User:Retro/Phrases to watch

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Sometimes I notice errors in articles that aren't dependent on the accuracy of the phrasing, but simply an issue of structural accuracy. This page collects phrases I notice. I am ultimately limited by Wikipedia's search: the search handles small phrases well, but can't account for context or conditional arrangements of phrases because the regex options in the search engine are so limited. AWB supports more regex options, but can't efficiently search because database dumps don't appear to contain an index (or at least one that AWB has access to). Perhaps I will download a database dump and index it in the future.

I currently use two labels in categorizing my phrasing concerns:

  • Clarity: This is the lowest level of phrasing concern that means that a phrasing may detract from a hypothetical optimal clarity. There's too much nuance involved to easily fix these with a bot. Sometimes (often?) these are debatable, making mass "hit and run" editing inadvisable.
  • NPOV: These phrasings lean towards favoring a certain perspective, making removal imperative. Even if the sources support a certain perspective, the encyclopedia should still neutrally state perspectives or attribute non-neutral statements to the sources.

I would like to merge the phrase and search columns, but I haven't yet figured out a good way to translate regex searches containing brackets ([]) into search links using {{sl}}.

Clarity
Phrase Query # results Explanation Examples Search notes
"the fact that" My old enemy. I've mellowed out a bit, but I avoid the phrase in my own writing.
"[am/are] of the opinion [that]" Verbose; could be replaced by "thinks" (though the connotation differs slightly)
"by far" Unnecessary qualifier; a bit non-neutral.
"in order to" Often replaceable by "to"
"not unlikely" "not unlikely" 225 "not" before any "un" word is questionable, because it's imprecise in its degree and a double negative. It usually is a weakened version of "likely".
"had the effect of [verb]ing" Replaceable by [verb]ed; the indirection by "effect" may sometimes indicate more nuance. There are possibly more broad queries like "[had/has] the effect" that may be worth investigating
"Also, " Unencyclopedic tone to begin sentences.
NPOV
Phrase Query # results Explanation Examples Search notes
"to the maximum" "to the maximum" insource:/to the maximum[^"\- ]/i 104 Informal tone. 1 The search is a representative sample of problematic use that minimizes false positives. The most useful filter is the inclusion of a space in the character class, which reduces the number of results tenfold.
"in interesting" insource:"in interesting" 220
"in fact" This does add meaning by contrasting with the previous statement, but it is a bit non-neutral.
"unprecedented"