英语论文写作技巧-2

英语论文写作技巧-2

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参考文献
http://muchong.com/html/200906/1393920.html

修饰词与被修饰词要临近

• 科技写作要求严谨，明确.为了严格定义一个事物,往往要加上限制性的修饰词或短句.比如描写实验用的 mice 时，一般不会只说 mice ，而是用类似“NCI-H23 tumor bearing female athymic nude mice” 的描述 .前面有5个修饰词来定义研究用的mice 这时一般把最窄的定义写在最前面，最广的定义写在后面.修饰语要靠近同被修饰的对象 .因修饰语和被修饰的词被隔开，而造成意思混乱的情况很多 .下面是一些例子.
  • Inhibition of Acid B on xanthine oxidase was also reported.
    还报道了酸性黄嘌呤氧化酶的抑制。
    Inhibition of 后面应紧跟 xanthine oxidase , 而不是 Acid B, 隔开后句子就很难读 .
    宜改为： Inhibition of xanthine oxidase by Acid B was also reported.
    还报道了酸B对黄嘌呤氧化酶的抑制作用
  • The chelating activities for ferrous ion of the Acid B were assessed.
    评估了酸B的亚铁离子的螯合活性
    The chelating activities 后面应紧跟 Acid B , 而不是 ferrous ion.
    宜改为： The chelating activities of the Acid B for ferrous ion were assessed.
    评估了酸B对亚铁离子的螯合活性
  • Reducing power represents the electron donating capacity, which may serve as a significant indicator of potential antioxidant activity.
    降低功率代表给电子能力，这可以作为潜在抗氧化活性的重要指标。
    用 which 开头的修饰句 , 是要修饰 reducing power , 而不是修饰 electron donating capacity , 所以要紧跟在 reducing power 后面 .
    宜改为： Reducing power, which may serve as a significant indicator of potential antioxidant activity, represents the electron donating capacity. 或 : Reducing power represents the electron donating capacity. It may serve as a significant indicator of potential antioxidant activity.

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主语和谓语在句子中的位置要靠近

• 要使句子的可读性强,有两个因素特别需要注意.
  一是句子的长短要合适. 研究表明一个句子中有 13-20个字时最合适阅读.太短的句子有零碎的感觉，而太长的句子读起来有困难.
  二是主语和谓语动词要靠近.如果被隔开太远，就会有被隔离的感觉 ,句子读起来就会比较困难，虽然从语法上来讲是可行的.这主要同人类大脑处理文字信息的过程和方式有关.当人们读到主语时,自然而然地期望知道主语后面的行动,也就是结果.在行动(谓语)出现之前,读者需要记住主语是什么,同时又要阅读和理解下面的文字读起来很累.就像要屏住呼吸等待要发生的事情,只有当谓语出现,知道了主题的行动后,才能呼出这口气.时间长了自然不舒服.
  • Lincomycin , one of the lincosamide antimicrobial agents which was first isolated more than fifty years ago , is used as a major antibiotic for the treatment of diseases caused by most Gram-positive bacteria.
  • 宜改为： Lincomycin is one of the lincosamide antimicrobial agents which were first isolated more than fifty years ago. It is used as a major antibiotic for the treatment of diseases caused by most Gram-positive bacteria.

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名词作形容词

• 科技写作中经常会用名词来作为形容词使用，如 room temperature, university researchers.
  当用一个名词来修饰另一个名词时，意义一般都很清楚 . 但当三个名词放在一起，或两个名词前再加一个形容词时，就要小心.有的情况下,3个或3个以上的名词放在一起,表达的意思很清楚， 也是一种很简洁的表达方式. 如 : blood white cell number, prostate cancer patient, Beijing University medical school student.
  但有时会有多种讲法.Top university researchers可以是 researchers of (only) top university也可以是 (all) university researchers who are top.多个名词排在一起,即使表达明确，也给拥挤的感觉.应避免使用多个名词的修饰方式.最好的办法是用介词或其它方式来把他们分开,以便清楚表达它们的修饰关系.多个名词罗列的情况经常发生，下面多举一些例子.
  • He wrote the quality control group reports.
    宜改为： He wrote the reports of the quality control group.
  • The patient showed chronic liver disease symptoms.
    宜改为： The patient showed symptoms of chronic liver disease.
  • The human brain oxygen level is quite high.
    宜改为： The oxygen level in human brain is quite high.
  • Their specific inhibition producing effects on fat containing food intake were assessed.
    宜改为： Their specific effects of inhibition on the intake of fat containing food were assessed.
  • The present investigation evaluated various specific drug sample combinations.
    宜改为： The present investigation evaluated various combinations of specific drug samples

