user interface, app availability, customization options, and overall performance. It aims to help readers make informed decisions when choosing a smartphone.

3. Vegetarianism vs. Veganism: Contrasting Plant-Based Diets

This essay explores the distinctions between vegetarianism and veganism, focusing on their dietary restrictions, ethical considerations, environmental impact, and health benefits. It aims to assist individuals in understanding the differences and choosing the diet that aligns with their values and goals.

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Theory X and Theory Y Compare & Contrast Essay

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In the modern society, it cannot be disputed that effective leadership styles are elemental for enhancing organizational performance. It is the responsibility of organizational leaders to adopt management styles that are suitable for diverse work environments. The X and Y management styles have been employed by different leaders over time.

They offer useful insights that can guide leaders in ensuring that their organizations perform optimally at all times. This paper provides a review of the two theories in light of their pros and cons. In addition, it underscores the relevance of the two theories in organizational management.

In his review, Sidhan (2010) details that theory X of management contends that workers do not like work and in most instances need to be coerced before they can attend to their duties. Workers according to this theory tend to avoid responsibility at all times. Further, they do not employ their personal initiative when addressing emergent concerns but rather prefer to be guided in all their undertakings. Above all, employees from the theory’s point of view have limited ambition and tend to place undue emphasis on personal security.

Employees in theory Y on the other hand derive great satisfaction from their jobs. As such, they are very committed to the organization that they serve and take all measures to ensure that organizational goals are attained. In his research, Cuban (2011) indicates that employees in theory Y are responsible and self driven. In most instances, they perceive work as play and enjoy performing the various duties that are accorded to them.

As indicated earlier, each theory is suitable in different environments as well as situations. In this regard, no particular theory can be considered suitable for all situations. At this point, it is worth appreciating that organizational environments differ considerably and have varied needs.

Customizing a leadership style would go a long way in ensuring optimal performance. For instance, there are certain organizational environments that are not environmentally employee friendly. As a result, employees in such environments hate working. In order to sustain productivity, organizational leaders would be compelled to align their leadership styles to the X theory. The Y theory in the foregoing scenario would not yield satisfactory outcomes.

Theory Y can be considered to be a democratic form of leadership. One striking difference with this theory is its participative nature. It gives the employees a chance and freedom to participate actively in decision making and ultimate organizational growth. This according to Barnett and Scott (2006) is attributable to the freedom that the workers are accorded.

Democracy is also demonstrated in instances where workers of this theoretical orientation are allowed to participate directly in organizational growth. In the long run, they feel appreciated and motivated.

At this point, it cannot be disputed that knowledge of the two models by organizational leaders is vitally important. This would enable the leader to adopt the most suitable leadership style under varied conditions. This is particularly important in modern day organizational environments. The environments are very dynamic and complex in nature. Understanding the models would enable the leaders to cope with emergent concerns in an effective and efficient manner.

Barnett, T. & Scott, D. (2006). Theory X and Theory Y: An entry from Thomsom Gale’s encyclopedia of management . USA: Thomsom Gale.

Cuban, M. (2011). How to win the sport of business: If I can do it, you can do it . USA: Diversion Books.

Sidhan, I. (2010). Doing both: Capturing today’s profit and driving tomorrow’s growth . USA: FT Press.

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Frequently asked questions

What is an essay.

An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

Frequently asked questions: Writing an essay

For a stronger conclusion paragraph, avoid including:

• Important evidence or analysis that wasn’t mentioned in the main body
• Generic concluding phrases (e.g. “In conclusion…”)
• Weak statements that undermine your argument (e.g. “There are good points on both sides of this issue.”)

Your conclusion should leave the reader with a strong, decisive impression of your work.

Your essay’s conclusion should contain:

• A rephrased version of your overall thesis
• A brief review of the key points you made in the main body
• An indication of why your argument matters

The conclusion may also reflect on the broader implications of your argument, showing how your ideas could applied to other contexts or debates.

The conclusion paragraph of an essay is usually shorter than the introduction . As a rule, it shouldn’t take up more than 10–15% of the text.

The “hook” is the first sentence of your essay introduction . It should lead the reader into your essay, giving a sense of why it’s interesting.

