English for sci and tech supp

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL English for Science & Technology PAI H CHOU Foreword on such topics This book is for those who don’t have the time to study those books but need a quick check-list to catch most of the common issues Grammar is largely objective, but style is more subjective and potentially debatable I ask my own students to follow the style guidelines that I either have learned from classic books or have developed on my own I think they are pretty good, but if you know a better way to express something, feel free to so This book started out as a web page that I put together for my own graduate students in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering I did not want to keep repeating myself over the same kinds of issues I saw when editing papers or theses written by my students So, I put together a quick bulleted list of common mistakes I saw, and I asked them to read my web page and fix those problems before I start editing their work This turned out to be very useful that I decided to format it as an electronic book It forces me to double-check what I wrote and add what might be missing Another aspect rarely covered by conventional books is the use of collaborative and formatting tools More specifically, I ask my students to write their papers in LaTeX for several reasons It formats the paper in a professional look, especially when it comes to math, whereas most word processors look more amateurish Bibliography support is also indispensable LaTeX also works well with a version control system such as SVN (Subversion), CVS (Concurrent Versioning System), or GIT This becomes especially useful when you work on the same paper with multiple students or other colleagues Of course, the tool part is entirely optional In this book, I give correct and incorrect examples Incorrect ones are preceded by an asterisk (*) This book covers common issues in grammar, style, and tools, but it is by no means complete or comprehensive If you really want to be a good writer, I trust that you will take your time to learn from much better sources, including many classic books i C HAPTER Practice Practice makes perfect The best way to improve your writing is to develop a habit of keeping a daily journal Keep a Daily Journal The best way to practice writing is to develop the habit of writing a daily journal, for ten minutes a day That is, just keep typing sentences non-stop into a computer It really doesn’t matter what you write, as long as you just a “brain dump.” If you don’t know what to write, just type “I don’t know what to write.” Thoughts are not concrete until you put them into words So, this exercise helps you turn thoughts into a more concrete form that you can then manipulate, organize, and reason with You might want to brainstorm from time to time, too, but you should your daily journal anyway You will probably never look at your journals ever again, but it is not a bad idea to keep them anyway Read Broadly Another way to improve your writing is to read anything that interests you and read broadly You will get exposed to different writing styles Although some are definitely good sources of style to follow, not all are, but you read them anyway, because you are likely to learn new ways to express a given idea in simpler terms or with accessible analogies C HAPTER Grammar Know your grammar Buy a book on grammar and study it if you are not sure This chapter covers the common mistakes seen in not only student writing but in published papers as well S ECTION Singular vs Plural aircraft, faculty, deer, sheep, moose, fish, salmon, trout, shrimp, species In the case of fish, you could actually have the -s form but that would refer to multiple species “ LESS ” VS “ FEWER ” “less” is for mass nouns, while “fewer” is for count nouns K NOW YOUR MASS NOUNS VS COUNT NOUNS “ EACH ”, “ EVERY ”, “ ANY ” A mass noun is one that cannot be counted (and therefore cannot have a plural form) Examples include These words should modify singular nouns, not plurals equipment, hardware, software, middleware , information, knowledge, paperwork, research, furniture A count noun is one that can have a plural form Examples include It is a mistake to say *“every computers” (plural) It should be singular It is more common to see “any” used with plural words It may be almost acceptable in some cases, but strictly speaking, you really should use the singular form approach(es), impact(s), clothes Some count nouns not take s in their plural form but may appear identical in both singular and plural forms For instance S ECTION Run-on Sentences verbs, not conjunctions, and therefore cannot connect two complete sentences! For example, it is correct to say I was hungry, so I ate my apple but it is incorrect to say *I was hungry, thus I ate my apple.
 A run-on sentence is one where several complete sentences are simply stuck together either without punctuation or with a comma In English, run-on sentences is considered a serious offense, even though in other languages it is common practice (e.g., Chinese) due to lack of strict grammar rules Run-on sentences are further divided into several types Some can be fixed easily by replacing a comma (,) with a period (.) or a semicolon (;) Others require inserting words such as “that”, “which”, “where”, to convert one of the sentences into a clause that modifies the other sentence *I was hungry, therefore I ate my apple Both are run-on sentences You can fix these sentences by • replacing the comma with a semicolon, • with a period and starting a new sentence, or • inserting an “and” after the comma “ THUS ”, “ THEREFORE ” VS “ SO ” The words “thus” and “therefore” are similar to “so” in meaning but they are not interchangeable The word “so” can be used [as a conjunction] to connect two complete sentences as cause and effect However, “thus” and “therefore” are ad6 S ECTION Articles “ A ”/ “ AN ” VS “ ANY ” VS “ ONE ” They are synonymous, but “one” emphasizes the fact there is one A N ARTICLE IS REQUIRED IN FRONT OF A SINGULAR COUNT NOUN This is possibly the most common mistake of some Asian nonnative speakers of English An article is a grammatical word that indicates whether a noun refers to something general or specific That is, “the” is called a definite article, which means the noun that follows refers to specific ones that either the speaker has in mind or to certain ones in relation to other nouns being mentioned “a”/“an” are called indefinite articles, which means the noun that follows is a generic one One can almost think of it as “any” or “one” D EFINITE VS I NDEFINITE A RTICLE They mean different things, even though the difference may be quite subtle [to do] Exception: any, every, each A MASS NOUN CAN TAKE A DEFINITE ARTICLE OR NO ARTICLE Just because a noun is not countable does not mean you cannot refer to it For example I drink water.
