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What is the difference between positive and negative sentences? Negative sentences contain words such as “no”, “not”, “none”, “nor”, “nothing” and “never”. Positive sentences lack these words. Generally, positive sentences are easier to understand and more simple to construct than negative ones. Compare the following two versions of the same thought.

“Scientists for whom English is not their first language should not be at a disadvantage.”

“Scientists for whom English is a second language should have the same status as native speakers.”

Which was simpler to construct? Which do you think is more comprehensible? Box 2.2 gives you ten further examples to practise turning negative sentences into positive ones.

Here is another example with two negatives taken from the preface (p. xvi) to Fintan O’Toole’s excellent treatise “Heroic Failure” on how Brexit came about.

“Nor does this purport to be a profound analysis of the economic dislocations and insecurities without which English unhappiness could not have had such a dramatic result.”

Even the lady at the publisher who gave me permission to use the sentence agreed that this is quite a sentence. Here is a clearer version without any negatives.

“This (book) also avoids an analysis of the economic dislocations and insecurities that allowed English unhappiness to have such a dramatic result”.

Which version do you think is clearer? I also selected this sentence because it introduces you to the word “purport”, often used in science instead of pretend. “Purport” is often found in the introduction to an unfavourable review of a manuscript as in the following imaginary example.

“This manuscript purports to show a relationship between A and B. However, the manuscript fails to achieve this goal for the following reasons.”

If you are still unsure about the meaning of this word, you can find examples of its use by searching PubMed for abstracts that contain it.

I have tried to write positive sentences in this book. Clearly, it is impossible to permanently avoid negative words, so that there are quite a few negative sentences. It is just something to keep in mind. Check your work for complex negative sentences and try to keep them to a minimum.

Box 2.2Positive and negative sentences

Turn the following negative sentences into positive ones. They contain most of the standard negative constructions used in English. You may find some of the following words useful: absent, avoid, constant, contain, fail, ignore, lack, overlook, questionable, resistant. My suggestions can be found in section 2.5.2.

1. The experiment did not work.

2. No changes were observed in any of the variables tested.

3. There is not a piece of evidence supporting this hypothesis.

4. The variation was never more than 1%.

5. None of the alternative explanations seemed likely.

6. Neither the fear of global warming nor the number of fatal accidents influence car drivers.

7. Nothing is dangerous about this method.

8. No-one noticed the discrepancy between the two sets of data.

9. In none of the samples could the desired compound be found.

10. No less than eleven substances were present in the mixture.