To write a good hook, avoid overly broad statements or long, dense sentences. Try to start with something clear, concise and catchy that will spark your reader’s curiosity.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

Let’s say you’re writing a five-paragraph  essay about the environmental impacts of dietary choices. Here are three examples of topic sentences you could use for each of the three body paragraphs :

• Research has shown that the meat industry has severe environmental impacts.
• However, many plant-based foods are also produced in environmentally damaging ways.
• It’s important to consider not only what type of diet we eat, but where our food comes from and how it is produced.

Each of these sentences expresses one main idea – by listing them in order, we can see the overall structure of the essay at a glance. Each paragraph will expand on the topic sentence with relevant detail, evidence, and arguments.

The topic sentence usually comes at the very start of the paragraph .

However, sometimes you might start with a transition sentence to summarize what was discussed in previous paragraphs, followed by the topic sentence that expresses the focus of the current paragraph.

Topic sentences help keep your writing focused and guide the reader through your argument.

In an essay or paper , each paragraph should focus on a single idea. By stating the main idea in the topic sentence, you clarify what the paragraph is about for both yourself and your reader.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

An essay isn’t just a loose collection of facts and ideas. Instead, it should be centered on an overarching argument (summarized in your thesis statement ) that every part of the essay relates to.

The way you structure your essay is crucial to presenting your argument coherently. A well-structured essay helps your reader follow the logic of your ideas and understand your overall point.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

The vast majority of essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Almost all academic writing involves building up an argument, though other types of essay might be assigned in composition classes.

Essays can present arguments about all kinds of different topics. For example:

• In a literary analysis essay, you might make an argument for a specific interpretation of a text
• In a history essay, you might present an argument for the importance of a particular event
• In a politics essay, you might argue for the validity of a certain political theory

At high school and in composition classes at university, you’ll often be told to write a specific type of essay , but you might also just be given prompts.

Look for keywords in these prompts that suggest a certain approach: The word “explain” suggests you should write an expository essay , while the word “describe” implies a descriptive essay . An argumentative essay might be prompted with the word “assess” or “argue.”

In rhetorical analysis , a claim is something the author wants the audience to believe. A support is the evidence or appeal they use to convince the reader to believe the claim. A warrant is the (often implicit) assumption that links the support with the claim.

Logos appeals to the audience’s reason, building up logical arguments . Ethos appeals to the speaker’s status or authority, making the audience more likely to trust them. Pathos appeals to the emotions, trying to make the audience feel angry or sympathetic, for example.

Collectively, these three appeals are sometimes called the rhetorical triangle . They are central to rhetorical analysis , though a piece of rhetoric might not necessarily use all of them.

The term “text” in a rhetorical analysis essay refers to whatever object you’re analyzing. It’s frequently a piece of writing or a speech, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you could also treat an advertisement or political cartoon as a text.

The goal of a rhetorical analysis is to explain the effect a piece of writing or oratory has on its audience, how successful it is, and the devices and appeals it uses to achieve its goals.

Unlike a standard argumentative essay , it’s less about taking a position on the arguments presented, and more about exploring how they are constructed.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

If you have to hand in your essay outline , you may be given specific guidelines stating whether you have to use full sentences. If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor.

When writing an essay outline for yourself, the choice is yours. Some students find it helpful to write out their ideas in full sentences, while others prefer to summarize them in short phrases.

You will sometimes be asked to hand in an essay outline before you start writing your essay . Your supervisor wants to see that you have a clear idea of your structure so that writing will go smoothly.

Even when you do not have to hand it in, writing an essay outline is an important part of the writing process . It’s a good idea to write one (as informally as you like) to clarify your structure for yourself whenever you are working on an essay.

Comparisons in essays are generally structured in one of two ways:

• The alternating method, where you compare your subjects side by side according to one specific aspect at a time.
• The block method, where you cover each subject separately in its entirety.

It’s also possible to combine both methods, for example by writing a full paragraph on each of your topics and then a final paragraph contrasting the two according to a specific metric.

Your subjects might be very different or quite similar, but it’s important that there be meaningful grounds for comparison . You can probably describe many differences between a cat and a bicycle, but there isn’t really any connection between them to justify the comparison.

You’ll have to write a thesis statement explaining the central point you want to make in your essay , so be sure to know in advance what connects your subjects and makes them worth comparing.

