grammar research paper

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Writing a Research Paper

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The Research Paper

There will come a time in most students' careers when they are assigned a research paper. Such an assignment often creates a great deal of unneeded anxiety in the student, which may result in procrastination and a feeling of confusion and inadequacy. This anxiety frequently stems from the fact that many students are unfamiliar and inexperienced with this genre of writing. Never fear—inexperience and unfamiliarity are situations you can change through practice! Writing a research paper is an essential aspect of academics and should not be avoided on account of one's anxiety. In fact, the process of writing a research paper can be one of the more rewarding experiences one may encounter in academics. What is more, many students will continue to do research throughout their careers, which is one of the reasons this topic is so important.

Becoming an experienced researcher and writer in any field or discipline takes a great deal of practice. There are few individuals for whom this process comes naturally. Remember, even the most seasoned academic veterans have had to learn how to write a research paper at some point in their career. Therefore, with diligence, organization, practice, a willingness to learn (and to make mistakes!), and, perhaps most important of all, patience, students will find that they can achieve great things through their research and writing.

The pages in this section cover the following topic areas related to the process of writing a research paper:

• Genre - This section will provide an overview for understanding the difference between an analytical and argumentative research paper.
• Choosing a Topic - This section will guide the student through the process of choosing topics, whether the topic be one that is assigned or one that the student chooses themselves.
• Identifying an Audience - This section will help the student understand the often times confusing topic of audience by offering some basic guidelines for the process.
• Where Do I Begin - This section concludes the handout by offering several links to resources at Purdue, and also provides an overview of the final stages of writing a research paper.

English for Writing Research Papers

• © 2023
• Latest edition
• Adrian Wallwork 0

Pisa, Italy

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

• How to: structure sections (abstract, methods) and keep editors/ referees happy
• Sentence/paragraph structure; avoiding redundancy, ambiguity and plagiarism; using AI to correct and paraphrase
• Unique insights into writing skills based on editing around 5000 research papers authored by non-natives

Part of the book series: English for Academic Research (EAR)

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About this book

Publishing your research in an international journal is key to your success in academia. This guide is based on a study of over 1000 manuscripts and reviewers' reports revealing why papers written by non-native researchers are often rejected due to problems with English usage and poor structure and content. 

With easy-to-follow rules and tips, and examples taken from published and unpublished papers, you will learn how to:

• prepare and structure a manuscript
• increase readability and reduce the number of mistakes you make in English by writing concisely, with no redundancy and no  ambiguity
• write a title and an abstract that will attract attention and be read
• decide what to include in the various parts of the paper (Introduction, Methodology, Discussion etc)
• highlight your claims and contribution
• avoid plagiarism
• discuss the limitations of your research
• choose the correct tenses and style
• satisfy the requirements of editors and reviewers

This edition has two completely new chapters covering machine translation and using AI tools (e.g. chatbots, paraphrasers, editing tools) to improve and correct the English of a text.

Other titles in this series:

Grammar, Usage and Style

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing Exercises (three volumes)

100 Tips to Avoid Mistakes in Academic Writing and Presenting

English for Presentations at International Conferences

English for Academic Correspondence

English for Interacting on Campus

English for Academic CVs, Resumes, and Online Profiles

English for Academic Research: A Guide for Teachers

Adrian Wallwork  is the author of more than 40 English Language Teaching (ELT) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks. He has trained several thousand PhDstudents and researchers from 50 countries to write papers. He edits research manuscripts through his own proofreading and editing agency.

• Research papers
• preparing and structuring a manuscript
• readability
• avoiding mistakes
• redundancy and ambiguity
• introductions
• review of the literature
• highlighting results

Table of contents (20 chapters)

Front matter, writing skills, planning and preparation.

Adrian Wallwork

Word order and sentence length

Structuring paragraphs, being concise and removing redundancy, avoiding ambiguity, repetition, and vague language, clarifying and highlighting, discussing your limitations, readability, automatic translation, sections of a paper, abstracts: standard types, abstracts: particular types, introduction, writing a review of the literature, authors and affiliations, about the author, bibliographic information.

Book Title : English for Writing Research Papers

Authors : Adrian Wallwork

Series Title : English for Academic Research

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31072-0

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Education , Education (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-31071-3 Published: 21 September 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-31072-0 Published: 20 September 2023

Series ISSN : 2625-3445

Series E-ISSN : 2625-3453

Edition Number : 3

Number of Pages : XVI, 338

Number of Illustrations : 1 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour

Topics : Language Education , Linguistics, general , Linguistics, general

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How to Write a Research Paper

Use the links below to jump directly to any section of this guide:

Research Paper Fundamentals

How to choose a topic or question, how to create a working hypothesis or thesis, common research paper methodologies, how to gather and organize evidence , how to write an outline for your research paper, how to write a rough draft, how to revise your draft, how to produce a final draft, resources for teachers .

It is not fair to say that no one writes anymore. Just about everyone writes text messages, brief emails, or social media posts every single day. Yet, most people don't have a lot of practice with the formal, organized writing required for a good academic research paper. This guide contains links to a variety of resources that can help demystify the process. Some of these resources are intended for teachers; they contain exercises, activities, and teaching strategies. Other resources are intended for direct use by students who are struggling to write papers, or are looking for tips to make the process go more smoothly.

The resources in this section are designed to help students understand the different types of research papers, the general research process, and how to manage their time. Below, you'll find links from university writing centers, the trusted Purdue Online Writing Lab, and more.

What is an Academic Research Paper?

"Genre and the Research Paper" (Purdue OWL)

There are different types of research papers. Different types of scholarly questions will lend themselves to one format or another. This is a brief introduction to the two main genres of research paper: analytic and argumentative. 

"7 Most Popular Types of Research Papers" (Personal-writer.com)

This resource discusses formats that high school students commonly encounter, such as the compare and contrast essay and the definitional essay. Please note that the inclusion of this link is not an endorsement of this company's paid service.

How to Prepare and Plan Out Writing a Research Paper

Teachers can give their students a step-by-step guide like these to help them understand the different steps of the research paper process. These guides can be combined with the time management tools in the next subsection to help students come up with customized calendars for completing their papers.

"Ten Steps for Writing Research Papers" (American University)  

This resource from American University is a comprehensive guide to the research paper writing process, and includes examples of proper research questions and thesis topics.

"Steps in Writing a Research Paper" (SUNY Empire State College)

This guide breaks the research paper process into 11 steps. Each "step" links to a separate page, which describes the work entailed in completing it.

How to Manage Time Effectively

The links below will help students determine how much time is necessary to complete a paper. If your sources are not available online or at your local library, you'll need to leave extra time for the Interlibrary Loan process. Remember that, even if you do not need to consult secondary sources, you'll still need to leave yourself ample time to organize your thoughts.

"Research Paper Planner: Timeline" (Baylor University)

This interactive resource from Baylor University creates a suggested writing schedule based on how much time a student has to work on the assignment.

"Research Paper Planner" (UCLA)

UCLA's library offers this step-by-step guide to the research paper writing process, which also includes a suggested planning calendar.

There's a reason teachers spend a long time talking about choosing a good topic. Without a good topic and a well-formulated research question, it is almost impossible to write a clear and organized paper. The resources below will help you generate ideas and formulate precise questions.

"How to Select a Research Topic" (Univ. of Michigan-Flint)

This resource is designed for college students who are struggling to come up with an appropriate topic. A student who uses this resource and still feels unsure about his or her topic should consult the course instructor for further personalized assistance.

"25 Interesting Research Paper Topics to Get You Started" (Kibin)

This resource, which is probably most appropriate for high school students, provides a list of specific topics to help get students started. It is broken into subsections, such as "paper topics on local issues."

"Writing a Good Research Question" (Grand Canyon University)

This introduction to research questions includes some embedded videos, as well as links to scholarly articles on research questions. This resource would be most appropriate for teachers who are planning lessons on research paper fundamentals.

"How to Write a Research Question the Right Way" (Kibin)

This student-focused resource provides more detail on writing research questions. The language is accessible, and there are embedded videos and examples of good and bad questions.

It is important to have a rough hypothesis or thesis in mind at the beginning of the research process. People who have a sense of what they want to say will have an easier time sorting through scholarly sources and other information. The key, of course, is not to become too wedded to the draft hypothesis or thesis. Just about every working thesis gets changed during the research process.

CrashCourse Video: "Sociology Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is tailored to sociology students, it is applicable to students in a variety of social science disciplines. This video does a good job demonstrating the connection between the brainstorming that goes into selecting a research question and the formulation of a working hypothesis.

"How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Analytical Essay" (YouTube)

Students writing analytical essays will not develop the same type of working hypothesis as students who are writing research papers in other disciplines. For these students, developing the working thesis may happen as a part of the rough draft (see the relevant section below). 

"Research Hypothesis" (Oakland Univ.)

This resource provides some examples of hypotheses in social science disciplines like Political Science and Criminal Justice. These sample hypotheses may also be useful for students in other soft social sciences and humanities disciplines like History.

When grading a research paper, instructors look for a consistent methodology. This section will help you understand different methodological approaches used in research papers. Students will get the most out of these resources if they use them to help prepare for conversations with teachers or discussions in class.

"Types of Research Designs" (USC)

A "research design," used for complex papers, is related to the paper's method. This resource contains introductions to a variety of popular research designs in the social sciences. Although it is not the most intuitive site to read, the information here is very valuable. 

"Major Research Methods" (YouTube)

Although this video is a bit on the dry side, it provides a comprehensive overview of the major research methodologies in a format that might be more accessible to students who have struggled with textbooks or other written resources.

"Humanities Research Strategies" (USC)

This is a portal where students can learn about four methodological approaches for humanities papers: Historical Methodologies, Textual Criticism, Conceptual Analysis, and the Synoptic method.

"Selected Major Social Science Research Methods: Overview" (National Academies Press)

This appendix from the book  Using Science as Evidence in Public Policy , printed by National Academies Press, introduces some methods used in social science papers.

"Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: 6. The Methodology" (USC)

This resource from the University of Southern California's library contains tips for writing a methodology section in a research paper.

How to Determine the Best Methodology for You

Anyone who is new to writing research papers should be sure to select a method in consultation with their instructor. These resources can be used to help prepare for that discussion. They may also be used on their own by more advanced students.

"Choosing Appropriate Research Methodologies" (Palgrave Study Skills)

This friendly and approachable resource from Palgrave Macmillan can be used by students who are just starting to think about appropriate methodologies.

"How to Choose Your Research Methods" (NFER (UK))

This is another approachable resource students can use to help narrow down the most appropriate methods for their research projects.

The resources in this section introduce the process of gathering scholarly sources and collecting evidence. You'll find a range of material here, from introductory guides to advanced explications best suited to college students. Please consult the LitCharts  How to Do Academic Research guide for a more comprehensive list of resources devoted to finding scholarly literature.