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句子的时态(有待考证)

• 科技论文中基本上只用现在时和过去时两种时态.有的作者偶尔会使用完成时.完成时一般只用于多次并一直在研究的情况.其他的时态用得很少.论文中的时态有它特定的意义.时态用来表明科研成果的认知程度
• 当描述已发表的文献成果时,用现在时,因为已发表的成果被承认是事实.描述未发表的实验和结果时,用过去时，因为还没有得到承认,并且是写论文以前做的事情.由于科技论文中的时态的特定用法，写作中经常需要转换时态.一句话中都可能用两个时态.总起来说，Abstract中要讲述自己的实验和结论,要用过去时.Introduction中要总结文献和问题 , 以现在时为主,也用一些过去时.Methods 和 Results 都是讲自己的实验和结果,用过去时.而 Discussion中则需要根据描述文献还是自己的实验，需要交换使用现在时和过去时 .
• 在引述文献结果时，过去发表的结论可以认为是已经被承认的事实，应该用现在时.但引述过去的实验时,特别是以作者为主语时,因是过去做的事情，应该用过去时.
  • Wang showed that the rate of growth is dependent on temperature.
    Smith studied the growth rate and reported that it is dependent on temperature.
• 若作者不是主语 , 而作者的研究是主语时，用现在时.
  • Investigation by Wang shows that the rate of growth is dependent on temperature.
• 当描述自己的实验和实验结果时，应用过去时.因为是在写文章以前做的事情,并且还没被接受为事实(发表).
  • We measured its plasma concentration and found that it was two times higher in obesity patients than in normal population.
• 讲述 table 或 figure 中显示的结果时,可以用现在时.
  • Table 4 shows that growth was dependent on temperature.
• 计算的结果和统计分析结果应该用现在时.
  • The calculated value is significantly lower indicating most of the dissolved compound was degraded.

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主动句和被动句

• 许多人认为科技论文都应该用被动句，不要加入个性的成分. 现在越来越多的杂志提倡使用主动句 , 因为主动句更简洁和明确. 把 “ it is reported by the authors of this paper that” 改为 “We reported that” 就显得更简要和直接 . 下面是个例子 :
  In 2002 we reported the synthesis of anthramycin analogues and their DNA binding activities studied by gel electrophoresis.
  但实验部分还是主要使用被动句. 用 “The drug concentration was measured by HPLC” 而一般不用 “ We measured the drug concentration by HPLC”.

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标点符号的使用

• 英文科技论文写作中经常使用的标点符号有逗号，句号和分号.冒号和问号使用的情况很少，而惊叹号几乎就不会被使用.现在分号使用的也逐渐减少,一般用句号取代.一篇论文中只是使用逗号和句号也是正常的.句号的使用比较明确,下面主要对逗号的使用作一些说明.逗号虽然很小，但要表达清楚你要传达的信息却离不开它.比如下面的例子，没有逗号时句子不好读.加逗号后,逗号放在不同的地方,意思完全不同 .
  • Although it was incubated at 50 o C for 24 hours no reaction occurred.
  • Although it was incubated at 50 o C for 24 hours, no reaction occurred.
  • Although it was incubated at 50 o C, for 24 hours no reaction occurred.
• 逗号是用来分开两个独立的句子，下面的句子是可以的 .
  • Ethanol is used to replace gasoline, and it is produced from corn.
• 下面的句子就不合适 , 因为逗号后面不是一个完整的句子 .
  • Ethanol is used to replace gasoline, and is produced from corn.
• 当一个长的语句出现在句子的前面时，要用逗号分开.若语句不长，不需要停顿，也可以不用逗号 .
  • During the process of solvent removal, some crystalline solid was formed.
  • During the process precipitate was formed.