Some essay prompts include the keywords “compare” and/or “contrast.” In these cases, an essay structured around comparing and contrasting is the appropriate response.

Comparing and contrasting is also a useful approach in all kinds of academic writing : You might compare different studies in a literature review , weigh up different arguments in an argumentative essay , or consider different theoretical approaches in a theoretical framework .

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

If you’re not given a specific prompt for your descriptive essay , think about places and objects you know well, that you can think of interesting ways to describe, or that have strong personal significance for you.

The best kind of object for a descriptive essay is one specific enough that you can describe its particular features in detail—don’t choose something too vague or general.

If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

An expository essay is a common assignment in high-school and university composition classes. It might be assigned as coursework, in class, or as part of an exam.

Sometimes you might not be told explicitly to write an expository essay. Look out for prompts containing keywords like “explain” and “define.” An expository essay is usually the right response to these prompts.

An expository essay is a broad form that varies in length according to the scope of the assignment.

Expository essays are often assigned as a writing exercise or as part of an exam, in which case a five-paragraph essay of around 800 words may be appropriate.

You’ll usually be given guidelines regarding length; if you’re not sure, ask.

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Add a method, remove a method, edit datasets, the x+y floquet code: a simple example for topological quantum computation in the path integral approach.

14 Aug 2024  ·  Andreas Bauer · Edit social preview

The path-integral approach to topological quantum error correction provides a unified way to construct and analyze fault-tolerant circuits in spacetime. In this work, we demonstrate its utility and versatility at hand of a simple example: We construct a new fault-tolerant circuit for the toric-code phase by traversing its path integral on a $(x,y,z)$ cubic lattice in the $x+y$ direction. The circuit acts on qubits on a square lattice, and alternates between horizontal nearest-neighbor $CX$ gates and vertical nearest-neighbor $ZZ$ and $XX$ measurements. We show how to incorporate boundaries and corners into the fault-tolerant circuit and how to perform topologically protected logic gates. As a specific example, we consider performing a fault-tolerant logical $ZZ$ measurement via lattice surgery of two spatial rectangular blocks of our fault-tolerant circuit.

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Essay: The X and Y Theory

Business / Samples May 9, 2011

Sample Essay

The X and Y theory was proposed by Douglas McGregor and there are two theories attached to it. The theory X states that employees of an organization don’t like to work and they will avoid it. Since employees don’t like to work that is the reason why they will be forced to do work. However, theory X revolves around the scenario that employees of an organization are motivated enough to do work and they are more organized when the work oriented responsibilities are concerned. However, an analysis of both the theories suggests that an employee that is working on the basis of theory X is authoritative in nature while an employee who works on the basis of theory Y is participated in nature.

In the similar manner the two factor theory of Herzberg is also considered as an important motivational theory as it focuses on the two factors. These two factors are motivation and the hygiene. The motivational factors that were described by Herzberg are job advancement, challenges and the achievements in the job. In the similar manner hygiene factors are salary, relationship with the coordinates etc.

Employees are usually satisfied with both types and strategists / analysts believe that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is essential for the employees. Intrinsic motivation is related to the fact that rewards are inherent in nature and they are associated with the elements like a pat on the back or appreciation by the supervisor. In the similar manner extrinsic motivation or extrinsic rewards in an organizational context is related to the fact that there are certain rewards like monetary pays, payment appraisals etc (DeCanzo and Robbins 2009). In both the context employees are motivated and the performance of employees in an organization is based is mainly based on these elements.

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Getting College Essay Help: Important Do's and Don’ts

College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

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What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

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Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence

Title: the ai scientist: towards fully automated open-ended scientific discovery.