Google Scholar

Students who have access to library websites with detailed research guides should start there, but people who do not have access to those resources can begin their search for secondary literature here.

"Gathering Appropriate Information" (Texas Gateway)

This resource from the Texas Gateway for online resources introduces students to the research process, and contains interactive exercises. The level of complexity is suitable for middle school, high school, and introductory college classrooms.

"An Overview of Quantitative and Qualitative Data Collection Methods" (NSF)

This PDF from the National Science Foundation goes into detail about best practices and pitfalls in data collection across multiple types of methodologies.

"Social Science Methods for Data Collection and Analysis" (Swiss FIT)

This resource is appropriate for advanced undergraduates or teachers looking to create lessons on research design and data collection. It covers techniques for gathering data via interviews, observations, and other methods.

"Collecting Data by In-depth Interviewing" (Leeds Univ.)

This resource contains enough information about conducting interviews to make it useful for teachers who want to create a lesson plan, but is also accessible enough for college juniors or seniors to make use of it on their own.

There is no "one size fits all" outlining technique. Some students might devote all their energy and attention to the outline in order to avoid the paper. Other students may benefit from being made to sit down and organize their thoughts into a lengthy sentence outline. The resources in this section include strategies and templates for multiple types of outlines. 

"Topic vs. Sentence Outlines" (UC Berkeley)

This resource introduces two basic approaches to outlining: the shorter topic-based approach, and the longer, more detailed sentence-based approach. This resource also contains videos on how to develop paper paragraphs from the sentence-based outline.

"Types of Outlines and Samples" (Purdue OWL)

The Purdue Online Writing Lab's guide is a slightly less detailed discussion of different types of outlines. It contains several sample outlines.

"Writing An Outline" (Austin C.C.)

This resource from a community college contains sample outlines from an American history class that students can use as models.

"How to Structure an Outline for a College Paper" (YouTube)

This brief (sub-2 minute) video from the ExpertVillage YouTube channel provides a model of outline writing for students who are struggling with the idea.

"Outlining" (Harvard)

This is a good resource to consult after completing a draft outline. It offers suggestions for making sure your outline avoids things like unnecessary repetition.

As with outlines, rough drafts can take on many different forms. These resources introduce teachers and students to the various approaches to writing a rough draft. This section also includes resources that will help you cite your sources appropriately according to the MLA, Chicago, and APA style manuals.

"Creating a Rough Draft for a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

This resource is useful for teachers in particular, as it provides some suggested exercises to help students with writing a basic rough draft. 

Rough Draft Assignment (Duke of Definition)

This sample assignment, with a brief list of tips, was developed by a high school teacher who runs a very successful and well-reviewed page of educational resources.

"Creating the First Draft of Your Research Paper" (Concordia Univ.)

This resource will be helpful for perfectionists or procrastinators, as it opens by discussing the problem of avoiding writing. It also provides a short list of suggestions meant to get students writing.

Using Proper Citations

There is no such thing as a rough draft of a scholarly citation. These links to the three major citation guides will ensure that your citations follow the correct format. Please consult the LitCharts How to Cite Your Sources guide for more resources.

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide

Some call  The Chicago Manual of Style , which was first published in 1906, "the editors' Bible." The manual is now in its 17th edition, and is popular in the social sciences, historical journals, and some other fields in the humanities.

APA Citation Guide

According to the American Psychological Association, this guide was developed to aid reading comprehension, clarity of communication, and to reduce bias in language in the social and behavioral sciences. Its first full edition was published in 1952, and it is now in its sixth edition.

MLA Citation Guide

The Modern Language Association style is used most commonly within the liberal arts and humanities. The  MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing  was first published in 1985 and (as of 2008) is in its third edition.

Any professional scholar will tell you that the best research papers are made in the revision stage. No matter how strong your research question or working thesis, it is not possible to write a truly outstanding paper without devoting energy to revision. These resources provide examples of revision exercises for the classroom, as well as tips for students working independently.

"The Art of Revision" (Univ. of Arizona)

This resource provides a wealth of information and suggestions for both students and teachers. There is a list of suggested exercises that teachers might use in class, along with a revision checklist that is useful for teachers and students alike.

"Script for Workshop on Revision" (Vanderbilt University)

Vanderbilt's guide for leading a 50-minute revision workshop can serve as a model for teachers who wish to guide students through the revision process during classtime. 

"Revising Your Paper" (Univ. of Washington)

This detailed handout was designed for students who are beginning the revision process. It discusses different approaches and methods for revision, and also includes a detailed list of things students should look for while they revise.

"Revising Drafts" (UNC Writing Center)

This resource is designed for students and suggests things to look for during the revision process. It provides steps for the process and has a FAQ for students who have questions about why it is important to revise.

Conferencing with Writing Tutors and Instructors

No writer is so good that he or she can't benefit from meeting with instructors or peer tutors. These resources from university writing, learning, and communication centers provide suggestions for how to get the most out of these one-on-one meetings.

"Getting Feedback" (UNC Writing Center)

This very helpful resource talks about how to ask for feedback during the entire writing process. It contains possible questions that students might ask when developing an outline, during the revision process, and after the final draft has been graded.

"Prepare for Your Tutoring Session" (Otis College of Art and Design)

This guide from a university's student learning center contains a lot of helpful tips for getting the most out of working with a writing tutor.

"The Importance of Asking Your Professor" (Univ. of Waterloo)

This article from the university's Writing and Communication Centre's blog contains some suggestions for how and when to get help from professors and Teaching Assistants.

Once you've revised your first draft, you're well on your way to handing in a polished paper. These resources—each of them produced by writing professionals at colleges and universities—outline the steps required in order to produce a final draft. You'll find proofreading tips and checklists in text and video form.

"Developing a Final Draft of a Research Paper" (Univ. of Minnesota)

While this resource contains suggestions for revision, it also features a couple of helpful checklists for the last stages of completing a final draft.

Basic Final Draft Tips and Checklist (Univ. of Maryland-University College)

This short and accessible resource, part of UMUC's very thorough online guide to writing and research, contains a very basic checklist for students who are getting ready to turn in their final drafts.

Final Draft Checklist (Everett C.C.)

This is another accessible final draft checklist, appropriate for both high school and college students. It suggests reading your essay aloud at least once.

"How to Proofread Your Final Draft" (YouTube)

This video (approximately 5 minutes), produced by Eastern Washington University, gives students tips on proofreading final drafts.

"Proofreading Tips" (Georgia Southern-Armstrong)

This guide will help students learn how to spot common errors in their papers. It suggests focusing on content and editing for grammar and mechanics.

This final set of resources is intended specifically for high school and college instructors. It provides links to unit plans and classroom exercises that can help improve students' research and writing skills. You'll find resources that give an overview of the process, along with activities that focus on how to begin and how to carry out research. 

"Research Paper Complete Resources Pack" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, rubrics, and other resources is designed for high school students. The resources in this packet are aligned to Common Core standards.

"Research Paper—Complete Unit" (Teachers Pay Teachers)

This packet of assignments, notes, PowerPoints, and other resources has a 4/4 rating with over 700 ratings. It is designed for high school teachers, but might also be useful to college instructors who work with freshmen.

"Teaching Students to Write Good Papers" (Yale)

This resource from Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning is designed for college instructors, and it includes links to appropriate activities and exercises.

"Research Paper Writing: An Overview" (CUNY Brooklyn)

CUNY Brooklyn offers this complete lesson plan for introducing students to research papers. It includes an accompanying set of PowerPoint slides.

"Lesson Plan: How to Begin Writing a Research Paper" (San Jose State Univ.)

This lesson plan is designed for students in the health sciences, so teachers will have to modify it for their own needs. It includes a breakdown of the brainstorming, topic selection, and research question process. 

"Quantitative Techniques for Social Science Research" (Univ. of Pittsburgh)

This is a set of PowerPoint slides that can be used to introduce students to a variety of quantitative methods used in the social sciences.

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Research on Grammar

Main navigation.

The late Robert J. Connors once called it "the various bodies of knowledge and prejudice called 'grammar.'" For more on the knowledge part, see below:

Selected Research

Connors, robert j. "grammar in american college composition: an historical overview." the territory of language: linguistics, stylistics, and the teaching of composition. ed. donald a.mcquade. carbondale: southern illinois up, 1986. 3-22..

Robert J. Connors, who co-authored Andrea Lunsford's early research on the frequency of error, also studied the history of English grammar instruction in the United States. When did American schools switch from teaching Latin grammar to teaching English grammar? Who invented and popularized sentence-diagramming? How did the rise of structural linguistics in the 1950s affect ideas about grammar? In his inimitable style, Connors treated these questions and more.

Connors, Robert J., and Andrea A. Lunsford. "Frequency of Formal Errors in Current College Writing, or Ma and Pa Kettle Do Research." College Composition and Communication 39.4 (Dec. 1988): 395-409.

Hartwell, patrick. "grammar, grammars, and the teaching of grammar." college english 47.2 (1985): 105-127..

In this classic essay, Patrick Hartwell offers five definitions of grammar that elucidate the many ways the term gets used: from an internalized set of linguistic rules to a meta-awareness and stylistic choice.  His varied definitions suggest the co-existence of multiple literacies that undermine an approach to teaching grammar focused exclusively on correctness.

Lunsford, Andrea A. and Karen J. Lunsford. "'Mistakes Are a Fact of Life': A National Comparative Study."  College Composition and Communication 59.4 (Jun. 2008): 781-806.

Stanford's own Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewett Nixon Professor of English, is a leader in the study of error in writing. Her long-term quantitative research has revealed shifting patterns of error as technologies and rhetorical situations change. Among Professor Lunsford's findings ( summarized in Top 20 form here ):

• Student papers today are longer and more complex than they were 20 years ago, yet there has been no significant increase in the overall rate of error.
• Although word-processing tools have advanced substantially, they are responsible for the most common error in student writing today: using the wrong word, spelled correctly.

Micciche, Laura. "Making a Case for Rhetorical Grammar." College Composition and Communication 55.4 (Jun. 2004): 716-737.

What do you think of when you think of the word "grammar"? Laura Micciche argues most people think of formal grammar: "Usually, our minds go to those unending rules and exceptions, those repetitive drills and worksheets..." (720). This formal grammar is "the deadly kind of grammar," the one that makes us anxious. Drawing on Martha Kolln's idea of "rhetorical grammar," Micciche argues that grammar doesn't have to be deadly: it can give a writer more powerful choices, and thus make writing and communicating more satisfying and more pleasurable.

Williams, Joseph M. "The Phenomenology of Error." College Composition and Communication 32.2 (May 1981): 152-168.

Why do some grammatical errors seem to cause so much venom and rage? Why is a misuse of the word "hopefully" considered an "atrocity"? Joseph M. Williams examined this question in this still-relevant 1981 article. Williams is also the author of Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Longman).

