I’ve been listening to the Canadian science radio show Quirks & Quarks since January or so (when I very belately discovered their podcast). I’d been struck by the number of scientists (interviewees) who started sentences with “So”.
(I haven’t noticed it in science writing so much…)
(As in,
Q: “How did you discover that the rhesus monkeys were behaving that way?”
A: “So, we did this experiment…”)
The North American scientists seem to use that verbal tic slightly more than the European ones, based on my impressions of the show, but that’s just an impression.
I’ve been listening to the Canadian science radio show Quirks & Quarks since January or so (when I very belately discovered their podcast). I’d been struck by the number of scientists (interviewees) who started sentences with “So”.
(I haven’t noticed it in science writing so much…)
(As in,
Q: “How did you discover that the rhesus monkeys were behaving that way?”
A: “So, we did this experiment…”)
The North American scientists seem to use that verbal tic slightly more than the European ones, based on my impressions of the show, but that’s just an impression.
Thanks for that link!