Abstract: One of the grand challenges of artificial general intelligence is developing agents capable of conducting scientific research and discovering new knowledge. While frontier models have already been used as aides to human scientists, e.g. for brainstorming ideas, writing code, or prediction tasks, they still conduct only a small part of the scientific process. This paper presents the first comprehensive framework for fully automatic scientific discovery, enabling frontier large language models to perform research independently and communicate their findings. We introduce The AI Scientist, which generates novel research ideas, writes code, executes experiments, visualizes results, describes its findings by writing a full scientific paper, and then runs a simulated review process for evaluation. In principle, this process can be repeated to iteratively develop ideas in an open-ended fashion, acting like the human scientific community. We demonstrate its versatility by applying it to three distinct subfields of machine learning: diffusion modeling, transformer-based language modeling, and learning dynamics. Each idea is implemented and developed into a full paper at a cost of less than $15 per paper. To evaluate the generated papers, we design and validate an automated reviewer, which we show achieves near-human performance in evaluating paper scores. The AI Scientist can produce papers that exceed the acceptance threshold at a top machine learning conference as judged by our automated reviewer. This approach signifies the beginning of a new era in scientific discovery in machine learning: bringing the transformative benefits of AI agents to the entire research process of AI itself, and taking us closer to a world where endless affordable creativity and innovation can be unleashed on the world's most challenging problems. Our code is open-sourced at this https URL

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Are we ready for genetically modified animals?

By Hank Greely

Imagine a world with less expensive and more resilient crops, plants that can meet the world’s need for liquid biofuels, no more malaria-carrying mosquitos, real blue roses, living woolly mammoths, unicorns and a few devastating new plagues.

These fantasies may before long become realities through the use of a biomolecular tool called CRISPR/Cas9 or its descendants. CRISPR/Cas9 is the most important biological invention thus far in the 21st century: it opens the entire living world to human manipulation, far more accurately, cheaply and easily than ever before. Much ink has been spilled over the possible implications of its use in humans; far too little about humans’ possible uses of it on the rest of the biosphere.

What exactly is CRISPR/Cas9?

CRISPR/Cas9 is two acronyms: Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and CRISPR-Associated Protein 9. Thousands of molecular complexes like it were invented billions of years ago by bacteria as protection against viruses. Researchers spent a over decade trying to understand these CRISPRs before, in 2012, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier saw how humans could harness them.

Basically, it makes it possible to cut DNA at very precise spots and, if desired, take out one stretch of DNA and substitute another. DNA editing had been done in laboratories for about 40 years, but CRISPR/Cas9 is at least 10 times more accurate, faster, easier and less expensive. In about three years, thousands of laboratories around the world have begun to use it successfully in research on an enormous range of living things.

Source:  Business Insider

CRISPR is like the Model T Ford. The Model T was not the first car, and it was not the last car, but it was (at least in the United States) the inflection point. Cars went from being the expensive, unreliable province of the curious rich to something anyone could, and soon did, own. With CRISPR/Cas9, and its inevitable descendants, genome editing will become similarly widely available and widely used – “democratized”.

The designer babies myth

Since March 2015, discussion has raged about CRISPR/Cas9 and, more broadly, genome editing. Its focus has been almost exclusively on the use of the technique in people; the early December  International Summit on Human Gene Editing  was, as its name indicated, devoted entirely to uses in humans.

This is a mistake. Humans will not be early targets. We are  terrible  experimental animals – we don’t follow orders well, plus we have long generation times … and lawyers. Gene editing in humans for disease or enhancement will need medical professionals and is heavily regulated. Gene editing to make “designer babies” will be insanely risky for many years, would require doctors and in vitro fertilization clinics, is illegal in many countries and, if allowed at all, will be even more heavily regulated. Plus, apart from a few diseases, we know next to nothing about how to “improve” the human genome. Whether designer babies should ever be allowed is deeply controversial; it should not be controversial that any plausible efforts are decades away.

By contrast, consider the non-human world. Few non-human organisms have lawyers or regulators, deeply concerned about their fates. A process that harmed one baby in a hundred would be viewed as terribly risky; one that harmed 99 mosquito larvae out of 100 would not be noticed. And, unlike treating human disease or making human babies, no doctors or clinics are needed – given the ease of CRISPR, a smart undergraduate with a few hundred dollars and a garage could modify many non-human organisms: animal, plant or bacterial.

Do your own gene-editing

Researchers around the world, academic and corporate, have been working on genetic modifications to plants, animals and microbes for agriculture or biofuel purposes for years. CRISPR/Cas9 does not mean that they will suddenly succeed, but it improves their odds. More importantly, CRISPR/Cas9 makes it possible for far more laboratories – or even “do it yourself biohackers” – to become involved. (Already, someone has raised more than $25,000 over the internet to  develop do-it-yourself CRISPR kits  for resale to interested amateurs.) The world is split over the acceptability of genetically modified crops; to what extent that split will continue if CRISPR/Cas9 brings more drought-resistant, heat-resistant or salt-resistant crops, remains to be seen.