Writing a Research Paper

This page lists some of the stages involved in writing a library-based research paper.

Although this list suggests that there is a simple, linear process to writing such a paper, the actual process of writing a research paper is often a messy and recursive one, so please use this outline as a flexible guide.

Discovering, Narrowing, and Focusing a Researchable Topic

• Try to find a topic that truly interests you
• Try writing your way to a topic
• Talk with your course instructor and classmates about your topic
• Pose your topic as a question to be answered or a problem to be solved

Finding, Selecting, and Reading Sources

You will need to look at the following types of sources:

• library catalog, periodical indexes, bibliographies, suggestions from your instructor
• primary vs. secondary sources
• journals, books, other documents

Grouping, Sequencing, and Documenting Information

The following systems will help keep you organized:

• a system for noting sources on bibliography cards
• a system for organizing material according to its relative importance
• a system for taking notes

Writing an Outline and a Prospectus for Yourself

Consider the following questions:

• What is the topic?
• Why is it significant?
• What background material is relevant?
• What is my thesis or purpose statement?
• What organizational plan will best support my purpose?

Writing the Introduction

In the introduction you will need to do the following things:

• present relevant background or contextual material
• define terms or concepts when necessary
• explain the focus of the paper and your specific purpose
• reveal your plan of organization

Writing the Body

• Use your outline and prospectus as flexible guides
• Build your essay around points you want to make (i.e., don’t let your sources organize your paper)
• Integrate your sources into your discussion
• Summarize, analyze, explain, and evaluate published work rather than merely reporting it
• Move up and down the “ladder of abstraction” from generalization to varying levels of detail back to generalization

Writing the Conclusion

• If the argument or point of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize the argument for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the end of your paper to add your points up, to explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction.
• Perhaps suggest what about this topic needs further research.

Revising the Final Draft

• Check overall organization : logical flow of introduction, coherence and depth of discussion in body, effectiveness of conclusion.
• Paragraph level concerns : topic sentences, sequence of ideas within paragraphs, use of details to support generalizations, summary sentences where necessary, use of transitions within and between paragraphs.
• Sentence level concerns: sentence structure, word choices, punctuation, spelling.
• Documentation: consistent use of one system, citation of all material not considered common knowledge, appropriate use of endnotes or footnotes, accuracy of list of works cited.

Academic and Professional Writing

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Unlike Grammarly, Paperpal aligns and tailors my sentence structures to the convention of academic writing. It also helps me to rephrase or simplify unclear sentence structures and helps me write with confidence and ease

Paperpal's most striking feature is its unparalleled grammar and language correction capabilities. Its brilliance lies in its contextual adaptability. The AI grammar checker flawlessly adapted to the scientific context of my paper, offering specialized suggestions for domain-specific terminology, acronyms, and scientific jargon

Recently used Paperpal for two manuscripts and the quality of the suggestions was fantastic. In addition to providing grammatical corrections, it helped remove clutter and improve the flow of my writing.

One of the standout features is its ability to catch grammar and spelling errors in real-time, saving me valuable time in the editing process. It also provided helpful suggestions to enhance the clarity and readability of my work, ensuring that it was submission-ready.

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Paperpal is More Than an English Grammar Checker

Paperpal goes beyond a free grammar check with features designed to transform your work. Paraphrase your text, translate from 25+ languages to English, check your similarity score, generate outlines, essays, run pre-submission checks and more!

Paperpal’s online paraphrasing tool ensures correct academic tone, adds variety and removes redundancies with suggestions that help you deliver clear, impactful writing, every time

With Paperpal’s online translation tool, non-native English speakers can achieve high-quality academic text by translating from 25+ languages to English.

Paperpal’s secure generative AI technology helps authors write confidently, save time, and deliver high-quality, reliable, and original content, every time.

Paperpal AI Grammar Checker - Frequently Asked Questions

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Want to understand grammar rules or gain insights into why we suggest specific changes to improve your English grammar? Check out these curated grammar articles and enhance your writing skills!

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Personalized Writing Help When You Need it

Unintentional plagiarism, grammar mistakes, and uncited sources  can turn what you thought was a good paper into a poor one. When you’re writing a paper the last thing you want is for your message to get lost due to incorrect punctuation or confusing sentence structure. You know that the great ideas in your head would make for a standout paper, if only you could get them written clearly on the page. If this struggle sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

Great ideas may be an essential part of high-quality writing, but they’re not the only component. Excellent papers and essays clearly express strong ideas with good grammar, proper punctuation, spot-on spelling, and thorough, careful citations. While this may sound like a lot, your teachers and professors are grading you on your skills as both a writer and a researcher, which means your assignments will require an ethical and attentive approach. Luckily, there is no shortage of available tools to help you along your way.

You could use a plagiarism checker free, though, these tools often lack grammatical support. Given the high stakes and rigorous requirements, the aid of a plagiarism checker without the needed support of a grammar checker could mean the difference between an “A” paper and a “C” or even “D” paper.

Thankfully, the EasyBib Plus plagiarism tool provides all-in-one support to cover all your bases. Our premium essay checker is convenient, easy to use, and includes access to a grammar and spell checker, plus a plagiarism checker. With a single scan, you’ll receive personalized feedback to help identify potentially missing citations and help improve your sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, and more.

Not sure if that noun is spelled correctly, or if the preposition at the end of your sentence is grammatically correct? The EasyBib Plus plagiarism tool is your one-stop shop to help check plagiarism, get grammatical suggestions, correct spelling and punctuation errors, and help create polished papers you can be proud to turn in. And, we haven’t told you the best part yet: you can try our tool free and scan your work for grammar suggestions right now!

Access all the tools today!

A Grammar Check for Peace of Mind

You know that grammar plays a significant role in your assignments. Not only does it factor into your overall grade, but without clear and precise language, your ideas can lose their impact or might even be misunderstood entirely. Still, with so many different parts of speech and rules to learn and apply, it’s not uncommon to get them mixed up and find yourself questioning your knowledge now and again:

Can you use an adverb to modify a noun? (No. You need an adjective for that.)

Well, can you use it to modify a pronoun ? (Still no.)

What do they modify, then? (Almost everything else. Fun, right?)

Ugh. (That was an interjection .)

Does this have to be so difficult? (Nope!)

Scanning your paper with the EasyBib Plus writing tool delivers more than the basic punctuation and spell check functions that come standard in word processing programs. You’ll receive immediate, targeted feedback that can help improve the sentence structure and style of your writing. Not only can this help ensure that you don’t lose points off your grade for grammatical errors such as mismatched verb tense, but it can also help to clarify your meaning and strengthen your arguments by eliminating confusing punctuation and run-on sentences that confuse readers.

Reviewing your work to correct errors and refine the flow of your writing is a critical part of the revision process for novices and novelists alike. Even the most conscientious of wordsmiths might make mistakes, such as using a conjunctive adverb in place of a coordinating conjunction or pairing a plural determiner with an uncountable word. They likely appreciate a subscription-based or free grammar check as much as a beginning writer. That’s why the EasyBib Plus writing tool is designed for all writers, from students who are still learning the fundamentals to published professionals who get paid by the word.

The EasyBib Plus writing tool provides quick, targeted feedback that you can use to help improve your writing immediately. Also, our free resource library is available 24/7, just like the rest of our tools, to help you brush up on the areas that challenge you the most (Conjunctive what? Uncountable who?) That means you can continue to sharpen your skills and improve your writing over time, which will help make finishing your next project easier.

Ready to give your paper a boost? Sign up for EasyBib Plus or scan a paper right now for a free spell check—it’s easy!Just upload or copy and paste your paper to the online grammar check tool and, in a matter of seconds, you’ll be able to receive up to 5 feedback cards so you can begin polishing your draft.

To learn more about proofreading tools, you can find more info here. Or, for more tips on grammar, punctuation, and style, check out this useful reference .

Why is Grammar So Important, Anyway?

Why is grammar important? As long as others know what you mean, does it really matter if you use proper grammar? These are age-old questions, but the answers remain unchanged. Grammar is important for many reasons:

Communication:  Communication is about more than merely listening and talking. We communicate in myriad ways: with our voices, our mannerisms, our facial expressions, our actions, and frequently, our written words. Written communication is just as important as all the other ways we broadcast our thoughts and feelings. Unlike our other communication methods, though, written communication leaves a record. While most of us relax our style when talking to or texting friends, the fact remains that more formal venues require a more formal tone. Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation are a necessary element of professional and academic writing, so running your work through a spelling and grammar check before you submit it is an absolute must.

Clarity:  Expressing your thoughts, ideas, and opinions is an uphill battle when you communicate them with less-than-stellar punctuation, spelling, and grammar. A missing or misplaced comma, for example, can entirely change your meaning:

• Call me Ishmael = My name is Ishmael.
• Call me, Ishmael = I want Ishmael to call me.

Spelling errors can result in similarly muddled meaning:

• Her shoes perfectly complemented her dress. = Her shoes and dress go well together.
• Her shoes perfectly complimented her dress. = Her shoes can both speak and engage in flattery.

Grammar deficiencies such as a dangling modifier yield similarly confusing results:

• I saw the girl’s purple backpack in the library. = The purple backpack belonging to the girl is in the library; I saw it.
• I saw the purple girl’s backpack in the library. = You know the girl who mysteriously turned purple? I saw her backpack in the library. This week has not been easy on her.

Credibility: Establishing your credibility is critical whether you’re writing for school or business. Proving that you can reliably communicate using proper grammar is essential to establishing and maintaining the trust of your teachers, professors, readers, customers, and colleagues.

To learn even more about the importance of English grammar in writing, check here .

What Happens After I Upload My Paper?

Once you upload a paper, the EasyBib Plus grammar checker scans your text and highlights grammar issues within your document so you can see it in context. For users running a grammar check and spell check using the grammar check free tool, up to the first 5 issues are shown. For subscription subscribers, all of the areas that require your review will be highlighted once the scan is complete.

No matter which version of the tool you’re using, your feedback will include detailed explanations so you can understand why the text was flagged. Other highlighted areas will include examples of how the issues can be fixed. Some will include a detailed explanation as to why the issue was flagged. This personalized feedback allows you to make an educated decision about whether to edit your text or dismiss the suggestion, so you’re always in control of your final draft.

Subscription users also have the plagiarism checker at their disposal when scanning their papers for style and grammar suggestions. Just as with our other writing tools, when you use the tool to check plagiarism, changes are never made without your review, so you are always in the driver’s seat. You can review each highlighted area as well as the sources of matching text and will always be given a choice to either accept or ignore both citation and grammar suggestions.

Whether you are a student or a professional, the EasyBib Plus tools are powerful allies that can help you improve your paper, establish credibility as a writer, and maintain an ethical writing process.

Try our checker free for 3 days to see what you think*. Trust us; you’ll wonder how you got along so far without it!

