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I want to say the following sentence in a succinct way:

"The study conducted in [1] reveals (a new insight into) the role of X, which is contrary to what people thought the role of X was."

For example, I want to convert to something like this:

"The study conducted in [1] reveals a -[completely different from what people thought]- insight about the role of X"

The word controversial does not really work here because the study proves that the role of X is actually Y, not Z (which people used to think). Also, to avoid technical Jargon, I want to avoid saying Y and Z. I appreciate any suggestions!

KRL
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4 Answers4

3

You can try unexpected

Defined by dictionary.com as:

not expected; unforeseen; surprising:
an unexpected pleasure;
an unexpected development.

“The study conducted in [1] reveals an unexpected insight about the role of X"

Jim
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  • The use of emotional or personal language in scientific writing is discouraged by the purists. Hence with expectation you are on tricky ground. One should not perform experiments with the expectation of a particular result, but either to distinguish between various possibilities or to determine some unknown. Of course, writing at length one can explain why a result was unexpected, but used simply as an adjective the reader has no idea why and to what extent the result was unexpected. As for an unexpected insight, that could mean that the scientists did not expect to gain any insight at all. – David Nov 25 '22 at 23:58
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To say the following sentence in a succinct way:

"The study conducted in [1] reveals (a new insight into) the role of X, which is contrary to what people thought the role of X was."

It could be "The study conducted in [1] reveals (a divergent insight into) the role of X."

divergent = outside-of-the-box, unlike, contradictory

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"The study conducted in [1] reveals the unintuitive role of X."

unintuitive is the converse of intuitive:

OED:

intuitive 3.a. Of knowledge or mental perception: That consists in immediate apprehension, without the intervention of any reasoning process.

1704 J. Norris Ess. Ideal World II. iii. 146 Immediate knowledge, or knowledge of the principle, we may call intuitive, because the mind then in one and the same view that it perceives the ideas, perceives also their relations.

Thus unintuitive: That does not consists in immediate apprehension, but that would require the intervention of any reasoning process.

Hence, unexpected.

Greybeard
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1

As is often the case, when you have difficulty finding a word to fit into a pet structure, it is the structure that is wrong. The problem is with insight.

If I do research that provides a new insight into A, I am adding to our current insights — our views or knowledge — of A. If my research overturns previous views of (insights into) A, it negates or invalidates them.

Hence, as a professional scientist, I would suggest that you need to write something like:

The results of the study conducted in [1] completely overturn the currently accepted view of the function of A.

(Although I would try to ensure the referees did not include proponents of the “accepted view”.)

David
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