Crops and fuel are the “big ticket” items for DNA modification, but spare some thought for other uses. Pets, for example. Look what we’ve done to wolves in the last few thousand years: turned them into everything from St. Bernards to chihuahuas. BGI, a Chinese genomics firm, is already selling miniature pigs modified through CRISPR/Cas9 as pets.

Or gardens. Gardeners are always trying to create new varieties, including the elusive blue rose. CRISPR/Cas9 will be a powerful help.

Bring back the dragons

Enthusiasts for “de-extinction” (bringing back extinct species or close proxies of them) are  already using CRISPR/Cas9  in preliminary work. Artists, seeking to make truly living art, will not be far behind. Neither will those who, for whatever reason, want to make fantastic animals. I expect dragons and unicorns, or their more or less reasonable facsimiles, before mid-century.

CRISPR/Cas9 can be used more seriously to diminish, or perhaps eliminate, infectious diseases spread by animal vectors. Two different gene-editing strategies against mosquito-borne diseases are already in research or development. One, already in field trials, cuts down populations of particular species of mosquitos by making offspring sterile; the other makes the mosquito inhospitable to pathogens, like the malarial plasmodium, that go on to infect humans. No mosquitos carrying malaria eventually means no humans with malaria.

Most seriously, though, CRISPR/Cas9 does not just help those with benign intentions. Creating a dangerous pathogen for biological warfare also becomes easier. Modifying the normal human gut microbe E. coli (the DNA sequence of which is well known) into one of several disease-causing variants (whose sequences are also known) may become, literally, child’s play.

A riskier future

Many of these non-human uses take on greater significance in light of a related development called “gene drive”. It speeds up the passage of a modified gene through a wild population of, say, mosquitos by using CRISPR/Cas9 not only to modify the first generation, but by having the same CRISPR/Cas9 complex stay active in all subsequent generations. This converts the “normal” genes inherited from an unmodified mosquito parent into the desired modified form. As a result, the modified gene might spread through the entire population very quickly, perhaps before anyone even knows what is happening.

A world where an academic lab, a business or a guy in a garage can quickly change the DNA of an entire species is worrisome. Worse is the fact that current national regulatory structures are not set up to deal with CRISPR/Cas9. The US federal government regulates some genetically modified organisms through old statutes implemented in different parts by the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency – but these statutes will not fit all that CRISPR/Cas9 can accomplish.

Worse still, although a new, more appropriate regulatory approach might be able to limit unstudied and potentially dangerous non-human uses of CRISPR/Cas9 by universities or industries, how will it govern (or even find out about) small do-it-yourself labs, whether run by well-intentioned biohackers or bioterrorists?

How to regulate non-human uses of CRISPR/Cas9 poses serious challenges that will take substantial attention, and, ultimately political will. Instead, we see lengthy discussion of, and occasional legislative grandstanding about,  human  uses that are much better regulated, much more easily contained, and much further in the future. We need to be much less parochial – and we needed to start yesterday.

Author: Henry T "Hank" Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics at Stanford University. He is participating in the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

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Why India's market regulator is in the eye of a storm

India's stock market has been a hot topic of conversation for the past couple of days, with hashtags around it trending on social media.

The reason isn't just investor interest, but has more to do with its regulator. Let's break it down a bit.

It all started over the weekend when US-based activist-investor Hindenburg Research posted on X (formerly Twitter) that "something big" was coming.

Hours later, it released a report accusing Madhabi Puri Buch - the chief of market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) - of having links with offshore funds used by the controversial Adani group. Both Ms Buch and the Adanis have denied wrongdoing.

Now, Hindenburg had last year accused the Adani group - founded by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani - of decades of "brazen" stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

The group - which has 10 publicly traded companies, operating across a wide range of sectors, including commodities trading, airports, utilities, ports and renewable energy - had strongly denied the allegations.

But the controversy took billions off its market value - it has since mostly recovered - and Sebi is still investigating the allegations.

Hindenburg now say that Ms Buch's links with the funds used by the Adanis have impacted the regulator's investigation.

Ms Buch has denied any conflict of interest and said that the investment was made before she was associated with the regulator. Also, there is no direct evidence so far linking her investment in the funds with Adani Group stocks or Sebi's investigation.

