1. Streamlined writing and "Chinglish"
This chapter mainly explains the necessity of streamlining and how to streamlining, including sentence length control, some examples of streamlining writing, some of the most common mistakes made by Chinese students and typical "Chinglish" (Chinese-style English), and how to correct them.
1.1 Statement length
A common mistake made by Chinese students is that sentences are too long. They may think that multiple attributive clauses can reflect their high English proficiency (mostly misled by primary and secondary school English teachers). This is completely a misunderstanding.
Talk about the usage of subordinate clauses. If there are two or more verbs (predicates) in a sentence, each must belong to a clause, and the clause must be guided by an introductory word such as where, which, that, etc. For example, in the following sentence, the introductory word that brings out a clause, and there is also a clause beginning with when in the clause:
The graphical requirements of a visual language include defining the visual elements of the language and the graphical relationships that must be maintained when these elements are connected together.
The graphic requirements of a visual language include the visual elements that define the language, and the graphic relationships that must be maintained when these elements are connected together.
This should be considered a relatively complex sentence pattern, and it must not be more complicated than this.
What needs to be emphasized is that the sentences of scientific papers must be accurate, short and precise! It is generally recommended to have at most one clause in a sentence.
Recommendations on sentence length are: in the case of single column format (single column), one sentence should not exceed 2 lines ; in the case of double columns (double columns), one sentence should not exceed 4 lines. There are occasional exceptions throughout the paper, and sometimes there are sentences that are really too short.
1.2 Simplified example
The following will first give some more concise conversion expressions, and then give some examples of ways to directly delete unnecessary words.
(1) the question as to whether. Just write whether. Questions about whether...
(2)not correct. It's incorrect
(3) not important. Better to use trivial
(4) A is as good or better than B. Incorrect, it should be A is as good as B, or better
(5) do not remember. Just forget
(6)did not pay any attention to. Actually ignored
（7）do not have much confidence in。 实为 distrust
(8) the fact that we had not failed. can be written as our success
（9）the fact that she had arrived。 等于 her arrival
（10）there is no doubt but that 就写 no doubt，或 doubtless
(11) used for discussion purpose. The last word is redundant, so it is used for discussion
(12) she is a lady who. No different from her
(13) in a quick manner, in a quick way. Why not just write quickly
（14）this is a subject that。 就是 this subject
（15）their algorithm is a fast one。 简化为 their algorithm is fast
（16）in spite of the fact that。 等于 though，或 although
(17)owing to the fact that. Replace with since or because
（18）the authors are unaware of the fact that。简化 the authors are unaware that
1.3 "Chinglish" and correction methods
To gradually develop English thinking habits, when writing English papers, your thinking must switch to English. If you think in Chinese and then write in English, "Chinglish" will inevitably appear.
Examples of inappropriate phrases and words are listed below in alphabetical order, along with their recommended ways to write them.
(1) a lot of. This is colloquial language and should not be used in scientific writing. If it is countable, use many; if it is uncountable, use much.
(2)actually. It's better to say in fact.
(3)and. Don't use it to start a sentence. If the previous sentence is really connected with the current sentence, change the previous period to a comma , or to a semicolon according to the situation .
(4) based on "based on" in Chinese, in English, there is inaccuracy. It is recommended to avoid using it as much as possible. If you know the clear relationship, you should use relative adverbs or gerunds directly, such as:...extract hue, saturation and brightness based on the HSL color space. Based here is completely unnecessary, just delete it.
...extract hue, saturation and brightness based on HSL color space.
(5) be considered as. The as here is redundant, it should be considered .
(6) because/since ... so/therefore/hence .... In Chinese it is "because...so...", but in English, these two words should not appear in the same sentence as a causal relationship. Or don’t use because/since, or don’t use so/thereforce/hence.
(7)belong to. When describing the affiliation of components in the field of science or engineering, Chinese students like to use "belong to" to mean "belong to". But this is not said in English. More accurate words should be used, such as part of .
(8)besides. In writing, you can use apart from or in addition to . But it is different from except, which does not include.
(9) both...and. It is incorrect to use adverbs such as with, in or on after both, in both A and B , rather than both in A and B.
