: Re: Is extraneous language appropriate in academic writing? I teach a course in academic writing. My students, who do not have much writing experience, add many phrases, as in What are these extra

@Annie587

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Whether such a phrase is good depends on the context. Does it add to the meaning or clarify the meaning? If the answer is no, then I'd leave it out.
For example, consider the phrase on that list, "the other reason is that". If you give two reasons for something, then such a phrase might well be superfluous.
Consider:

Sample A
There are two reasons why Sally was late to work yesterday. The first reason is that her car had trouble starting. The other reason is that there was a traffic jam.
Sample B
Sally was late to work yesterday because her car had trouble starting and because there was a traffic jam.

B is clearly much more concise without losing any meaning. I'd generally prefer B because it tells the reader what I want to tell him without a lot of wasted motion.
But there are times when you want to go slowly. For example, you may want to build up to a point. Or you may have a much longer block of text and without a separator, the reader could get lost on where the first reason ended and the second reason began.
So I think it's equally simplistic to say "use these phrases liberally" and to say "never use these phrases". You need to judge each case.
Sorry, I wish I could give you a more definitive answer. :-)

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