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Check for Unintentional Plagiarism

Persistent use of the best grammar checker and spell checker you can find will help to shape up the style and substance of your composition. However, to ensure the integrity of your work and root out unintentional instances of academic dishonesty, you’ll also need to incorporate a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker for students.

The ability to scan your paper and check plagiarism and grammar before submitting your work is an invaluable tool for students. It’s so valuable, in fact, that students are not the only ones who consistently use this type of software.

Many teachers and professors use a service to ensure that student papers are original and include properly formatted and sourced citations for all reference materials. For some, this may be a consistent element of their grading process, while others may utilize one only when they feel there is a reason to do so.

What Exactly Does a Plagiarism Checker Do?

If you’ve used an online plagiarism checker before, you may be familiar with the process that these tools employ. For those who have never used one, it can be helpful to understand how these tools work and what you should expect as a result of using one.

The most basic free tools will scan your paper and provide you with a percentage that indicates how much of your work is original. This feature can be useful to a point, as some instructors and institutions set a percentage for the amount of similar text that is considered acceptable. This policy does not mean that they are lenient about academic dishonesty but, instead, that they recognize that similar or even matching word choice is not always an indicator of copying.

However, some schools do not tolerate any form of incremental plagiarism, period. In these institutions, “check paper for plagiarism” is likely a standard action when grading all papers.

With a free plagiarism checker, the percentage of word-for-word plagiarism in your text may be the only feedback you receive. Moreover, some of these providers may wade in unethical waters, and offer essay writing services in conjunction with their checking services. This is why many students and teachers prefer subscription-based checkers that focus on integrity, such as the EasyBib writing tools.

With our premium tools, you get more than just supporting proof that your paper is original and in your own words. Your writing is scanned for potentially matching text and areas that needs your attention is highlighted. We’ll provide you with the source of the matching text so you can review it and decide how to proceed. If you agree that a citation is needed, our citation tools and resources will provide you with the information you need to help format and insert the new sources in your text as well as your works cited page.

How Does the EasyBib Plus Online Plagiarism Checker Work?

The EasyBib Plus writing tool provides an all-in-one spell check, grammar review, and plagiarism checker that not only helps you with the paper you’re writing now but enables you to gain new knowledge and improve your writing for the future, too.

Our essay checker searches online for phrases, sentences, or passages that are similar to those in your paper. If it returns matching text, this may indicate that you have passages that are missing citations.

Just as with many checkers, our tool will tell you how many instances of matching text it finds in your paper. Our plagiarism tool is designed to do more than most free tools, however.

When a portion of your paper is flagged for review, we provide you with the source that it matches. As with our online spell check tool, you have the power to review each area and choose how to proceed. If you decide to cite the flagged text, you can review the suggested source and access our citation tools to help create a proper citation and start building a bibliography for your paper. Or, you may determine that no citation is needed, in which case it’s simple to dismiss the suggestion and continue to the next section.

If you’re unsure about how to proceed, our library of resources can help you learn more and make an educated decision. In this way, you gain more than just the ability to correct your work; over time, you can learn how to avoid plagiarism altogether.

Reasons Your Teacher May Run Your Paper Through a Plagiarism Detector

As stated previously, your teachers and professors grade papers with a fixed process that includes “check paper for plagiarism” as a standard, across-the-board action. Others may check for plagiarism only when they feel there is cause to do so. There are a few red flags that may stand out to them while reviewing a paper that would lead to their running a plagiarism check, including:

Style/Voice:  Most teachers are familiar with the style and voice that you use in your writing. While most will hope that the feedback they provide when grading your work will help you to improve problem areas over time, a paper or essay that has a dramatically different style or voice than the work you’ve previously submitted can be a red flag.

Inconsistency:  Changes in the font, font size, formality, formatting, and more may indicate that portions of a paper have been copied and pasted. If these inconsistent passages are not presented as quotations or don’t include citations, this may further indicate to your teacher that there’s plagiarism in the paper.

Old References:  Part of a well-researched paper is verifying the legitimacy and relevance of your sources. While some older references may be acceptable depending on the topic, if all of your sources are outdated, it may lead your teacher to believe that you’ve recycled your own work or someone else’s.

Looking for a checker to try? With EasyBib Plus you get unlimited checks to give you peace of mind when turning in your papers!

What is Plagiarism?

If you’re looking for a free online plagiarism checker , you’re already aware that it’s not something you want to be found in your papers. However, you may still be wondering: what does plagiarism mean? It’s a reasonable question and one that merits exploring. After all, some of the actions and circumstances that fall within the plagiarism definition come as a surprise to those who only learn that they’ve committed them after it’s too late.

So what is plagiarism? To define plagiarism in the most basic sense, you might say that it is taking someone else’s ideas and words and passing them off as your own.

If your goal is avoiding plagiarism entirely, you’ll need to go beyond the basics to thoroughly define plagiarism, recognize it, and keep clear of it. Some examples of plagiarism that students find surprising include forgotten citations, poor paraphrasing, and re-submitting your own work in whole or in part for more than one assignment. This useful article provides more help in recognizing and understanding the different forms that academic dishonesty can take.

Of course, using your own words and ideas does not count as plagiarism, nor does using common knowledge . Basically, common knowledge is information that is well known by the average person. Examples of common knowledge:

• there are 12 months in a year
• the freezing point of Celsius is zero degrees
• Socrates was a Greek philosopher

So should you only include your original thoughts and common knowledge in your papers? Of course not! Research-based assignments are meant to demonstrate your skills as a researcher, after all, as well as your ability to build upon the work of others to formulate new ideas. To avoid accidentally committing an act that falls within the plagiarism definition when you’re using another person’s words or ideas, though, you need to give them proper credit. This means you’ll need to clearly identify direct quotations or properly paraphrase them when including them in your paper.

Regardless of your approach, you’ll also need to cite your sources according to the style your professor specifies. Generally, you will use MLA format for the arts and humanities and APA format for the sciences, but it’s always best to check with your instructor when you’re unsure.

If you know what style to use but still aren’t sure how to create your citations, don’t fret! Our library of resources includes free guides to help you learn about various styles so you can properly structure and place them. And our premium tools not only help you check grammar, spelling, and originality in your papers, but subscribers also enjoy access to our citation creation tools!

What are the Different Types of Plagiarism?

In addition to the question “what is plagiarism,” you may also be wondering, “why do students plagiarize?” While some students do intentionally plagiarize because they believe they can pass off someone else’s work as their own to avoid spending time on their assignments, many others do so accidentally. They may not understand how broad the plagiarism definition is or they haven’t learned how to research and cite their sources properly. That is why it is vital to recognize plagiarism in all of its forms if you wish to ensure the integrity of your work.

Examples of plagiarism & How to prevent it

Direct plagiarism:

Intentionally copying another person’s work without including a citation that gives credit to the source. When most students are asked to identify potential plagiarism examples and behaviors, this direct and deliberate act is what they think of first.

• Prevention: If you use an idea or quote from another source, cite it in the text. Make it clear that it was not your own words. 

Incremental plagiarism:

Copying parts of another person’s work, such as phrases, sentences, or paragraphs without crediting the source. When deciding which tools to use to check a paper for plagiarism , instructors often seek out those that will identify incremental forms as well as instances of direct copying and similar phrasing.

• Prevention : Decide to either directly quote the phrases or sentences you want to use, or write a good paraphrase. In both cases, be sure to add a citation. Using a plagiarism checker could also help you identify problematic passages.

Self-plagiarism:

Academic self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits the same paper or parts of a paper for more than one assignment. When your instructors are grading your papers, they’re assessing your research and writing skills in the present. When you submit work that you completed in the past, they are both unable to evaluate your current skills and unaware that you haven’t completed the assignment.

• Prevention: Write a new paper for each assignment you’re assigned. If you feel strongly that your past work could enhance your new paper, speak to your instructor and ask for permission first.

Misleading citations:

Including a citation for a quote or idea that misrepresents the source material. This can occur if a student does not understand the reference they are citing; if a student includes a citation for a disreputable source; or the source material simply does not align with the idea or argument that the student has attributed to it.

• Prevention: Carefully review your assignment to understand it. As you research, take the time to evaluate each source notes . Remember, it’s better to have quality citations over an abundance of citations.

Invented sources:

If a reference in a student’s bibliography is found not to exist, it is considered an invented source. This may occur if a student couldn’t find a reputable source to back their argument, or if they needed to include additional references to meet the requirements of the assignment and chose to take an unethical shortcut rather than completing the required amount of research. No matter the reason, this behavior ultimately hurts them in the long run. Not only will they fail to gain the experience they need to conduct research in the future properly, but they’ll also experience significant consequences if they’re caught.

• Prevention: Set aside time to do proper research so you can find enough sources. Start creating a list of sources as you’re researching and take good notes. This will help you keep track of your sources so none are forgotten. If you do end up forgetting where a quote came from, a paper checker could help you pinpoint the original source. 

Patchwriting/Spinning:

Patchwriting is often confused with paraphrasing, but there’s a significant difference. When you paraphrase, you demonstrate that you understand the topic well enough to restate it in your own words. When you patchwrite or spin, it is more akin to a word-swapping game; there’s no need to understand the subject, merely to have access to a thesaurus so you can substitute enough synonyms to mask the source material. This can be intentional, but it may also be a result of having a poor understanding of how to paraphrase.

• Prevention: Using your own words, write down the key points of the phrase or idea, and put them together in a sentence. Be sure to include a citation as well. 

A good way to test if you’re patchwriting or paraphrasing is to remove your sources from view. If you can write about what you’ve read without looking at the source material, you likely understand it well enough to paraphrase it. If you have to review the source material with each new sentence or consult a thesaurus while writing about it (except when you’re adding direct quotations), you may be spinning your sources instead of paraphrasing them.

Academic Integrity Policies and Statements

If you’re still uncertain about what counts as plagiarism, look for your school’s/ organization’s policies on academic integrity and plagiarism. The policies of academic institutions usually cover what is considered plagiarism, the consequences of committing it, and how to avoid it. One great example is Purdue University’s Academic Integrity statement .

What are the Consequences of Plagiarism?

No matter the setting, plagiarism is not taken lightly, and the consequences can be significant. For a good reason, too! Whether in an academic or professional setting, the plagiarism consequences reflect the seriousness of the act, which is ultimately a form of theft that hurts everyone involved.

Just as with the theft of a tangible object, there can be legal punishments for plagiarism. It is, after all, a form of copyright infringement in many instances. A quick search for plagiarism articles will reveal that professional instances of intellectual theft have resulted in civil lawsuits and can even be criminally prosecuted under rare circumstances. In addition to the possible legal consequences, professionals may lose their jobs or have to start over in a new field after their acts of fraud are uncovered.

