Editing Openai/695e35ca-c9c0-8003-8b44-8517505d1bda (section)

=== Assistant: Great — here are more academic, precise alternatives for the pairs in your list, with short explanations so you can see… ===
Great — here are more academic, precise alternatives for the pairs in your list, with short explanations so you can see the nuance.

I’ll group them by what they improve: formality, precision, and classification.

==== 1️⃣ Replace big accident ====

Prefer adjectives that quantify scope or impact, not size.

| Informal     | Academic alternatives | Why better                                        |
| ------------ | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| big accident | major accident        | neutral, institutional tone (government, reports) |
|              | serious accident      | emphasizes severity of consequences               |
|              | significant accident  | used in research, implies measurable impact       |
|              | large-scale accident  | emphasizes number of people/extent                |

: Example:
: A major accident occurred at the site.

==== 2️⃣ Replace terrible accident ====

Avoid emotional evaluation; describe outcome objectively.

| Informal          | Academic alternatives | Why better                        |
| ----------------- | --------------------- | --------------------------------- |
| terrible accident | fatal accident        | specifies death                   |
|                   | severe accident       | focuses on degree of harm         |
|                   | catastrophic accident | system-level failure, very formal |
|                   | high-impact accident  | policy/engineering tone           |

: Example:
: The study examined factors associated with severe accidents.

==== 3️⃣ Replace spectacular accident ====

This sounds journalistic or sensational.

| Informal             | Academic alternatives      | Why better                     |
| -------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------ |
| spectacular accident | high-profile accident      | widely reported                |
|                      | visually dramatic accident | descriptive, but still neutral |
|                      | catastrophic accident      | when consequences were extreme |

: Example:
: The incident became a high-profile accident due to media attention.

==== 4️⃣ Keep — already formal / technical ====

These are already suitable for academic writing:

| Expression             | Notes                                             |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| drug-related accident  | standard in health/criminal justice               |
| nuclear-plant accident | technical, though nuclear accident is more common |
| unreported accident    | administrative/legal tone                         |
| underwater accident    | fine in marine/aviation/diving studies            |
| typical accident       | acceptable when referring to types or patterns    |
| occasional accident    | ok when talking about frequency distributions     |

: Slight improvement:
: 
: nuclear accident (more general, more frequent)
: 
: unreported incidents/accidents (when multiple)

==== 5️⃣ Borderline / dated ====

| Expression      | Academic suggestion     |
| --------------- | ----------------------- |
| atomic accident | Prefer nuclear accident |

“Atomic accident” sounds historical (Cold War era).

==== Quick rule-of-thumb for academic style ====

When you see an adjective like:

: big, terrible, spectacular, crazy, awful…

ask:

: “Does this describe impact or classification, or just emotion?”

If it expresses emotion → replace with something measurable:
* severity → severe, major, catastrophic
* outcome → fatal, non-fatal
* scope → large-scale, widespread
* reporting status → reported, unreported
* profile → high-profile

===== If you’d like, I can next: =====

✔ rewrite your sample lines into academic style
✔ generate discipline-specific options (engineering vs. medical vs. legal)
✔ automatically replace informal collocations across your corpus

Just tell me 👍