Scientific Literature & Writing - Biology
Word Choice

AVOID	USE
a large number of	several (or many)
a small number of	few
a majority of	most
of importance	important
smaller in size	smaller
has the ability to	can
lacks the ability to	cannot
make changes in	change
give consideration to	consider
utilize	use
it is often the case that	often
as a consequence of	because
as a result of	because
due to the fact that	because
in view of the fact that	because
since*	because
in the interest of	to
in order to	to

*unless related to time (e.g., The focal bird had been observed since 14 May.)

Unnecessary words or phrases

Needless to say
for your information
it goes without saying that
it is important to note that
it is of interest to note that
it appears that
it should be noted that
it stands to reason that
it was demonstrated that
it was found that
the field of, the area of, the idea of, the concept of
very, rather, quite
actually, definitely, completely fortunately, unfortunately
ongoing, upcoming, existing, actual