The fresh allegations wiped off $2.43bn (£1.9bn) off Adani Group's market value at the end of trading on Monday, though it made a substantial recovery from losses earlier in the day.

So what does Hindenburg say?

In its report, Hindenburg referred to earlier articles by Financial Times and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that linked obscure offshore funds in Bermuda and Mauritius to Mr Adani's business associates.

Hindenburg alleged that Ms Buch and her husband, Dhaval Buch, invested in these sub-funds in 2015.

The firm said that weeks before Ms Buch became a whole-time member of Sebi in 2017, her husband wrote to the fund administrator, asking to be made the only person "authorised to operate the accounts".

The report says Ms Buch used her personal email ID to write to a wealth management firm to seek the redemption of her husband's entire investment in the fund.

"We suspect Sebi’s unwillingness to take meaningful action against suspect offshore shareholders in the Adani Group may stem from Chairperson Madhabi Buch’s complicity in using the exact same funds used by Vinod Adani, brother of Gautam Adani," the firm alleged.

Hindenburg also flagged Ms Buch's husband becoming an adviser in 2019 for US investment manager Blackstone, which has invested in Indian real estate investment trusts. Pointing to regulatory changes made by Sebi during Ms Buch's tenure as member and chairperson, they alleged that it directly benefitted firms like Blackstone.

What is Ms Buch's response?

Ms Buch and her husband have said in a statement that the investments referred to in the Hindenburg report were made in 2015 when the couple were private citizens in Singapore, "almost two years before Madhabi joined Sebi, even as a Whole Time Member".

They said their investment was made because of Mr Buch's childhood friendship with the fund's then chief investment officer Anil Ahuja, who also "had many decades of a strong investing career".

"As confirmed by Mr Ahuja, the fund did not invest in any bond, equity or derivative of any Adani group company," their statement said.

The statement added that the market regulator had "strong institutional mechanisms of disclosure and recusal norms", which they had followed "diligently".

It called the Hindenburg report an attack on the "credibility of Sebi" and an attempt at "character assassination of its chairperson".

Regarding the allegation about Mr Buch's role with Blackstone, the couple said the investment firm was part of Ms Buch's "recusal list maintained with Sebi".

What about Sebi?

The market regulator said in a statement that it had "duly investigated" Hindenburg's allegations against the Adani Group.

It also said that its chairperson had made the required disclosures in "terms of holdings of securities and their transfers", and that she had recused herself in matters involving "potential conflicts of interest".

And the Adani Group?

In a statement released on its website on Sunday, the conglomerate called the allegations "a recycling of discredited claims that have been thoroughly investigated [and] proven to be baseless".

"Our overseas holding structure is fully transparent, with all relevant details disclosed regularly in numerous public documents," it said.

The group said Anil Ahuja had been a nominee director of its 3i investment fund in Adani Power in 2007-2008 and a director of Adani Enterprises until 2017.

"The Adani Group has absolutely no commercial relationship with the individuals or matters mentioned in this calculated deliberate effort to malign our standing," it added.

Hindenburg's earlier report accusing the Adanis of stock manipulation and accounting fraud 18 months back had seen their companies lose almost $150bn off their market value, though it has mostly recovered the losses since then.

In January, in a major relief to the group, India's top court rejected pleas for an additional investigation into the allegations. It also gave Sebi three months to complete its investigation - that deadline has long passed, but according to Sebi's latest statement, it has completed 23 inquiries and the last one is "close to completion".

In June, Sebi also issued a "show-cause notice" to Hindenburg Research, accusing it of violating US securities laws by colluding with an investor who made a short bet against the Adani group ahead of the report's release. Hindenburg has dismissed the allegation.

A political slugfest

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in India's parliament, said that the allegations have "gravely compromised" the "integrity" of Sebi, "which is entrusted with safeguarding the wealth of small retail investors".

His Congress party has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the accusations and has asked the government to "eliminate all conflicts of interest in the Sebi investigation of Adani".

Mr Adani is perceived as being close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has long faced allegations from opposition politicians that he has benefitted from his political ties, which he denies.

Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in turn, has accused the Congress of being "involved in creating economic anarchy" and "hatred against India".