As a student, you’re likely to wonder what happens if you plagiarize in college or high school. While there will almost always be consequences for this behavior, there is no one-size-fits-all plagiarism sentence. Depending on the circumstances, academic dishonesty could result in outcomes such as:

• You might get a zero for the assignment in which the infringement occurred.
• You may receive a failing grade for the class. If it is a required course, this could leave you without enough credits to move on to the next level until you can repeat it and, in some instances, postpone graduation.
• You may be expelled from your school or university.

The academic dishonesty may be noted on your transcript, which can lead to you not getting into your preferred college, graduate school, or Ph.D. program in the future.

Nobody wants to be known as a fraud or to have a reputation for dishonesty follow them through their career. And, given the consequences that can extend beyond just their reputation, it’s no wonder that professional and academic writers who wish to avoid them take the time to understand the complete definition of plagiarism and run their work through a plagiarism checker before sending it out into the world.

Even the vigilant can fall prey to inferior tools, unfortunately. Before selecting a plagiarism checker, you should understand how they work and what they can (and cannot) detect.

How We Check for Plagiarism

When exploring how to check for plagiarism, most students and professionals conclude that including a checking tool in their revision process is not only helpful but necessary. When you consider the Herculean task of checking each line of your paper against the text of each of your resources, the benefits of a checker are clear. Moreover, this manual approach would only alert you to matching text in the sources you’re aware of, after all, and leaves the sources you haven’t reviewed untouched.

But, hang on. Why would sources you haven’t reviewed factor into your review? The answer to this lies in the plagiarism definition you learned above. What is plagiarism? It’s presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, intentionally or otherwise. It is not uncommon to uncover an idea while you’re researching a topic and later misremember it as your own. This might even occur years after you originally came across it.

You might wonder: how can plagiarism be avoided if you have to account for the source of every thought you include in your work? A few exceptions minimize the scope of this. Common knowledge about your topic does not need to be supported by a citation, nor does knowledge that you gained through your personal experience. Using a subscription-based or free plagiarism checker will help you locate any passages that may fall into these categories so you can review them and decide for yourself whether a citation is needed.

EasyBib Plus writing tools provide easy, convenient, and reliable support to help you find potentially missed citations and can help you improve your paper into a high-quality paper with integrity. Simply upload your paper, select the checker, then sit back and relax as the site scans your document. In mere moments, we’ll search the web for passages of similar text and highlight duplicate content for your review.

Regardless of the tools you use to help you revise and polish your work, it’s ultimately your responsibility to ensure that you’re writing and submitting ethical work. That’s why our tools go beyond the basics and require your participation. The tool never automatically makes changes to your paper, but only flags sections that may need your attention and provides you with the matching source so you can to make an educated decision.

If you find that a citation is needed, our citation tools can help you create properly formatted citations and develop a complete bibliography. And, if you review the passage and determine that the match is coincidental, you can dismiss the alert and move on to the next.

Seamless Citation Creation

Professional writers and students alike can find creating citations incredibly confusing. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of a well-written and researched paper and a requirement in almost all academic settings. But, have you ever wondered why they are so important? Citations really do have a purpose—other than driving us crazy— that make it necessary always to cite our sources.

We cite our sources for a few important reasons:

We need to give credit where credit is due. When you use a quote from someone else’s work, you need to give credit for using their words and ideas. Research is often based on the works and ideas of others. However, to include the words and ideas of another without giving them proper credit is to plagiarize, even if the act was unintentional.

In addition, showing that you’ve done proper research by including in text & parenthetical citations and a comprehensive list of sources to back up your arguments gives your work a layer of credibility that can help you earn the trust of your reader or teacher.

Readers can find the sources you used.  When you’re writing high school or undergraduate papers, your only readers may be your instructors and peers. However, including citations at every level of writing helps to ensure that anyone who reads your work can access your sources to check their accuracy, learn more about your topic, and further their own research.

Sources can take your research and learning to the next level, too. When you are conducting research on a topic, checking the works cited or annotated bibliographies prepared by your sources can lead you down new avenues in your research to further develop your ideas and help you write your papers.

Correctly utilizing citations gives strength to your thoughts and opinions. Understanding the value of citations does not, unfortunately, make them any easier to create. We know how confusing it can be, but don’t throw in the towel on learning how to cite websites in MLA , create your APA citation website references, or format your works cited —this is where we come in!

While a free online plagiarism detector may tell you how much of your work is unoriginal and may even identify the passages that meet their plagiarize definition, a premium EasyBib Plus plagiarism checker account also gives you access to our powerful citation resources and generator so you can:

Scan your papers with the plagiarism tool to check for plagiarism-free work before you submit.

Review flagged passages to determine if they meet the plagiarism definition and create unlimited citations in APA format and MLA format for anything fitting the plagiarism meaning. Need more styles ? Check out our regular citation generator for thousands of choices and free resources to help you learn how to create an APA parenthetical citation , APA book citation , APA works cited , and so much more!

Build a full bibliography for your paper right along with your parenthetical or in-text citations, which can save you hours of work along the way compared to manually creating and formatting them.

How Else Do We Help You Improve Your Paper?

The EasyBib Plus plagiarism detector helps you check your content or paper for text that may be missing a citation—which may fall within the definition of plagiarism—to help ensure you don’t accidentally plagiarize. It also includes grammar check and spelling check tools to help identify errors and suggest grammatical tweaks that could help to elevate the level of your writing.

Running a plagiarism check couldn’t be easier! Just upload your paper to the online proofreader, and in a few moments we’ll have your writing and citing suggestions. And, there’s no need to worry about your paper after it’s been scanned.

Run a Grammar and Spell Check for Free!

There’s no denying that your schoolwork can be challenging at times, and your assignments can lead to some late nights even when you’ve started them early. The last thing you want is to submit assignments that don’t reflect your best effort, but it can occasionally be quite the juggling act to get everything done on time.

Why not let our plagiarism checker free up space on your calendar by helping you revise your papers quickly and efficiently? The EasyBib Plus paper checker is your one-stop shop to check for plagiarism, create citations, spot spelling mistakes, and receive feedback on your grammar and style.

When you proofread and do a manual spelling check on work that you’ve written, you’re more likely to overlook mistakes. This is even more likely if you’re pressed for time or trying to complete several different assignments at once. There are tricks to help minimize this, such as reading your work aloud to identify poor grammar or reading each sentence backward to find spelling errors. When time is of the essence, though, these solutions aren’t the most convenient or useful options. That’s why many students seek the assistance of online tools that will run a grammar and plagiarism check on their work.

Are you asking yourself, “ How do I check my grammar online ?” We’ve got the perfect checker for you! Our advanced tools help you find and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Our targeted feedback and free writing and citing resources help you learn as you go to improve your writing over time.

The best part? You can use our grammar and writing tools any time of the day, any day of the year for! Looking to try it? Just upload or copy and paste your text into our online proofreader for a free grammar check with up to 5 suggestions, or sign up for EasyBib Plus today! EasyBib Plus gives you use of the plagiarism checker and unlimited access to suggestions that can help improve your spelling, sentence structure, punctuation, writing style, and grammar.

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What ails Indian research papers? Poor quality or just bad grammar? Premium

India comes third after china and the u.s. in the number of research papers published, but the rejection rate of indian papers is also high, not so much due to poor research but more so due to weak language and grammar.

Updated - August 20, 2024 02:23 pm IST

Published - August 20, 2024 11:34 am IST

Image for representation

K.M. Ajith’s first research paper, co-authored with his supervisor in 2005, was about mathematical physics they had worked out in quantum field theory. The U.K. journal to which the paper was submitted had no hesitation in accepting the quality of the research work, yet the review was quite scathing.

“The reviewer pointed out grammatical errors, including for punctuation marks. And asked us to re-write from scratch,” says Mr. Ajith, who is now a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka.

The authors may have known quantum mechanics but not how to write succinctly. They asked for help from friends who were also pursuing research but whose English was better. Part of the difficulty was in rewriting the technical terms. Yet they managed to avoid jargon as much as possible to make it to the journal.

Mr. Ajith studied in a Malayalam medium school, and his exposure to English was minimal at that time. Twenty years into research and publishing, Mr. Ajith now speaks about why budding researchers should be good writers too.

India comes third after China and the U.S. in the number of research papers published, says a paper titled, Academic Writing in India: A Research Scholar’s View . But in the same paper, the authors also say the rejection rate of Indian papers is high, not so much due to poor research but more so due to weak language and grammar.

In a 2019 public notice, UGC said that writing programmes should be organised in research institutions to overcome this skill deficiency.

Somadatta Karak, head of science communication and public outreach at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, says, despite the courses, Indian students struggle with writing. She is concerned about the intensity and reach of the writing workshops and frameworks.

“When I go to tier 2 cities and take workshops on science communication, students there have not even heard or thought about all of these,” says Ms. Karak.

According to Kanika Singh, who directs the writing program at Ashoka University, the higher education system in India has no separate emphasis on writing. “If writing is institutionalised as part of your curriculum and you write in different ways daily, then your science research thesis will become better,” says Ms. Singh.

Eldho Mathews, programme officer (Internationalisation of Higher Education), The Kerala State Higher Education Council, says even students who join top-tier research institutions are trained in a way that gives little importance to writing.

“At the level of screening [for admissions to research institutions], it is important to evaluate the level of language skills. By incorporating this factor into testing systems, the government and institutions can effectively motivate students to develop their writing skills early on,” he said.

Why writing should be taught as core skill

Asha Channakar, a researcher at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (InStem), Bengaluru, had a similar experience like Mr. Ajith with her first paper. “The first time I wrote, it took a lot of time to understand how to write.”

Ms. Channakar says that when she started to write, she read a lot of papers, and tried to connect the writing and presentation with what she wanted to convey. This was while she was a project assistant at the National Brain Research Centre in 2019. Later, she took research writing classes at the National Centre for Biological Sciences as part of her PhD at InStem.

“They taught how to write a scientific manuscript, and there was also an assignment to write for the non-scientific community,” says Ms. Channakar. She has now grown to become the first author of a paper published recently at InStem.

Ranjana Sarma, who has a PhD in Biochemistry from Montana State University, says, “Our researchers struggle with the flow of ideas more than the language.”

Unlike Mr. Ajith and Ms. Channakar, Ms. Sarma got the benefit of the U.S. research ecosystem. When she first wrote a review paper, the feedback was, “Ranjana doesn’t know English.”

“Coming from India, this was a huge ego-crusher,” says Ms. Sarma, who consistently scored high in English back home.

In 2004, she was put into a course offered by Penn State University to learn not only writing but also how to present and peer review. In the U.S., she learned that writing should be simple and easy to read with short sentences. The writing classes Ms. Sarma took influenced her not only to write but also to think and how to pay attention to what she reads.

“Language does look like a challenge for most researchers, as they write in a heavy, academic style. Despite English being the language of science in India, most researchers find it difficult to express themselves in plain, simple English,” says Subhra Priyadarshini, Chief Editor of Global Supported Projects, Nature Portfolio.

