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[交流] how to choose a verb when you write Paper--indicate, show, demonstrate, suggest已有1人参与

最近上伯明翰大学的写作课，把其中觉得有用的敲出来给大家分享一下。
Recent contributors to Nature were asked whether for them X indicates that...is closer to the strong X shows/demonstrates that... or the weak X suggests that....

here are two typical replies, one from the USA and one from the UK:

(Physicist, Harvard University,USA)

I would say that "indicate" is somewhere in between "show/demonstrate" and "suggest". I would use "show" or "demonstrates" if it is possible to come to the conclusion logically, without involving any guess or intuition or experience. It is similar to proving a theorem in mathematics. You just use rules of logic and, starting from the data or results of an experiment, you can come to the conclusions. In very many cases it is not possible to come to the conclusion without involving some reasonable assumption or even some intuition. In other words some human factor is involved. In this case one cannot be absolutely sure that the conclusions are correct.
On the other hand the conclusion would seem natural to a person who has experience in the relevant field. In such case i would use the term "indicate". The term "indicate" is used more frequently in experimental physics than in theoretical physics. Probably this term should not be used in perfectly precise disciplines such as mathematics. I do experimental hpysics and i use the term "indicate" quite frequently. In experimental physics one has to make sure that the data are correct. On the other hand the conclusions are not always obovious. Therefore some guessing may be involved. The term "suggest" would be used if there is considerable doubt that the conclusion is correct. The term tells that more work has to be done before one can be sure what is the right conculsion.

(Biologist, Cardiff Universiy)

I think that "suggest" is ususlly used in scientific literature when trying to draw an inference frome the evidence. Suggest is one of the weakest verbs for this purpose. "The evidence suggests the conclusion" means to me that it triggers the thought but further reflection might lead to dismissing the idea. Usually what is required if further evidence, of course! "shows" and "demonstrates" are, I agree with you, much stronger than "suggests". To me they mean that the evidence is good and trustworthy. However, there is also an implication that while this can happen, or be made to happen, in an experiment, other evidence needs to be taken into account to reach a conclusion. In this way, "shows" or "demonstrates" is different in my mind from "implies" or "proves".
The words "indicates" is stronger than "suggest" to me, because it doesn't just trigger the thought but it actually points the ways forward. This may be because of the way we use the words in general conversation. I think "suggest" is often used as a proposal requesting agreement(e.g. I suggest we go to Cardiff), so there is nothing definite about it. Its use in scientific language may have picked up these associations. On the other hand "indicates" cannot be used this way. "I indicate we go to Cardiff" is nonsense whereas "the route map indicates we are going to Cardiff" can be used. So, "indicates" means to me that some objective indicator has flagged the result, whereas "suggests" means to me that someone has thought about it and there is therefore a more subjective element. In challenging evidence that indicates you would need to challenge the evidence whereas in challenging evidence that suggests you might just need to challenge the idea of the suggester.

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