A top finance ministry official said on Monday that the government had "nothing to add" on the issue as both Sebi and Ms Buch had given statements.

What happens next?

In its response to Ms Buch's statement, Hindenburg has doubled down on its accusations, saying it raises "numerous new critical questions".

Sebi, Ms Buch and the Adani Group haven't reacted yet to the latest comments.

Opposition politicians are also expected to keep raising the issue - which means we haven't heard the last of it yet.

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 09 August 2024

Why I’ve removed journal titles from the papers on my CV

• Adrian Barnett 0

Adrian Barnett is a researcher in health and medicine at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Omitting journal names in your CV could help to prioritize the quality of your science over the prestige of the publication. Credit: Nature

Can you name the journal in which microbiologist Alexander Fleming first reported on the antibacterial properties of penicillin? Or where engineer John O’Sullivan and his colleagues presented the image-sharpening techniques that led to Wi-Fi?

Most of you can easily name the benefits of these breakthroughs, but I expect only a few would know where they were published. Unfortunately, in modern scientific culture, there is too much focus on the journal — and not enough on the science itself. Researchers strive to publish in journals with high impact factors, which can lead to personal benefits such as job opportunities and funding.

But the obsession with where to publish is shaping what we publish. For example, ‘negative’ studies might not be written up — or if they are, they’re spun into a positive by highlighting favourable results or leaving out ‘messy’ findings, to ensure publication in a ‘prestigious’ journal.

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

To shift this focus in my own practice, I have removed all the journal names from my CV . Anyone interested in my track record will now see only my papers’ titles, which better illustrate what I’ve achieved. If they want to read more, they can click on each paper title, which is hyperlinked to the published article.

I’m not alone in thinking of this. The idea for removing journal names was discussed at a June meeting in Canberra on designing an Australian Roadmap for Open Research . A newsletter published by the University of Edinburgh, UK, no longer includes journal titles when sharing researchers’ new publications, to help change the culture around research assessment. Celebrating the ‘what’ rather than the ‘where’ is a great idea. This simple change could be extended to many types of research assessment.

Quality over journal titles

It is disorienting at first to see a reference that does not contain a journal title, because this bucks a deeply ingrained practice. But journal names are too often used as a proxy for research excellence or quality. I want people reading my CV to consider what I wrote, not where it was published, which I know is sometimes attributable to luck as much as substance.

Of course, anyone who really wants to judge me by where I’ve published will simply be able to google my articles: I haven’t anonymized the journals everywhere. But removing the names in my CV discourages simplistic scans, such as counting papers in particular journals. It’s a nudge intervention: a reminder that work should be judged by its content first, journal second.

Because I’m a professor on a permanent contract, it’s easier for me to make this change. Some might think that it would be a huge mistake for an early-career researcher to do the same. But there is no stage in our scientific careers at which decisions about hiring and promotion should be based on the ‘where’ over the ‘what’. It would be easier for early-career scientists to make this change if it became normalized and championed by their senior colleagues.

A potential criticism of removing journal names is that there is nothing to stop unscrupulous academics from publishing shoddy papers in predatory journals to create a competitive-looking CV, which could put candidates with genuine papers at a disadvantage. Promotion and hiring committees need to be made aware of the growing problem of faked and poor-quality research and receive training on how to spot flawed science.

However, when a job gets 30 or more applicants, there can be a need for short-cuts to thin the field. I suggest that reading the titles of each applicant’s ten most recent papers would work better than any heuristic based on paper counts or journal names, for only a slight increase in workload.

Imagine a hiring or fellowship committee that receives plain or preprint versions of the every applicant’s five best papers. Committee members who previously relied on simplistic metrics would have to change their practice. Some might simply revert to Google, but others might welcome the challenge of judging the applicants’ works.

Judging researchers is much more difficult than counting impact factors or citations, because science is rarely simple. Simplistic promotion and hiring criteria ignore this wonderful complexity. Changing typical academic CV formats could bring some of it back.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02596-y

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

Competing Interests

A.B. is a member of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Research Quality Steering Committee, which provides national guidance on good research practice. A.B. is paid for his time to attend committee meetings. A.B. was on the organizing committee for the Policy Roundtable: An Australian Roadmap for Open Research meeting, which is mentioned in the article, and received paid accommodation to attend the meeting.

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