Can AI help?

Of late, students use software like Grammarly to correct language and grammar. Although Mr. Ajith appreciates such software, he also says that the tools will not help students to do the critical thinking while writing. “Grammarly is not writing a paper for you; all it does is to check the grammar of what you have already written,” says Anannya Dasgupta, Associate Professor of literature and arts at Krea University, Andhra Pradesh.

Ms. Dasgupta, who is now the director of the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy at Krea University, started her writing stint as a course coordinator while pursuing her PhD at Rutgers University, the U.S. According to Ms. Dasgupta, to improve the quality of writing, more people should be trained to teach writing.

Teaching writing also involves teaching how to think through the questions and how to build an argument, says Pooja Sagar, who teaches the Writing for Research and Analysis at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (I.I.H.S.), Bengaluru.

Can AI help? Almost all the established researchers said it could help to an extent. But at the level of research papers, a lot of critical thinking is required that AI can’t deliver. They also cautioned about AI providing false information.

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A new ‘AI scientist’ can write science papers without any human input. Here’s why that’s a problem

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Karin Verspoor receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and Elsevier BV. She is affiliated with BioGrid Australia and is a co-founder of the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare.

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Scientific discovery is one of the most sophisticated human activities. First, scientists must understand the existing knowledge and identify a significant gap. Next, they must formulate a research question and design and conduct an experiment in pursuit of an answer. Then, they must analyse and interpret the results of the experiment, which may raise yet another research question.

Can a process this complex be automated? Last week, Sakana AI Labs announced the creation of an “AI scientist” – an artificial intelligence system they claim can make scientific discoveries in the area of machine learning in a fully automated way.

Using generative large language models (LLMs) like those behind ChatGPT and other AI chatbots, the system can brainstorm, select a promising idea, code new algorithms, plot results, and write a paper summarising the experiment and its findings, complete with references. Sakana claims the AI tool can undertake the complete lifecycle of a scientific experiment at a cost of just US$15 per paper – less than the cost of a scientist’s lunch.

These are some big claims. Do they stack up? And even if they do, would an army of AI scientists churning out research papers with inhuman speed really be good news for science?

How a computer can ‘do science’

A lot of science is done in the open, and almost all scientific knowledge has been written down somewhere (or we wouldn’t have a way to “know” it). Millions of scientific papers are freely available online in repositories such as arXiv and PubMed .

LLMs trained with this data capture the language of science and its patterns. It is therefore perhaps not at all surprising that a generative LLM can produce something that looks like a good scientific paper – it has ingested many examples that it can copy.

What is less clear is whether an AI system can produce an interesting scientific paper. Crucially, good science requires novelty.

But is it interesting?

Scientists don’t want to be told about things that are already known. Rather, they want to learn new things, especially new things that are significantly different from what is already known. This requires judgement about the scope and value of a contribution.

The Sakana system tries to address interestingness in two ways. First, it “scores” new paper ideas for similarity to existing research (indexed in the Semantic Scholar repository). Anything too similar is discarded.

Second, Sakana’s system introduces a “peer review” step – using another LLM to judge the quality and novelty of the generated paper. Here again, there are plenty of examples of peer review online on sites such as openreview.net that can guide how to critique a paper. LLMs have ingested these, too.

AI may be a poor judge of AI output

Feedback is mixed on Sakana AI’s output. Some have described it as producing “ endless scientific slop ”.

Even the system’s own review of its outputs judges the papers weak at best. This is likely to improve as the technology evolves, but the question of whether automated scientific papers are valuable remains.

The ability of LLMs to judge the quality of research is also an open question. My own work (soon to be published in Research Synthesis Methods ) shows LLMs are not great at judging the risk of bias in medical research studies, though this too may improve over time.

Sakana’s system automates discoveries in computational research, which is much easier than in other types of science that require physical experiments. Sakana’s experiments are done with code, which is also structured text that LLMs can be trained to generate.

AI tools to support scientists, not replace them

AI researchers have been developing systems to support science for decades. Given the huge volumes of published research, even finding publications relevant to a specific scientific question can be challenging.

Specialised search tools make use of AI to help scientists find and synthesise existing work. These include the above-mentioned Semantic Scholar, but also newer systems such as Elicit , Research Rabbit , scite and Consensus .

Text mining tools such as PubTator dig deeper into papers to identify key points of focus, such as specific genetic mutations and diseases, and their established relationships. This is especially useful for curating and organising scientific information.

Machine learning has also been used to support the synthesis and analysis of medical evidence, in tools such as Robot Reviewer . Summaries that compare and contrast claims in papers from Scholarcy help to perform literature reviews.

All these tools aim to help scientists do their jobs more effectively, not to replace them.

AI research may exacerbate existing problems

While Sakana AI states it doesn’t see the role of human scientists diminishing, the company’s vision of “a fully AI-driven scientific ecosystem” would have major implications for science.

One concern is that, if AI-generated papers flood the scientific literature, future AI systems may be trained on AI output and undergo model collapse . This means they may become increasingly ineffectual at innovating.

However, the implications for science go well beyond impacts on AI science systems themselves.

There are already bad actors in science, including “paper mills” churning out fake papers . This problem will only get worse when a scientific paper can be produced with US$15 and a vague initial prompt.

The need to check for errors in a mountain of automatically generated research could rapidly overwhelm the capacity of actual scientists. The peer review system is arguably already broken , and dumping more research of questionable quality into the system won’t fix it.

Science is fundamentally based on trust. Scientists emphasise the integrity of the scientific process so we can be confident our understanding of the world (and now, the world’s machines) is valid and improving.

A scientific ecosystem where AI systems are key players raises fundamental questions about the meaning and value of this process, and what level of trust we should have in AI scientists. Is this the kind of scientific ecosystem we want?

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Checklist: Writing a Great Research Paper

Published on October 16, 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 29, 2022.

A research paper is an extended piece of writing based on in-depth independent research. It may involve conducting empirical research or analyzing primary and secondary sources .

Writing a good research paper requires you to demonstrate a strong knowledge of your topic and advance an original argument. To convincingly communicate your ideas, you need a logical structure and a clear style that follows the conventions of academic writing .

When you’ve finished writing your paper, use this checklist to evaluate your work.

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I have followed all instructions in the assignment sheet.

My introduction presents my topic in an engaging way and provides necessary background information.

My introduction presents a clear, focused research problem and/or thesis statement .

My paper is logically organized using paragraphs and (if relevant) section headings .

Each paragraph is clearly focused on one central idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Each paragraph is relevant to my research problem or thesis statement.

I have used appropriate transitions  to clarify the connections between sections, paragraphs, and sentences.

My conclusion provides a concise answer to the research question or emphasizes how the thesis has been supported.

My conclusion shows how my research has contributed to knowledge or understanding of my topic.

My conclusion does not present any new points or information essential to my argument.

I have provided an in-text citation every time I refer to ideas or information from a source.

I have included a reference list at the end of my paper, consistently formatted according to a specific citation style .

I have thoroughly revised my paper and addressed any feedback from my professor or supervisor.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (page numbers, headers, spacing, etc.).

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Recent UW Law Faculty Scholarship: Interrupting Gun Violence; Integrating Tribal Law into the Legal Research and Writing Curriculum: Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies; Administering Facts-And-Circumstances-Based Tax Tests; and Fammigration Web

Here is the latest faculty scholarship appearing in the  University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Papers series  found on SSRN.

• Interrupting Gun Violence 104 Boston L. Rev. 769 (2024) by CHRISTOPHER LAU , UW Law School

Against the backdrop of declining crime rates, gun violence and gun-related homicides have only risen over the last three years. Just as it historically has, the brunt of that violence has been borne by poor Black and brown communities. These communities are especially impacted: they are not only far more likely to be the victims of gun violence, but are also the primary targets of police surveillance and harassment. People of color are disproportionately prosecuted for gun crimes, which, in part, prompted the Black Public Defenders Amicus Brief in support of expanding gun rights in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen. Recognizing that the carceral approach of policing and prosecution has failed to prevent gun violence and has harmed Black and brown communities, this Article sets forth community violence interruption groups as a promising decarceral alternative. Violence interruption groups address violence by working with the people who are most impacted by cyclical gun violence and intervene by mediating conflicts, defusing imminent violence, and encouraging people to give up their firearms. Building on the work of abolitionist scholars and organizers, this Article centers the role of Violence Interrupters as an important alternative to policing and punitive prosecution. It explores legal changes that might minimize the legal barriers to violence interruption, including statutory reform, mens rea reform, expansion of the Second Amendment, and recognition of an innocent possession defense.

• Integrating Tribal Law into the Legal Research and Writing Curriculum: Benefits, Challenges, and Strategies 31 Perspectives (Forthcoming, 2024) by BONNIE J. SHUCHA , UW Law School, Amber Madole, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, and Rebecca Plevel, University of South Carolina- Joseph F. Rice School of Law

In the United States, the Constitution recognizes three types of sovereigns: federal, state, and tribal. Each of these sovereign entities possesses the inherent powers of self-government and has the authority to address the social, economic, safety, and cultural needs of their citizens. However, under the mainstream conception of American law, tribal governments are often overlooked. This narrow perspective fails to acknowledge the significant contributions of Native Nations, which play a vital role in shaping the legal landscape of the United States. If we want our students to develop a more comprehensive understanding of America’s laws, we must teach them that the United States is a union not just of fifty states, five territories, and a federal district, but also of 574 unique, federally recognized tribes.

As an integral part of the American legal landscape, tribal law should also be an integral part of the law school curriculum, not only as an elective or specialized topic but integrated alongside federal, state, and local law. Legal research and writing instructors are pivotal in this endeavor. They have the unique opportunity to introduce tribal law within the core first-year curriculum. This approach allows instructors to familiarize students with the presence and relevance of tribal law, preparing them for its application in the various legal scenarios that they will encounter later in their law school and legal careers. We believe that including tribal law in LRW instruction can serve as an important step towards inclusivity in the legal profession. Given that LRW courses are where most law students form their bedrock understanding of legal authority and legal information, these courses present a substantial opportunity to help students understand the U.S. justice system in all its nuance and complexity.

Graduates with an awareness of tribal law will be better equipped to serve tribal communities, recognize and research tribal law issues when they arise, and contribute to the broader legal discourse surrounding Native American rights and interests. They may also increase their employment prospects as knowledge of tribal law may provide an advantage in some positions. This knowledge does not just benefit those working directly with or for Tribal Nations; it is essential for all legal professionals given that tribes interact extensively with federal and state governments, businesses, and individuals. Understanding tribal law empowers legal professionals to effectively address legal issues in Indian Country and contribute to a more inclusive legal system.

