科技英语写作-中国人英语写作错误举例.doc

科技英语写作-中国人英语写作错误举例.doc

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TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200EnglishPaperswrittenby

GraduateChineseEngineeringStudents

（中国研究生英文论文写作常见错误分析）

ByFeliciaBrittman（上海交大外籍教师）

ThispaperpresentssomeofthemostcommonChinese-Englishhabitsobserved

fromovertwohundredEnglishtechnicalpapersbyChinesewriters.Thehabitsare

explainedandinmostcases,exampletextfromanactualpaperisgivenalongwith

preferredtext.Anattemptismadetoexplainhowtocorrectandpreventsuchmistakes.

Insomecasesapossibleexplanationofwhythehabitoccursisalsogiven.Thispaper

canserveasanindividualguidetoeditingtechnicalpapersespeciallywhenanative

English-speakingeditorisunavailable.

Introduction

MostChineseuniversitiesrequiretheirdoctoralandmastercandidatesin

technicalandscientificfieldstopublishatleastoneEnglishpaperinaninternational

journalasadegreerequirement.However,manyfactorsmakethistaskdifficultto

accomplish.First,previousEnglishstudiesmaynothavefocusedenoughonwriting,let

alone（更不用说，遑论）technicalwriting.CurrentstudiesmaynotincludeEnglish,causingthewriter’sEnglishfluencyleveltodecline.Second,mostwritershaveneverlivedinanEnglishspeakingcountry.Third,duetothespecialaspectsoftechnicalwriting,evennativeEnglish-speakingengineeringstudentshaveatechnicalwritingcourseaspartoftheirstudy.

Toooften,students’papersarereturnedunaccepted（未被接受的，副词）becauseofpoorEnglish.Ifavailable,studentsmayhavetheirpaperseditedbyanativeEnglishspeaker.However,thiscangetexpensiveforadepartmentthathasmanystudentswitheachpapertypicallyneedingtobeeditedtwice.Hiringsomeonetoeditpapersisdifficult,costlyandonlyputsapatch（小弥补）overtheproblem.AnativeEnglishspeakercandoagoodjobatgettingridof（摆脱）mostofthegrammaticalmistakes.However,ifthispersondoesnothaveatechnicalbackground,particularlyintheareaofthepapersheisediting,heisunabletogetridofallofthemistakesandmakesurethatthemeaningisclear.Hecannotrecognizetheincorrecttranslationoftechnicaltermsforwhichthereisastandardword.Suchmistakeswillnotbepickedupbytheprocessor’sspellingandgrammarchecker.Inaddition,iftheyarenotfamiliarwiththetopicorfield,theymaynotgraspthemeaningoftheentirearticleandfailtomakecriticaledits.

Hiringapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundsimilartothatofthepapersbeingeditedisabetteroption.Nevertheless,whileapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundmaybeabletoeditthepapersufficiently,hemaynotbeabletoexplaintothewriterhowtopreventsuchmistakesinthefuture.Besides,itisdifficultformostChineseuniversitiestohiresuchstaffsimplyforediting.Universitiesmayconsiderinvitingavisitingscholarwhowilleditpapersinadditiontodoingresearchorteachingaspartofanexchange.

Althougheditingmaybethefastestwaytopublishpapers,itdoeslittleinthewayofteachingthewritershowtopreventcommonmistakesandcolloquial（口语，会话）habitsthatpreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Writerswhohavealreadyobtainedanimpressingcommand（很好的掌握）oftheEnglishlanguagecanonlytrulybenefitiftheyaremadeawareof（使，被弄清楚，懂得）），theircommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsandhowtopreventthem.

Purpose

ThepurposeofthisreportistointroducethemostcommonhabitsinChinese-

EnglishwritingasnotedfromtheovertwohundredpapersIhaveedited.Thehabits

includegrammarmistakes,colloquialisms（口语，白话）,andformattingproblemsandinmostcasespreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Afewofthehabits,suchaswritingextremelylongsentences,canbecorrectedwithcarefuluseoftheMSWord®grammarandstylechecker.However,mosthabits,suchasmissingarticles,gounnoticedby（未被察觉）automaticgrammarcheckingdevices.Still,Chinese-Englishcolloquialhabitsarenotrecognizedbysuchsoftwaretools.

Structure

Thecommonhabitsarepresentedintwosections.Thefirstsectionliststhehabits

that,inmyopinion,needthemostattention.Thesehabitsinterrupttheflowofthepaper

makingitdifficulttounderstandandoccurmostfrequently.Inthissection,thehabitsare

explained,examplesentencesfromactualpapersaregiventoshowthehabits,andthe

sentencesarerewrittentoshowthecorrectwaytowritethem.Inthecaseofmissing

articles,aflowchartisalsogiventoaidinchoosingthecorrectarticles.

