科技英语写作技巧解读.docx

科技英语写作技巧解读.docx

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科技英语写作技巧解读

TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200EnglishPaperswrittenbyGraduateChineseEngineeringStudents

ByFeliciaBrittman

ThispaperpresentssomeofthemostcommonChinese-EnglishhabitsobservedfromovertwohundredEnglishtechnicalpapersbyChinesewriters.Thehabitsareexplainedandinmostcases,exampletextfromanactualpaperisgivenalongwithpreferredtext.Anattemptismadetoexplainhowtocorrectandpreventsuchmistakes.Insomecasesapossibleexplanationofwhythehabitoccursisalsogiven.ThispapercanserveasanindividualguidetoeditingtechnicalpapersespeciallywhenanativeEnglish-speakingeditorisunavailable.

Introduction

MostChineseuniversitiesrequiretheirdoctoralandmastercandidatesintechnicalandscientificfieldstopublishatleastoneEnglishpaperinaninternationaljournalasadegreerequirement.However,manyfactorsmakethistaskdifficulttoaccomplish.First,previousEnglishstudiesmaynothavefocusedenoughonwriting,letalonetechnicalwriting.CurrentstudiesmaynotincludeEnglish,causingthewritersEnglishfluencyleveltodecline.Second,mostwritershaveneverlivedinanEnglish-speakingcountry.Third,duetothespecialaspectsoftechnicalwriting,evennativeEnglish-speakingengineeringstudentshaveatechnicalwritingcourseaspartoftheirstudy.

Toooften,students’papersarereturnedunacceptedbecauseofpoorEnglish.Ifavailable,studentsmayhavetheirpaperseditedbyanativeEnglishspeaker.However,thiscangetexpensiveforadepartmentthathasmanystudentswitheachpapertypicallyneedingtobeeditedtwice.Hiringsomeonetoeditpapersisdifficult,costlyandonlyputsapatchovertheproblem.AnativeEnglishspeakercandoagoodjobatgettingridofmostofthegrammaticalmistakes.However,ifthispersondoesnothaveatechnicalbackground,particularlyintheareaofthepapersheisediting,heisunabletogetridofallofthemistakesandmakesurethatthemeaningisclear.Hecannotrecognizetheincorrecttranslationoftechnicaltermsforwhichthereisastandardword.Suchmistakeswillnotbepickedupbytheprocessor’sspellingandgrammarchecker.Inaddition,iftheyarenotfamiliarwiththetopicorfield,theymaynotgraspthemeaningoftheentirearticleandfailtomakecriticaledits.

Hiringapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundsimilartothatofthepapersbeingeditedisabetteroption.Nevertheless,whileapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundmaybeabletoeditthepapersufficiently,hemaynotbeabletoexplaintothewriterhowtopreventsuchmistakesinthefuture.Besides,itisdifficultformostChineseuniversitiestohiresuchstaffsimplyforediting.Universitiesmayconsiderinvitingavisitingscholarwhowilleditpapersinadditiontodoingresearchorteachingaspartofanexchange.Althougheditingmaybethefastestwaytopublishpapers,itdoeslittleinthewayofteachingthewritershowtopreventcommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsthatpreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Writerswhohavealreadyobtainedan

impressingcommandoftheEnglishlanguagecanonlytrulybenefitiftheyaremadeawareoftheircommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsandhowtopreventthem.

Purpose

ThepurposeofthisreportistointroducethemostcommonhabitsinChinese-EnglishwritingasnotedfromtheovertwohundredpapersIhaveedited.Thehabitsincludegrammarmistakes,colloquialisms,andformattingproblemsandinmostcasespreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Afewofthehabits,suchaswritingextremelylongsentences,canbecorrectedwithcarefuluseoftheMSWord®grammarandstylechecker.However,mosthabits,suchasmissingarticles,gounnoticedbyautomaticgrammarcheckingdevices.Still,Chinese-Englishcolloquialhabitsarenotrecognizedbysuchsoftwaretools.

Structure

Thecommonhabitsarepresentedintwosections.Thefirstsectionliststhehabitsthat,inmyopinion,needthemostattention.Thesehabitsinterrupttheflowofthepapermakingitdifficulttounderstandandoccurmostfrequently.Inthissection,thehabitsareexplained,examplesentencesfromactualpapersaregiventoshowthehabits,andthesentencesarerewrittentoshowthecorrectwaytowritethem.Inthecaseofmissingarticles,aflowchartisalsogiventoaidinchoosingthecorrectarticles.

Inthesecondsection,anadditionallistofhabitsisgiven.Insomecases,examplesentencesaregiven.Inothercases,adviceisgiven.Thesecondsectionisveryusefulinbecomingfamiliarwithsmallnuances.

