most earlier studies

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "most earlier studies" is not correct in standard written English.
It is typically used to refer to a majority of studies conducted in the past, but the combination of "most" and "earlier" is redundant. Example: "Most earlier studies have shown a correlation between diet and health outcomes."

⚠ May contain grammatical issues

Science

News & Media

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

52 human-written examples

The increased risks in cancers of the colon, liver, and pancreas have not been reported earlier and most earlier studies have shown a reduced risk or risk close to unity (Vesterinen et al, 1993; Talbot-Smith et al, 2003; Turner et al, 2005).

British Journal of Cancer

They also set out to enroll African-American as well as the Caucasian participants most earlier studies used.

The New York Times - Health

Most earlier studies have found little benefit from icing after exercise, but also few negative side effects.

The New York Times

Most earlier studies were small or focused on allergic reactions and potentially toxic side effects on the kidneys.

The New York Times

While most earlier studies improved the breast cancer screening decisions by offering lifetime screening schedules, our proposed model provides an adaptive screening decision aid by age.

Omega

Unlike most earlier studies, our approach normalizes the velocity-space coordinate to the temporally varying individual plasma species' local thermal velocity, vth(t), and explicitly considers the resulting inertial terms in the Fokker Planck equation.

Journal of Computational Physics

Human-verified similar examples from authoritative sources

Similar Expressions

8 human-written examples

Most early studies demonstrating the benefits of exercise were done with men.

The New York Times

Our findings showed that most early studies adopted the IS-approach but that later ones (after the burst of the dot-com bubble) shifted to a combined-approach.

Information & Management

Most early studies applying species distribution models (SDM) at large spatial scales (e.g. global, continental or regional scale) use climatic/topographic predictors only.

Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment

Most early studies on pregnant animals were negative for teratogenic effects, and a recent survey found no association between working in the MR environment and a number of pregnancy outcome variables*.

Harvard University

While most early studies attributed this size effect to Weibull statistics, here we propose a mechanism related to shear softening induced flow instability that can give rise to a deterministic indentation size effect in MGs.

Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

When referring to previous research, it's best to use grammatically correct alternatives like "most previous studies" or "the majority of earlier studies".

Common error

The phrase "most earlier studies" is redundant. "Earlier" implies a comparison to a later time, and "most" indicates a majority. Combining them creates unnecessary repetition. Use "most previous studies" instead.

Linguistic Context

The phrase "most earlier studies" functions as a determiner phrase, typically introducing a statement about a trend or finding observed across multiple previous research endeavors. However, Ludwig AI indicates that the construction is grammatically incorrect due to redundancy.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

Science

86%

News & Media

12%

Formal & Business

2%

Less common in

Encyclopedias

0%

Wiki

0%

Reference

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, while the phrase "most earlier studies" is frequently used, especially in scientific literature and news media, it is considered grammatically incorrect due to redundancy. According to Ludwig AI, the combination of "most" and "earlier" is unnecessary, and it is recommended to use alternatives such as "most previous studies" or "the majority of earlier studies". Despite its common usage, adhering to proper grammar enhances clarity and professionalism in writing. It is important to maintain awareness of potentially redundant phrasing to make writing more clear and effective. The phrase appears mostly in scientific contexts, and some news media, so opting for a better structure helps give the correct weight to the claim and makes it more authoritative.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

most previous studies

Replaces "earlier" with "previous", offering a more standard and grammatically sound alternative.

majority of earlier studies

Replaces "most" with "majority of", offering a more formal tone while maintaining the meaning.

most prior research

Uses "prior research" instead of "earlier studies", providing a concise and academically suitable alternative.

many past studies

Replaces "most" with "many" and "earlier" with "past", slightly weakening the emphasis but still conveying the general idea.

prior studies indicate

Focuses on the indication from previous studies, altering the structure to emphasize the findings.

previous investigations revealed

Uses "investigations" instead of "studies" and "revealed" to highlight the findings from the past research.

early research suggests

Shifts the focus to what early research suggests, changing the emphasis from a broad overview to a specific implication.

past analyses have shown

Reframes the phrase to focus on what past analyses have demonstrated, altering the sentence structure and emphasis.

a number of earlier studies

Emphasizes that there were 'a number' of earlier studies, instead of 'most'.

the bulk of earlier research

Use 'bulk' in place of 'most', maintaining a similar meaning, that is, the largest part or portion of something.

FAQs

Is it grammatically correct to say "most earlier studies"?

No, the phrase "most earlier studies" is not considered grammatically correct in standard English. It's redundant because "earlier" already implies that the studies were conducted in the past. It's better to use phrases like "most previous studies" or "the majority of earlier studies".

What's wrong with the phrase "most earlier studies"?

The phrase "most earlier studies" is redundant. The word "earlier" already indicates that the studies were conducted in the past, so adding "most" is unnecessary. Using "most previous studies" is more concise and grammatically sound.

What can I say instead of "most earlier studies"?

Alternatives include "most previous studies", "majority of earlier studies", or "most prior research". The best choice depends on the specific context and desired level of formality.

Is "most prior studies" a better alternative than "most earlier studies"?

Yes, "most prior studies" is a better alternative because it avoids the redundancy of "most earlier studies". "Prior" and "previous" are generally preferred over "earlier" in this context because they directly indicate that the studies were conducted before the current one.