This Article will explore the benefits of incorporating tribal law into legal education. Part one presents actionable strategies for the effective integration of tribal law into the legal research and writing curriculum, part two explains the importance and upsides of introducing law students to tribal law research, and part three addresses some of the challenges. Two appendices provide curated lists of resources for further exploration of tribal law.

• Administering Facts-And-Circumstances-Based Tax Tests 76 Baylor L. Rev. (Forthcoming, 2024) by EMILY CAUBLE , UW Law School

Oftentimes, the appropriate tax treatment of a transaction or event depends on a holistic analysis of relevant facts and circumstances. Facts-and-circumstances-based tests are challenging to administer because they are challenging to enforce and because they address challenging topics on which to provide useful administrative guidance. When a taxpayer claims tax treatment that depends on application of such a test, the IRS cannot determine whether the taxpayer’s claimed position is correct without knowing the relevant facts and circumstances. Yet, often, taxpayers are not required to disclose the relevant facts and circumstances when filing a tax return, making enforcement difficult. Likewise, providing administrative guidance on facts-and-circumstances-based tests is daunting. If the IRS provides concrete examples of the application of such a test, there is a risk the concrete examples will mislead taxpayers. Taxpayers may come away with the impression that the concrete examples illustrate universal rules, which is not the case given the facts-and-circumstances-based nature of the test. If the IRS steers away from offering concrete examples, however, taxpayers will face uncertainty when attempting to determine their tax treatment. This Article proposes a new, two-fold approach to administering facts-and-circumstances-based tests. First, lawmakers ought to require more detailed, standardized disclosure from taxpayers who claim tax positions based upon certain facts-and-circumstances-based tests. Second, when offering examples that illustrate the likely application of such tests, the IRS should steer taxpayers towards claiming the likely outcome but also supplying the relevant disclosure in case the taxpayer’s facts warrant departure from the likely outcome. Making facts-and-circumstances-based tests more administrable aligns with the IRS’s recent pledge to focus additional auditing resources on taxpayers with higher incomes.

• Fammigration Web 103 Boston L. Rev. 117 (2023) by S. LISA WASHINGTON , UW Law School

A growing body of scholarship discusses the expansive nature of the criminal legal system. What remains overlooked are other parts of the carceral state with similarly punitive logics. This Article focuses on the undertheorized convergence of the family regulation system and the immigration system. I argue that their cumulative effects increase the risk of immigration detention, deportation, and ultimately, permanent family separation for non-citizen and mixed status families. This Article provides the first theoretical account of family regulation and immigration convergence. When referring to this phenomenon I utilize the term “fammigration web,” similar to the way other scholars refer to criminal legal and immigration system overlaps as “crimmigration.” Although the exact number of non-citizen families impacted by the family regulation system remains unclear, the existing literature suggests that thousands of families are adversely affected. While practitioners and advocates are increasingly discussing the relationship between the family regulation and immigration systems, scholarship has not fully caught up. This Article fills that gap by identifying how nodes in the fammigration web exacerbate the risk of family separation for non-citizen and mixed status families.

This Article makes three central contributions. One, it provides the first theoretical account of family regulation and immigration convergence. Two, it examines how this convergence marks and subordinates immigrant families. Three, it situates efforts to shrink fammigration alongside broader efforts to shrink the carceral state. To dismantle carceral logics, we must identify how they are produced across systems. While this requires long-term strategies, this Article offers a few immediate ways to shrink the fammigration web.

For the full text of these works and additional scholarship from UW Law faculty and staff, visit the  University of Wisconsin Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series  on SSRN. A free email subscription is available at the top right of the page.

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• Published: 19 August 2024

Chronic adaptive deep brain stimulation versus conventional stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: a blinded randomized feasibility trial

• Carina R. Oehrn   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8451-7960 1   na1 ,
• Stephanie Cernera 1   na1 ,
• Lauren H. Hammer 2   na1 ,
• Maria Shcherbakova 1 ,
• Jiaang Yao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7062-2508 1 , 3 ,
• Amelia Hahn 1 ,
• Sarah Wang 2 , 4 ,
• Jill L. Ostrem 2 , 4 ,
• Simon Little   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6249-6230 2 , 3 , 4   na2 &
• Philip A. Starr   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2733-4003 1 , 3 , 4   na2  

Nature Medicine ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Biomedical engineering
• Neurophysiology
• Parkinson's disease

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a widely used therapy for Parkinson’s disease (PD) but lacks dynamic responsiveness to changing clinical and neural states. Feedback control might improve therapeutic effectiveness, but the optimal control strategy and additional benefits of ‘adaptive’ neurostimulation are unclear. Here we present the results of a blinded randomized cross-over pilot trial aimed at determining the neural correlates of specific motor signs in individuals with PD and the feasibility of using these signals to drive adaptive DBS. Four male patients with PD were recruited from a population undergoing DBS implantation for motor fluctuations, with each patient receiving adaptive DBS and continuous DBS. We identified stimulation-entrained gamma oscillations in the subthalamic nucleus or motor cortex as optimal markers of high versus low dopaminergic states and their associated residual motor signs in all four patients. We then demonstrated improved motor symptoms and quality of life with adaptive compared to clinically optimized standard stimulation. The results of this pilot trial highlight the promise of personalized adaptive neurostimulation in PD based on data-driven selection of neural signals. Furthermore, these findings provide the foundation for further larger clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of personalized adaptive neurostimulation in PD and other neurological disorders. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT03582891 .

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Emerging technologies for improved deep brain stimulation

Eight-hours conventional versus adaptive deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson’s disease

Modulation of subthalamic beta oscillations by movement, dopamine, and deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease

Data availability.

De-identified individual participant data, including neural, wearable and digital diary data, are shared on the Data Archive for the BRAIN Initiative website ( https://dabi.loni.usc.edu/ ; https://doi.org/10.18120/cq9c-d057 ). The study protocol is provided in the Supplementary Information . The Food and Drug Administration investigational device exemption is available on the Open Mind website ( https://osf.io/cmndq/ ). Data will be available permanently with no restrictions, for purposes of replicating the findings or conducting meta-analyses.

Code availability

Code written in C# and MATLAB, which operates the investigational device and extracts raw neural data, is available on the Open Mind GitHub platform ( https://openmind-consortium.github.io ). The code for biomarker identification implemented in MATLAB is available in the repository Code Ocean, without restrictions 59 , except for code related to linear discriminant analysis (Fig. 4c–e ), which will be made available after publication of a subsequent manuscript (currently in preparation) that uses this code.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) UH3NS100544 (to P.A.S.), the Parkinson Fellowship of the Thiemann Foundation (to C.R.O.), NINDS F32NS129627 (to S.C.), NINDS R25NS070680 (to L.H.H.) and TUYF Charitable Trust Fund (to J.Y.). Research reported in this publication was also partly supported by R01 NS090913 (to P.A.S.), NINDS K23NS120037 (to S.L.) and R01 NS131405 (to S.L.). Investigational devices were provided at no charge by the manufacturer, but the manufacturer had no role in the conduct, analysis or interpretation of the study. The Open Mind consortium for technology dissemination, funded by NINDS U24 NS113637 (to P.A.S.), provided technical resources for the use of the Summit RC+S neural interface. We thank T. Wozny for lead localization, W. Chiong for neuroethical input, C. Smyth, R. Gilron, R. Wilt and C. de Hemptinne for technical contributions and K. Probst for medical art (Fig. 1a ). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Carina R. Oehrn, Stephanie Cernera, Lauren H. Hammer.

These authors jointly supervised this work: Simon Little, Philip A Starr.

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Carina R. Oehrn, Stephanie Cernera, Maria Shcherbakova, Jiaang Yao, Amelia Hahn & Philip A. Starr

Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Lauren H. Hammer, Sarah Wang, Jill L. Ostrem & Simon Little

Graduate Program in Bioengineering, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Jiaang Yao, Simon Little & Philip A. Starr

Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

Sarah Wang, Jill L. Ostrem, Simon Little & Philip A. Starr

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Contributions

P.A.S., S.L., J.L.O., C.R.O., S.C. and L.H.H. designed the study and analysis pipeline. C.R.O., S.C., L.H.H., M.S. and J.Y. collected and analyzed the data. A.H. facilitated patient communication and coordination throughout the study. S.W. oversaw study administration, including institutional review board approval and regulatory compliance. C.R.O., S.C., L.H.H., S.L. and P.A.S. drafted the manuscript, and all authors reviewed, commented on and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carina R. Oehrn .

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Competing interests.

S.L. consults for Iota Biosciences. J.L.O. reports support from Medtronic and Boston Scientific for research and education and consults for AbbVie and Rune Labs. P.A.S. receives support from Medtronic and Boston Scientific for fellowship education. C.R.O., S.C., L.H.H., M.S., J.Y., A.H. and S.W. declare no competing interests.

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Extended data

Extended data fig. 1 localization of leads over sensorimotor cortex and within subthalamic nucleus in native space..

a–d , Example localization of cortical and subcortical leads in patient 2, generated by fusing postoperative CT with preoperative MRI scans. Contacts appear as white CT artifacts due to metal content and are labeled with red arrows. a , Cortical leads on axial T1-weighted MRI through the vertex. b , STN leads on axial T2-weighted MRI through the region of the dorsal STN, 3 mm inferior to the intercommissural plane. c,d , Cortical leads on oblique sagittal T1-weighted MRI passing through the long axis of the lead array in left (c) and right (d) hemispheres, respectively. e–h , Location of cortical leads for each patient overlayed on 3D reconstruction of cortex rendered using the Locate Electrodes Graphical User Interface (LeGUI). Electrodes used in the anterior and posterior cortical montages are shown in cyan and yellow, respectively. For patient 1 (e) , 2 (f) and 4 (h) , anterior and posterior montages covered the pre- and postcentral gyrus, respectively. For patient 3, right side (g) , the anterior montage included one electrode on the middle frontal and one on the precentral gyrus. The posterior montage comprised one pre- and one postcentral electrode. In all figures, red arrows indicate the location of the central sulcus.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Initial and finalized adaptive stimulation parameters and example adaptive control policies.

a , Suggested initial parameters for algorithms developed for time scales of minutes to hours, as identified during steps 5 and 6 of the pipeline. An update rate of 10 s typically provided a signal to noise ratio that allowed for adequate discrimination between the presence and absence of the most bothersome symptom, and this could often be improved with a further increase in update rate. The ramp rate chosen for each patient depended on the results of step 5 (we chose an example of 1 mA/s). b , Detailed final adaptive stimulation parameters including control signals, thresholds, FFT interval, update rates, blanking periods, onset and termination duration, and ramp rates used for each patient and hemisphere. c–e , Examples of potential control policies that can be used for an adaptive algorithm, using artificial data. The upper subpanels of each subfigure illustrate an on-state biomarker (blue), as used in our study, along with thresholds (red). Lower subpanels demonstrate the adjustment of stimulation amplitude based on the relationship of the neural signal to the thresholds. c , A single threshold control policy with two stimulation amplitudes. When the biomarker is above the threshold, stimulation amplitude decreases and once below threshold, stimulation amplitude increases. d , A dual threshold control policy with three stimulation amplitudes (not used in this study), which may be applied to address three symptom states. When the neural signal is below both thresholds, the stimulation amplitude is high (for example, 4 mA). When the biomarker is between the two thresholds, stimulation adjusts to a middle amplitude (for example, 3 mA). When the biomarker exceeds the second threshold, stimulation decreases to the low amplitude (for example, 2 mA). e , A control policy utilizing a middle state as noise buffer. Stimulation is high when the control signal is below the bottom threshold and stimulation is low when the control signal is above the top threshold. When the control signal is between the two thresholds, it remains at the level of the stimulation amplitude prior to crossing the threshold (that is, no changes are made).

