Doctor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences shared: How to avoid Chinese thinking in SCI writing and the ubiquitous Chinglish

Doctors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences shared: How to avoid Chinese thinking in SCI writing and the ubiquitous Chinglish.
Now with the global economic downturn, many small partners have chosen to delay employment, so more people are starting to take postgraduate and doctoral exams. The "New Oriental 2023 Postgraduate Entrance Examination Report" released by the New Oriental University Student Learning and Development Center predicts that more than 5.2 million people will sign up for the 2023 postgraduate entrance examination. As the saying goes (I heard it): Once you enter the scientific research, it is as deep as the sea, and you just need to graduate with the thesis. So how can we write SCI papers that reviewers cannot reject? In addition to the very important content of scientific research, the language that carries the scientific research content is also very important. Although the editor will not reject the manuscript because of a few grammatical errors, it will reject the manuscript because it cannot understand what you wrote.
Therefore, when we write SCI papers, we need to learn some English writing habits, avoid Chinese thinking or directly apply machine translation. Below I will share with you some of my experience in several situations, and I will also recommend some commonly used tools and websites for writing SCI papers to help you on your journey of writing SCI papers.
The first method: avoid using machine translation directly.
 
Many students think of a sentence, because they can’t write it, so they directly choose to use machine translation (such as Baidu translation, Youdao translation, Google translation, etc.) sentences. Such sentences can only help us Understand the content, but it is not suitable as a sentence for an SCI paper. For example:
To achieve higher catalytic efficiency, the higher the temperature, the better.
The Chinese translation is: In order to achieve higher catalytic efficiency, the higher the temperature, the better.
Although the meaning is clear, there are no grammatical problems. But it is very strange to put it in the SCI paper. Therefore, we need to modify it as follows:
Higher temperature leads to better catalytic efficiency.
Such sentences are not only more concise, but also easier to understand.
or:
Better catalytic efficiency can be achieved at higher catalytic efficiency.
Passive structure can also express such a meaning, you can choose the appropriate sentence structure according to your needs.
 
The second type: choose different sentence patterns according to the emphasis,
 
such as the following sentence:
The two different forms of light and electricity can be effectively separated, offering the PEC detection method the advantages of both electrochemical and optical methods, including simple operation, fast response, low background signal, inexpensive instrument, and high detection sensitivity. (ACS Sens. 2020, 5, 1092−1101)
Chinese translation is: two different forms of light and electricity can be effectively separated, so that the PEC detection method has both electrical and electronic Advantages of chemical and optical methods include ease of operation, fast response, low background signal, inexpensive instrumentation, and high detection sensitivity.
There seems to be no problem with Chinese, but it is not very good to apply such sentences directly in SCI paper writing. And, if what we want to emphasize is different, the method of writing is also different.
Here we take the following three emphasized contents as a starting point, and you can try to practice the following modifications:
1. Emphasize the advantages of effectively separating light and electricity
The effectively separated forms of light and electricity of PEC detection provide the advantages of both electrochemical and optical methods, including simple operation, fast response, low background signal, inexpensive instrument, and high detection sensitivity.
 
advantages
of the PEC detection method are the simple operation, fast response, low background signal, inexpensive instrument, and high detection sensitivity originating from its effectively separated forms of light and electricity. 3. Emphasize the advantages of both
 
electrochemical and optical methods
The advantages of both electrochemical and optical methods are combined in PEC detection due to effectively separated forms of light and electricity, leading to simple operation, fast response, low background signal, inexpensive instrument, and high detection sensitivity. The third type: avoid logic the
 
question
 
Another mistake that some students often make is that there is a problem with the logic before and after. For example:
High surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) activity originating from noble-metal nanomaterials has attracted intensive attention. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and MoS2, have been used for SERS. Herein, the pre- concentration process of the probe molecule and improving interfacial interactions between the substrate and molecules were critical accomplishments in the development of XXX.
 
The Chinese translation is: High surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) activity derived from noble metal nanomaterials has attracted widespread attention. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and MoS2 have been used for SERS. Here, the pre-concentration process of the probe molecules and the improvement of the interfacial interaction between the substrate and the molecules are the key achievements in the development of XXX.
 
The part behind Hererin came out suddenly, because it was just mentioned that the two-bit material can be used for SERS, but the pre-concentration process and improving interfacial interactions are very important. Clearly something is missing between the sentences Recently and Hererin, leading to the pre-concentration process and improving interfacial interactions is very important. Then when we correct the article, we need to explain this reason to the readers. So we rewrite it as follows (red sentence):
 
High surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) activity originating from noble-metal nanomaterials has attracted intensive attention. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and MoS2, have been used for SERS. However, few literature demonstrated that the limits of detection (LODs) of these 2D materials are sufficient for single molecular analysis. Herein, the pre-concentration process of the probe molecule and improving interfacial interactions between the substrate and molecules were critical accomplishments in the development of XXX.
 
这个红色的句子就是解释为什么我们需要the pre-concentration process 和improving interfacial interactions。