NotallofthecommonhabitsIobservedarepresentedmainlybecausetheycanonlybedealtwithonanindividualbasis.Forexample,writershaddifficultytitlingtheirpapersandnamingnewtechnicalideastoexpresstheircontentsandfunctionsconcisely.Thisproblemfrequentlyoccurredbutitcanonlybeaddressedindividually.Oncewritersareawareoftheirhabits,theywouldbeabletowritebettertechnicalEnglisharticles.Section1

“a,an,the”

Thesinglemostcommonhabitistheomissionofarticlesa,an,andthe.ThisoccursbecauseMandarinhasnodirectequivalentofarticlesandtherulesforusingthemaresomewhatcomplicatedforanon-nativespeakers.

Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiersbetweenthearticleandthenounrefertothatnoun（abigbluebicycle/thefirstaward.Aandanareindefinitearticles;theisadefinitearticle.Everytimeasingularnoncountnoun,acommonnounthatnamesonecountableitem,isusedthenounrequiressomekindofdeterminer.

Mistake:

The,a,andanare1omittedwheretheyarerequired,2usedwheretheyarenotneededorcontributetowordiness3usedwronglyinplaceofthecorrectarticle.Examplesofincorrectusages:

IncorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonsurfaceofmainandsplitterblades.15

CorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonthesurfaceofthemainandsplitterblades.15

IncorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobea3Dmodelingtool;itis

goodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

CorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobethe3Dmodelingtool;itisgoodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

Therewasonlyone3Dmodelingtoolusedinthisstudy,therefore‘3Dmodeling

tool’isspecificandrequiresthearticlethe.

IncorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldincentrifugalimpellerwithsplitterbladesandinvestigationoftheinteractions

betweenmainandsplitterbladesispresentedinthispaper.Thevorticesaredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsofflows.Systematicalstudyofnumberanddistributionofvorticesis

conducted.15

CorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldinacentrifugalimpellerwithsplitterbladesandaninvestigationoftheinteractions

betweenmainandsplitterbladesispresentedinthispaper.Thevorticesaredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsofflows.Asystematicalstudyofthenumberanddistributionofvorticesisconducted.15

IncorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresourcescontainedinEOFproducttherebyminimizingimpactonenvironmenttothegreatestextentcomparedtolandfillorrecyclingofmaterials;

consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16

CorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresourcescontainedinanEOFproducttherebyminimizingtheimpactonthe

environmenttothegreatestextentcomparedtolandfillorrecyclingofmaterials;consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16Definitions:

ArticlesAlso

called

determinersornounmarkers,articlesarethewordsa,an,andthe.Aandanareindefinitearticles,andtheisadefinitearticle.Articlessignalthata

nounwillfollowandthatanymodifiersbetweenthearticleandthenounrefertothatnoun.（acold,metalchair/thelightning-fastcomputer.

DeterminersAwordorwordgroup,traditionallyidentifiedasanadjective,thatlimitsanounbytellinghowmuchorhowmanyaboutit.（expressionofquantity,limitingadjective,markerTheytellwhetheranounisgeneral（atreeorspecific（thetree.Theisadefinitearticle.Beforeanoun,theconveysthattheknownreferstoaspecificitem（theplan.Aandanareindefinitearticles.Theyconveythatanounreferstoaniteminanonspecificorgeneralway（aplan.

CommonnounsAnounthatnamesageneralgroup,place,person,orthing:

dog,house.

CountnounAnounthatnamesanitemoritemsthatcanbecounted:

radio,streets,

idea,

fingernails.

NoncountnounsAnounthatnamesathingthatcannotbecounted:

water,time.SpecificnounAnoununderstoodtobeexactlyandspecificallyreferredto;usesthe

definite

article

the.

NonspecificnounAnounthatreferstoanyofanumberofidenticalitems;ittakesthe

indefinite

articles

a,an.

Verylongsentences

VerylongsentencesareespeciallycommoninChinese-EnglishwritingbecausethewritersoftentranslatedirectlyfromChinesetoEnglish.Although,inChinesewritingitisacceptabletoputseveralsupportingideasinonsentencetoshowtheirrelationship,inEnglish,themainideaandeachsupportingideaistypicallywritteninseparatesentences.

Onecanusuallyrecognizeaverylongsentencebyitslength–sixtywordsormore.However,sentencesofsmallerlengthscanalsobetoolongiftheycontainmultiplestatementsthatconfusethemainidea.Longsentencescanbeavoidedbylimitingeachsentencetooneortwotopics.Semicolonsshouldbeusedwherethewriterreallywantstoemphasizetherelationshipbetween