Extended Data Fig. 3 Neural biomarkers of medication effects identified in-clinic.

a,b , All tables show the results from our within-patient non-parametric cluster-based permutation analyses using in-clinic recordings during two medication states (off vs. on) and stimulation conditions (low vs. high stimulation amplitude). P -values were Bonferroni-corrected for multiple comparisons. Note that p < 10 −3 indicates that the cluster was found in all 1000 permutations. This means the probability of observing this effect by chance is less than 1 in 1000. a , Statistics for the largest main effect of medication, stimulation, and their interaction for each patient and hemisphere when searching the whole frequency space (2–100 Hz) across brain regions. Frequencies represent the center frequency of 1-Hz wide power spectral density bins. For all four patients (five out of six hemispheres), we found that gamma power (specifically, stimulation-entrained gamma in four hemispheres) in the STN or cortex was the best predictor of medication state (in pat-3L, there was no significant effect of medication in any frequency band in clinic, but at home symptom monitoring identified cortical stimulation-entrained gamma power as neural biomarker; Extended Data Fig. 4 ). Positive Cohen’s d values for the medication effect highlight that the neural biomarker was higher during on-medication states. Positive Cohen’s d values for the stimulation effect indicate that the neural biomarker was higher during on-stimulation states (independent of medication), which could result in undesirable self-triggering of the algorithm (threshold crossing of the neural biomarker linked to stimulation change itself, rather than true fluctuations of medication states and symptoms). Therefore, for patient 1, we excluded 63 and 67 Hz from the subsequently used control signal (positive Cohen’s d main effect of stimulation). For patients 2, 3 and 4, we did not find stimulation effects that positively modulated biomarkers and therefore were unrestricted in biomarker selection. b , When constraining the anatomic location and frequency space to STN beta oscillations (13–30 Hz), STN spectral beta power was only predictive for medication state in two hemispheres (pat-2R and pat-4) and smaller in effect size than cortical/STN stimulation-entrained gamma oscillations for all patients.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Neural biomarkers of symptoms identified at-home.

We identified predictors of the most bothersome symptom (pat-1: bradykinesia, pat-2: lower limb dystonia), or the opposite symptom that limits the therapeutic window (pat-3 and pat-4: dyskinesia). a , Heatmaps of t -values derived from stepwise linear regressions using 1 Hz power bands between 2–100 Hz in the STN (left), anterior cortical montage (middle) and posterior cortical montage (right) to predict symptoms continuously measured with upper extremity wearable monitors for patients 1, 3 and 4 (patient 2’s bothersome symptom did not involve the upper extremity). b–d , Results from the linear regression (left) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA; right). P-values were Bonferroni-corrected for multiple comparisons (289 predictors). b , Both methods provide converging evidence that stimulation-entrained gamma power centered at half the stimulation frequency (65 Hz) in the STN and cortex optimally distinguishes hypo- and hyperkinetic symptoms. c , When constraining the anatomic location and frequency space to STN beta oscillations (13–30 Hz), frequency bands identified as most predictive were less discriminative than cortical/STN stimulation-entrained gamma oscillations (LDA: AUC < 0.7). Regression models resulted in smaller magnitude coefficients, with only one hemisphere demonstrating a significant negative association with hyperkinetic symptoms (pat-3L). d , STN beta frequency bands were also poorly predictive of wearable bradykinesia scores (AUC < 0.6), again with only one hemisphere demonstrating a significant effect in the regression model (corresponding to a positive relationship with hypokinetic symptoms; pat-3L). e , Comparison of LDA results for STN and cortical gamma activity in predicting bothersome symptoms. Neural signals selected for adaptive stimulation are shaded in grey. In three out of six hemispheres (pat-2L, pat-2R, pat-4), stimulation-entrained gamma activity in the STN distinguished between hypo- and hyperkinetic symptoms. For pat-2, STN stimulation-entrained spectral gamma power was the optimal biomarker used for aDBS in both hemispheres. In pat-4, stimulation-entrained gamma activity in the STN was a strong predictor of residual motor signs but slightly underperformed compared to cortical signals. f , Visual illustration of AUC values comparing STN and cortical gamma activity in predicting bothersome symptoms. For pat-4, the predictive value of stimulation-entrained spectral gamma power was only slightly reduced compared to cortical signals.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Beta oscillations in the STN.

a , Power spectral density in the STN based on in-clinic recordings off medication and off stimulation for all six hemispheres. All but one hemisphere (pat-1) exhibited a peak in the beta frequency band (illustrated in yellow). b , Example of the suppressive effect of DBS on STN beta oscillations precluding use of beta band activity as a biomarker of medication state during active stimulation (pat-2L, all data collected during the same in-clinic recording session). Off stimulation, the spectral peak in the beta frequency range was suppressed by medication (13–21 Hz, Cohens’ d  = −1.09, p < 10 −3 ). However, this medication effect diminished during active stimulation, even at low stimulation amplitudes (1.8 mA, largest effect in the beta band: 15–18 Hz, Cohens’ d  = 0.31, p  = 0.026). Data are corrected for stimulation-induced broadband shifts.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Effects of aDBS and cDBS on most bothersome symptom severity, additional motor symptoms, and sleep quality.

a–j , Bar plots illustrating the mean (±s.e.m.) self-reported symptoms, aside from the most bothersome symptoms, across testing days. Each dot represents the rating for one testing day (blue: cDBS, red: aDBS). These ratings constituted secondary outcome measures to ensure that we are not aggravating other motor and non-motor symptoms. a,b , Patient self-reported motor symptom severity from daily questionnaires (1 = least severe, 10 = most severe). Note that patients rated symptom severity (shown here) independently of symptom duration ; bar graphs for the latter are in Fig. 5a,b . Patient 3 did not record ratings within the instructed range of 1–10 and their data are therefore not reported. a , In addition to a decrease in the amount of daily hours with the most bothersome symptom (symptom duration , shown in Fig. 5a ), patients 1, 2, and 4 also experienced a significant improvement of symptom severity (pat-1: p < 10 −5 , pat-2: p  = 0.018, pat = 4: p  = 0.003). b , No subject reported worsened severity of their opposite symptom (pat-1: p  = 0.18, pat-2: p  = 1, pat-4: p  = 0.19). c–h , Comprehensive list of the self-reported duration of motor symptoms from daily questionnaires. These bar graphs illustrate only symptoms that were not identified by the patient as the most bothersome or as the opposite symptom. For each patient’s most bothersome symptom, results are displayed in Fig. 5a and panel a of this figure; and are labeled in c–h as not applicable (n/a). None of these “other” motor symptoms were worsened by aDBS, and patient 2 demonstrated significant improvement in the percentage of waking hours with dyskinesia ( d , p = 0.044) and gait disturbance ( h , p < 10 −4 ). i,j , Self-reported sleep quality (1 = poorest sleep, 10 = best sleep) and duration from daily questionnaires. aDBS provided no change in patients’ sleep characteristics. The number of testing days for each patient and condition used for statistical tests are summarized in Fig. 6a . Asterisks illustrate results from two-sided Wilcoxon rank sum tests. P-values for all within-subject control analyses were adjusted for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate procedure and are indicated as: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Extended Data Fig. 7 aDBS algorithm dynamics during nighttime.

a , Percent time spent at each stimulation amplitude during the night. Each dot represents the mean values of one night of aDBS testing across high stimulation states (orange) and low stimulation states (blue) in one hemisphere. Graphs are standard box plots (center: median; box limits: upper and lower quartiles; whiskers: minima = 25th percentile-1.5 times the interquartile range, maxima = 75th percentile+1.5 times the interquartile range). Each patient spent most of the night in the high stimulation state. b , Mean (±s.e.m.) total electrical energy delivered (TEED) during aDBS and cDBS overnight, showing increased TEED during aDBS, similar to daytime analyses (stimulation main effect: β  = 27.7, p  < 10 −25 , time main effect: β  = 0.05, p  = 0.377). Individually, TEED was increased in all hemispheres during aDBS (two-sided, one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test, pat-1: p < 10 −6 , pat-2R: p < 10 −5 , pat-2L: p < 10 −5 , pat-3R: p < 10 −6 , pat-3L: p < 10 −6 , pat-4: p < 10 −4 ). The number of testing nights for each patient and condition used for both illustrations are stated in Fig. 6a and are equivalent to the testing days. Asterisks illustrate results from two-sided one-sample Wilcoxon signed rank tests. P-values for TEED evaluations were adjusted for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate procedure and are indicated as: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Flowchart of biomarker identification analyses.

We identified neural biomarkers using standardized in-clinic and at-home recordings in patients’ naturalistic environments. Non-parametric cluster-based permutation analysis identified candidate spectral biomarkers from in-clinic data by assessing main effects of medication state, stimulation amplitude, and the interaction. Next, the predictability of neural biomarkers as robust aDBS control signals of symptom state was tested using at-home recordings. For patients where the most bothersome symptom was monitored by a wearable device (for example, upper extremity bradykinesia or dyskinesia), linear stepwise regression was used to take advantage of the continuous nature of the symptom measurements. The most predictive frequency bands and recording sites were selected based on t -values. If the patient’s most bothersome symptom could not be captured by wearable monitors, the patient’s motor diaries and streaming app entries instead labeled the presence of symptoms. A linear discriminant analysis (LDA) based method identified the most predictive frequency band and recording site from these discretely labeled neural signal data, as measured by the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC). We also applied the LDA-based approach to symptoms measured by wearable monitors by mapping the continuous wearable scores to discrete symptom labels using a patient-specific dichotomization. This dichotomization allowed for subsequent offline assessment of the prediction accuracy based on multiple neural biomarkers combined as shown in Fig. 4e (note for online aDBS only single power band classifiers were implemented, as multiple power band classifiers were not found to be superior).

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Oehrn, C.R., Cernera, S., Hammer, L.H. et al. Chronic adaptive deep brain stimulation versus conventional stimulation in Parkinson’s disease: a blinded randomized feasibility trial. Nat Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03196-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03196-z

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