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数字的写法

• 科技论文离不开数字.数字的一种写法是用英文字，如 three, thirteen. 另一种是写阿拉伯数字.具体用哪种写法可参照以下几个简单的规则.

少于10的整数用英文字，大于或等于10的数字用阿拉伯数字

thee experiments
one assay
23 birds
6,500 miles

有小数点和单位的数字用阿拉伯数字

1.2 hours
5 percent
3 am
Page 3

在句子开头的数字用英文字

• 英语的一个句子的开始是用大写字母来表明的.如果是一个数字,那就不能起到表示一个句子开始的作用.所以不能用数字开始一个句子.这时要把数字用英文字写出,或最好能修改句子不用数字开头.一个经常被使用的办法是把表示数量的数字放到括号中去.
• 10 ml ethanol was added.(不推荐)
• Ten ml ethanol was added.
• Ethanol (10 ml) was added.
• 30 eggs were used daily during the study.
  宜改为： During the study, 30 eggs were used daily.

当两个数字前后并列出现时 , 一个要用英文，另一个使用数字表示，当两个数字前后并列出现时， 若都写成数字或文字， 容易产生混乱.

three eight-rat groups 改成 three 8-rats groups
3 8-rats groups 改成 three 8-rats groups
two 5-day study
12 two-engine airplanes

小于1的数字的单位用单数，大于1的数字的单位复数

0.25 gram
0.8 second
1.5 grams
3.45 seconds

零后面的单位用复数

zero meters
0 meters

单位的缩写单数和复数是一样的

0.1 ml
15 ml

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冠词的使用

• 使用冠词是英语的特点，中文没有相应字词.对定冠词the和不定冠词a/an 的使用往往掌握不好,最常见的是漏掉 不定冠词 .
  • There has been increase in loss of agricultural land.
    宜改为： There has been an increase in the loss of agricultural land.
  • Stresses at various locations in crank are calculated by using sets of unit load cases applied to single throw FE model .
    宜改为： Stresses at various locations in the crank are calculated by using sets of unit load cases applied to a single throw FE model.
• 定冠词the多用
  • The alcohol is produced by the fermentation of the grains like corn and wheat.
    酒精是通过玉米和小麦等谷物的发酵生产的。
    宜改为： Alcohol is produced by the fermentation of grains like corn and wheat.
    Alcohol 和 grains 都是泛指 , 不需要加定冠词 the.
• 除了是第一个字， 题目中的冠词不要大写
  • The Dependence of Crystal Growth on the Solvents.

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同位词的使用

• 写作中有时需要对新引述的事物或概念做简单解释和描述，但单写一个句子又会打断前后的连接.这时用同位词来解释是一个经常使用的方式.
  • The Hallervorden – Spatz syndrome, a neurological disorder associated with iron accumulation, has been linked to a decline in cysteine dioxygenase activity.
    Hallervorden - Spatz综合征是一种与铁积累相关的神经系统疾病，与半胱氨酸双加氧酶活性下降有关。
• 同位词应该同修饰的事物等位,说明是什么,而不能用来解释要修饰的事物的性质.下面句子中的同位词的使用就不合适.
• Penicillin, not stable in water , was developed during WWII.
  青霉素，在水中不稳定，在第二次世界大战时被发明

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多余的用词

• The supernatant was collected and concentrated in vacuum to evaporate the solvent.
  • Concentrate 就是 evaporate the solvent ， 后面的 to evaporate the solvent 是多余的.类似的把一些词的含义再次重复说明是最容易出现的多余用词.类似的 8PM in the evening, blue in color, small in size, in vivo animal models, in vitro cell cultures 都有多余用词的情况 .
• The results of activities of tested compounds were listed in Table 1.
  • Results 是多余的.中文中经常写作“ 实验结果”“ 活性检测结果”，但英文中“结果”是不需要翻译出来的.
    宜改为： The activities of tested compounds were listed in Table 1.
• 下面的例句中， their 就是 acid B and D,二者要去掉一个
  • The chemical mechanisms of their antioxidant activities of acid B and D were not well understood.
    宜改为： The chemical mechanisms of the antioxidant activities of acid B and D were not well understood.
• 一些词组，如 it should be mentioned, it should be pointed out, it was found, it was determined, … 都是冗长和委婉地说法，应该直接说明.