Choosing the Right Word in a Science Report
A student drafts a sentence for a science report: 'The heat made the liquid go up faster and the tube got really hot, so the reaction was bigger.' Her teacher marks three problems: informal vocabulary, an imprecise comparison, and a cause-effect link that is asserted rather than shown. The student's revision reads: 'The increased temperature caused the liquid to evaporate more quickly. The tube also became hot, which suggests the reaction released energy.' The teacher says the revision is better but that 'suggests' and 'caused' are doing different jobs.
1. Explain the difference in meaning between 'caused' and 'suggests' in the student's revision, and say which is better supported by her evidence.
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'Caused' states a direct, established link: the temperature increase is presented as the reason the liquid evaporated faster. 'Suggests' states a possible link: the hot tube is evidence that points toward energy release, but does not prove it.
The two are not equally supported. If the student measured evaporation at two temperatures and saw a faster rate at the higher one, 'caused' is defensible as a description of her result, though a careful report might still say 'was associated with'. By contrast, a hot tube alone does not prove the reaction released energy; heat could come from elsewhere, such as the surroundings or the container. So 'suggests' is the more honest verb there.
The general principle: match the strength of the verb to the strength of the evidence. Use 'caused', 'proves', or 'shows' only for direct evidence; use 'suggests', 'indicates', or 'is consistent with' for indirect evidence.
2. Rewrite the original sentence in formal academic register, removing informal words and making the comparison precise.
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Original: 'The heat made the liquid go up faster and the tube got really hot, so the reaction was bigger.'
Problems: 'heat' is vague where 'temperature' is meant; 'go up' is informal for 'evaporate'; 'really hot' is informal and unmeasured; 'bigger' is an imprecise comparison - bigger than what?
A revised version: 'As the temperature increased, the liquid evaporated more rapidly than in the previous trial, and the tube became noticeably warmer, indicating a more vigorous reaction.'
This version replaces informal words with precise terms, supplies the missing comparison ('than in the previous trial'), and uses 'indicating' to keep the cause-effect claim at the strength the evidence supports. Students should check that every comparison names its reference point and every causal claim names its evidence.