Inthesecondsection,anadditionallistofhabitsisgiven.Insomecases,example

sentencesaregiven.Inothercases,adviceisgiven.Thesecondsectionisveryusefulin

becomingfamiliarwithsmallnuances（微妙之处）.

NotallofthecommonhabitsIobservedarepresentedmainlybecausetheycanonlybedealtwithonanindividualbasis.Forexample,writershaddifficultytitling（为文章写标题）theirpapersandnamingnewtechnicalideastoexpresstheircontentsandfunctionsconcisely.

Thisproblemfrequentlyoccurredbutitcanonlybeaddressedindividually.Oncewriters

areawareoftheirhabits,theywouldbeabletowritebettertechnicalEnglisharticles.

Section1冠词的使用错误

“a,an,the”

Thesinglemostcommonhabitistheomissionofarticlesa,an,andthe.This

occursbecauseMandarinhasnodirectequivalentofarticlesandtherulesforusingthem

aresomewhatcomplicatedforanon-nativespeakers.

Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiersbetweenthearticle

andtheSection1

“a,an,the”

Thesinglemostcommonhabitistheomissionofarticlesa,an,andthe.！

ThisoccursbecauseMandarinhasnodirectequivalentofarticlesandtherulesforusingthemaresomewhatcomplicatedforanon-nativeEnglishspeaker.

Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiers（修饰词语）betweenthearticleandthenounreferto（提及，涉及，指，表示）thatnoun（abigbluebicycle/thefirstaward）.

Aandanareindefinitearticles;theisadefinitearticle（定冠词）.Everytimeasingularnoncountable（uncountable）nounoracommonnounthatnamesonecountableitemisused,thenounrequiressomekindofdeterminer（限定词）.

Mistake:

The,a,andanare1）omittedwheretheyarerequired,2）usedwherethey

arenotneededorcontributetowordiness3）usedwronglyinplaceofthecorrectarticle.

Examplesofincorrectusages:

IncorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonsurfaceofmain（主叶片）

andsplitterblades（分流叶片）

CorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonthesurface（？

）ofthe

mainandsplitterblades.

IncorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobea3Dmodelingtool;itis

goodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

CorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobethe3Dmodelingtool;itis

goodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

Therewasonlyone3Dmodelingtoolusedinthisstudy,therefore‘3Dmodeling

tool’isspecificandrequiresthearticlethe.

IncorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldincentrifugal

Impeller（离心式推进器）withsplitterbladesand（遗漏了一些内容）oftheinteractions

betweenmainandsplitterbladesispresentedinthispaper.Thevortices（涡旋）

aredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsof

flows.Systematicalstudyofnumberanddistributionofvorticesis

conducted.15

CorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldinacentrifugal

impellerwithsplitterbladesandaninvestigationoftheinteractions

betweenmainandsplitterbladesis（两个主语？

））presentedinthispaper.Thevortices

aredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsof

flows.Asystematicalstudyofthenumberanddistributionofvorticesis

conducted.15

IncorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresources

containedinEOFproducttherebyminimizingimpactonenvironmentto

thegreatestextentcomparedtolandfillorrecyclingofmaterials;

consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16

CorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresources

containedinanEOF（L？

）producttherebyminimizingtheimpactonthe

environmenttothegreatestextentcomparedto（with）landfill（垃圾填埋）orrecycling（回收利用）ofmaterials;consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16

Definitions:

Articles：

Alsocalleddeterminersornounmarkers（名词标记）,articlesarethewordsa,an,andthe.

Aandanareindefinitearticles（不定冠词）,andtheisadefinitearticle（定冠词）.

Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiers（修饰词语）betweenthearticleandthenounrefertothatnoun.（acold,metalchair/thelightning-fastcomputer）.

Determiners：

Awordorwordgroup,traditionallyidentifiedasanadjective,thatlimitsa

nounbytellinghowmuchorhowmanyaboutit.（expressionofquantity,limiting

adjective,marker）Theytellwhetheranounisgeneral（atree）orspecific（thetree）.The

isadefinitearticle.Beforeanoun,theconveys（表达）thattheknownreferstoaspecificitem（theplan）.Aandanareindefinitearticles.Theyconveythatanounreferstoaniteminanonspecificorgeneralway（aplan）.

Commonnouns（普通名词）Anounthatnamesageneralgroup,place,person,orthing:

dog,house.

Countnoun（可数名词）Anounthatnamesanitemoritemsthatcanbecounted:

radio,

streets,idea,fingernails.

Noncount（uncountable？

）nounsAnounthatnamesathingthatcannotbecounted:

water,time.

Specificnoun（专有名词）Anoununderstoodtobeexactlyandspecificallyreferredto;usesthedefinitearticlethe.

Nonspecificnoun（非专有名词）Anounthatreferstoanyofanumberof（？

）identicalitems;ittakestheindefinitearticlesa,an.

LongSentence

VerylongsentencesareespeciallycommoninChinese-Englishwritingbeca