 I drink the water The former refers to the fact that I drink water as one of the things that I do, without specifying specific source; the latter refers to specific kind or source of water T HE CHOICE OF “ A ” VS “ AN ” IS DETERMINED BY PRONUNCIATION , NOT SPELLING As a specific example, it is “a” university, not “an” university, because the “u” in university is pronounced like /yu/, even though the letter “u” is often considered one of the five vowels Some speakers may have trouble hearing the /y/ sound It is actually a consonant, even though it sounds very much like the vowel Specifically, it is a year
 an ear The word “year” starts with the /y/ consonant that requires you to tense up the part behind your upper teeth initially On the other hand, the word “ear” does not have the /y/ consonant but simply has the tongue and mouth in the rather unstressed, neutral position as the letter E (no initial tensing behind the teeth) C ERTAIN WORDS CAN BE PLURAL EVEN IF THEY DON ’ T APPEAR PLURAL Example: faculty, deer, cattle (actually it is a plural noun) S ECTION Compound Modifiers The reason for hyphenation is to help parsing Without hyphenation, one could actually group the nouns differently and end up with a different parse syntactically, even though semantically one may be able to rule out another parse For instance low power consumption
 low energy efficiency A modifier is a word, compound word, or a phrase that serves as an adjective to a noun A compound modifier is a modifier that consists of a compound word H YPHENATE A COMPOUND WORD IF YOU WANT TO USE IT AS AN ADJECTIVE ON ANOTHER NOUN For example They are not hyphenated, because both “power consumption” and “energy efficiency” are compound words, and you want “low” to modify the compound words This is in contrast to “low-power radio”, where “low-power” modifies “radio.” However, if hypothetically speaking “power radio” could be a compound word, then “low power radio” would be parsed the same way as “low power consumption.” D O NOT HYPHENATE AN ADVERB - ADJECTIVE SEQUENCE TO TURN IT INTO AN ADJECTIVE For example, the following are incorrect: a news-worthy article
 a host-assisted parser
 *It is an extremely-hot day.
 a one-week vacation
 *That is an incredibly-tasty cake a two-year-old boy
 a low-power radio
 high-quality furniture No hyphens are needed because the adverb is already playing its normal role of modifying the adjective Conjunction a conjunction is a grammatical word that joins together multiple words or sentences Conjunctions are divided into coordinating conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions Related Glossary Terms Coordinating conjunction, Subordinate conjunction Index Find Term Chapter - Run-on Sentences Contradictory Premises a logical fallacy where the premises of an argument contradict each other, rendering the argument pointless Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Coordinating conjunction A coordinating conjunction connects words of the same parts of speech, clauses, or complete sentences together They are and, or, but, yet, for, so, nor Related Glossary Terms Conjunction, Subordinate conjunction Index Find Term Chapter - Conjunctions Count noun a count noun is one that is countable, i.e., can have singular and plural forms Examples include car(s), computer(s), technique(s), idea(s), book(s) Related Glossary Terms Mass noun Index Find Term Chapter - Singular vs Plural Dicto Simpliciter A logical fallacy where an argument is based on an unqualified generalization For example: Exercise is good Therefore everybody should exercise Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies False Analogy a logical fallacy where the argument is based on a flawed analogy to a widely accepted fact For example, “students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during examinations After all, surgeons have X-rays to guide them during an operation, ” Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Hasty Generalization a logical fallacy where the generalization is reached too hastily There are too few instances to support such a conclusion Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Hypothesis Contrary to Fact a logical fallacy that is based on a hypothesis that is not true and tries to draw supportable conclusions from it Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Mass noun a mass noun is one that cannot be counted For example, water, equipment, software, hardware, furniture, knowledge, information Related Glossary Terms Count noun Index Find Term Chapter - Singular vs Plural Oxford comma the Oxford comma is one that goes before the last coordinating conjunction when you have three or more items in a list For example, in the list “apples, oranges, and bananas”, the comma after “oranges” and before “and” is the Oxford comma It is a good idea to put in the Oxford comma, even though some people think it is optional and unnecessary It turns out to be useful in eliminating an ambiguous parse in some special cases Do not use the Oxford comma when you have just two items Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter - Oxford Comma Poisoning the Well a logical fallacy based on discrediting a person by presenting unfavorable statements about the person, including name-calling, labeling, outright attacks, or any distorted facts taken out of context An example is “Don’t listen to him he is a liar!” Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Post Hoc a logical fallacy where a causal relationship has erroneously been assumed from a merely sequential one Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter 10 - Logic and Fallacies Run-on sentence a run-on sentence is one where multiple complete sentences are improperly joined as one grammatically incorrect sentence An example is “I came here, I could not find you.” A common way to fix this sentence is to insert a coordinating conjunction, such as a “but” after the comma In other cases, one can insert a subordinate conjunction such as “which” or “that” to turn one sentence into a clause that modifies the other sentence Related Glossary Terms Drag related terms here Index Find Term Chapter - Run-on Sentences Subordinate conjunction marks a word, a clause, or a sentences as a subordinate in relation to the other They include after, although, as, because, before, even if, even though, if, in order that, once, provided that, rather than, since, so that, than, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether, while, why Related Glossary Terms Conjunction, Coordinating conjunction Index Find Term Chapter - Conjunctions Superlative a form of an adjective that expresses the most (or the least) degree of a quality An example is “best” (or “worst”) vs “good” Related Glossary Terms Absolute adjective, Comparative Index Find Term Chapter - Comparative and Superlative