TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200English.docx

TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200English.docx

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TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200English

TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200EnglishPaperswrittenbyGraduateChineseEngineeringStudents

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

Introduction

MostChineseuniversitiesrequiretheirdoctoralandmastercandidatesintechnicalandscientificfieldstopublishatleastoneEnglishpaperinaninternationaljournalasadegreerequirement.However,manyfactorsmakethistaskdifficulttoaccomplish.First,previousEnglishstudiesmaynothavefocusedenoughonwriting,letalonetechnicalwriting.CurrentstudiesmaynotincludeEnglish,causingthewritersEnglishfluencyleveltodecline.Second,mostwritershaveneverlivedinanEnglishspeakingcountry.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.WriterswhohavealreadyobtainedanimpressingcommandoftheEnglishlanguagecanonlytrulybenefitiftheyaremadeawareoftheircommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsandhowtopreventthem.

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,andanare1）omittedwheretheyarerequired,2）usedwheretheyarenotneededorcontributetowordiness3）usedwronglyinplaceofthecorrectarticle.

Examplesofincorrectusages:

IncorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonsurfaceofmainandsplitterblades.15

CorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativevelocityonthesurfaceofthemainandsplitterblades.15

IncorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobea3Dmodelingtool;itisgoodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

CorrectThesoftwarePowerSHAPEischosentobethe3Dmodelingtool;itisgoodatdealingwithfreesurfacesandcurves.4

Therewasonlyone3Dmodelingtoolusedinthisstudy,therefore‘3Dmodeling

tool’isspecificandrequiresthearticlethe.

IncorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldincentrifugalimpellerwithsplitterbladesandinvestigationoftheinteractionsbetweenmainandsplitterbladesispresentedinthispaper.Thevorticesaredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsofflows.Systematicalstudyofnumberanddistributionofvorticesisconducted.15

CorrectAtheoreticalmethodforcalculatingtheinnerflow-fieldinacentrifugalimpellerwithsplitterbladesandaninvestigationoftheinteractionsbetweenmainandsplitterbladesispresentedinthispaper.Thevorticesaredistributedonthemainandsplitterbladestosimulatetheeffectsofflows.Asystematicalstudyofthenumberanddistributionofvorticesisconducted.15

IncorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresourcescontainedinEOFproducttherebyminimizingimpactonenvironmenttothegreatestextentcomparedtolandfillorrecyclingofmaterials;consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16

CorrectTheoretically,remanufacturingcouldfullytakeadvantageofresourcescontainedinanEOFproducttherebyminimizingtheimpactontheenvironmenttothegreatestextentcomparedtolandfillorrecyclingofmaterials;consequentlyitcontributesgreatlytoresourceconservation.16

Definitions:

ArticlesAlsocalleddeterminersornounmarkers,articlesarethewordsa,an,andthe.Aandanareindefinitearticles,andtheisadefinitearticle.Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiersbetweenthearticleandthenounrefertothatnoun.（acold,metalchair/thelightning-fastcomputer）.

DeterminersAwordorwordgroup,traditionallyidentifiedasanadjective,thatlimitsanounbytellinghowmuchorhowmanyaboutit.（expressionofquantity,limitingadjective,marker）Theytellwhetheranounisgeneral（atree）orspecific（thetree）.Theisadefinitearticle.Beforeanoun,theconveysthattheknownreferstoaspecificitem（theplan）.Aandanareindefinitearticles.Theyconveythatanounreferstoaniteminanonspecificorgeneralway（aplan）.

CommonnounsAnounthatnamesageneralgroup,place,person,orthing:

dog,

house.

CountnounAnounthatnamesanitemoritemsthatcanbecounted:

radio,streets,idea,fingernails.

NoncountnounsAnounthatnamesathingthatcannotbecounted:

water,time.SpecificnounAnoununderstoodtobeexactlyandspecificallyreferredto;usesthedefinitearticlethe.

NonspecificnounAnounthatreferstoanyofanumberofidenticalitems;ittakestheindefinitearticlesa,an.

Verylongsentences

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

Onecanusuallyrecognizeaverylongsentencebyitslength–sixtywordsormore.However,sentencesofsmallerlengthscanalsobetoolongiftheycontainmultiplestatementsthatconfusethemainidea.Longsentencescanbeavoidedbylimitingeachsentencetooneortwotopics.Semicolonsshouldbeusedwherethewriterreallywantstoemphasizetherelationshipbetw