Couching my KISS

One piece of advice I got from one of my supervisors in regards to my proposal was, "KISS". "KISS" is an acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid. An interesting piece of advice for someone who likes to make, "bold unsupported statements" according to another supervisor. The latter supervisor highly suggests "couching" my remarks to avoid making these overly simplistic statements. The act of couching aims to make your writing less definitive where multiple views exist. For example, one might change their writing from "blank will be impacted by blank", to "blank will likely be impacted by blank (ref.; ref.; ref.)". So "KISS" and couching might seem like they are very much mutually exclusive "styles" of scientific writing. Not the case.

For this scientific writer, I often get slammed by my reviewers (supervisors) for adding supporting information to a particular point or statement that might be better done with a series of references. This speaks to the KISS principle, where I need not add "excess" information to a point or statement where proper referencing will do. After I have "trimmed the fat" of this supporting information, I have a tendency to leave the original particular point or statement intact (i.e., as if the supporting information was still there). This is where I get slammed by reviewer (supervisor) #2 of being too definitive in my particular point or statement. Rightfully so, after trimming the fat", these points or statements seem very ultimate or final where they might need a small douse of ambiguity.

So how to make these work together? For me, after KISSing, I will be sure to rework the original point or statement that is left standing to reflect the material that was cut paying particular attention to make sure the statement is not too definitive if other views exist. Thereby, keeping the writing simple and couching.