# A Well-Thought Out Englilsh Paper, by The Yellow Dart

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 24, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389 "2009-09-24T17:00:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389/1 "2009-09-24T17:00:17Z")

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In case anyone is wondering, the thread title is in reference to [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7TrEPstkLg).

[SCIgen](http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/) is my new favorite thing in the whole wide world. It’s not new, but I hadn’t heard of it until today when I read about it in [Tuesday Morning Quarterback](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=4492589&type=Story&imagesPrint=off).

It’s a program that generates scientific-sounding papers more or less at random (though using correct grammar and so on), including hilarious but almost plausible graphs and charts and footnotes. Easiest way to make your citations sound like actual scientific papers is, apparently, to liberally sprinkle in Asian names. 😃

Best part? A SCIgen paper got [accepted for publication](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17288-spoof-paper-accepted-by-peerreviewed-journal.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news) in a (supposedly) peer-reviewed journal despite being complete and utter gobbledygook.

Go ahead, give it a try.

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389/2 "2009-09-24T17:44:52Z")

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I could have had grad school done in just a few hours if I had that back then. Very cool.

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**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389/3 "2009-09-24T18:03:40Z")

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Um, did you spell check your thread title? 😃

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-well-thought-out-englilsh-paper-by-the-yellow-dart/511389/4 "2009-09-25T20:03:25Z")

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> [@Rebo](#):
>
> Um, did you spell check your thread title? 😃

Yep. See linked video.