(10) case. The word is often redundant when describing some state or state. For example: It has never been the case that the "Abort" button is pressed (there has never been a situation where the "Abort" button was pressed), which is not as good as The "Abort" button has never been pressed. Another example: In many cases, the participants were confused by the question (in many cases, the participants were confused by the question) is not as good as Many of the participants were confused by the question. Of course, it is a different matter when used as the phrase case studies, where case means an instance or illustration.
(11) due to. It is often mistakenly used as through, but its actual meaning is " from... ", which is slightly different from because of. For example: The performance loss due to recursive procedure calls is significant (The performance loss due to recursive procedure calls is significant), and The Spring Algorithm is due to Peter Eades (The spring algorithm was invented by Peter Eades), both is the correct way to write it. It’s not appropriate to use “because of” here.
(12)ever. There is "ever" in Chinese, and the corresponding English word can only be ever. However, the meaning of "ever" in Chinese can usually be expressed in the past perfect tense or present perfect tense in affirmative sentences in English. For example, I have ever written an English article is obviously wrong. Just remove ever. In future negative sentences or questions, ever emphasizes the meaning of "ever" or "ever". For example: I may not ever be able to finish it. "I may never be able to finish it"; another example: Have you ever written an English article? There is no problem with these two sentences. The emphasis here is "Have you ever written an English article?"
(13)especially. There is nothing wrong with using it, but in scientific papers, it is best to use particularly , or in particula r.
(14) except for. The for here should be deleted.
(15) Firstly,...Secondly,.... It should be written as First,...Second,....
(16) for A (noun), we B (verb) it (or them). This is a typical Chinglish sentence pattern. Just write it as We BA. For example, For the invalid data, we remove them, should be written as We remove the invalid data.
(17)however. If placed at the beginning of a sentence, it means "no matter..." , for example: However the author revised, the paper was rejected. If "still" or "still" is used as a transition, it should not be placed at the beginning of the sentence . This is also a common mistake. For example: However, we at last solved the problem, it should be written as At last, however, we solved the problem.
(18) it’s…. Abbreviations should not be used in scientific writing, so you should write it is .
(19) kind of. It is best to use type of (kind of has other meanings)
(20) less. It is often mistaken as a countable comparative word, but it is a comparison of quantity. For example, you cannot say The second experiment had fewer participants than the first, but should use fewer, that is, The second experiment had fewer participants than the first.
(21) not only A, but also B. Unless you really want to emphasize that A and B are indispensable and complementary, writing A and B is usually enough.
(22)painted with red color. Just write it as colored red.
(23) people. When referring to a certain number of people, persons should be used.
(24)researches. As nouns there are only researchers and research . But if it is used as a third person verb, you can use researches .
(25) section and chapter. I don’t know why almost all Chinese students call the sections of papers “chapters”. Section should be "section" , in other words, the paper is divided into "sections". Chapter is "chapter" , and doctoral thesis, master's thesis or book is divided into "chapter".
(26) so. Don't use it as "so". You can use "therefore" or "thereforce" instead .
(27)some. "Some" is common in Chinese , so Chinese people also like to use it in written language. But writing scientific papers should avoid inaccurate general references. So you can delete it directly. But if you know what it is, you might as well point it out directly.
(28) still. Many Chinese authors use still to express "still" or "still" in Chinese, but usually this word is mostly redundant and can be deleted.
(29) try to. As a written language, it is less formal than attempt to.
(30)very. In most cases, the meaning of the statement remains unchanged after removing it. Adding "very" in English would be superfluous.
(31) want to. Want to is too direct, while wish to is more tactful, or even would like to, which is more polite.
(32) we can see from Figure X that. It can be directly simplified to Figure X shows that.
(33)while. The word is often misused, used as and or but. The author sometimes wants to show off that he uses different conjunctions, but uses while when he should use and. For example: The pie chart shows that more than half of the participants preferred
the first design, while less than a quarter of them preferred the second design. The while here should be used with and, but if you need to emphasize the second half of the sentence, you can use but. In some cases, while can replace although, but for safety reasons, while is best used to express a time period. For example: while the first participant is performing the experiment, the second is reading the instructions.
(34)whole. As a written language, entire is better.
Do not use more than two nouns in a row. If you have three nouns, you can write C of AB. For example: an object-oriented visual programming system components is best written as the components of an object-oriented visual programming system, even if you use two more words the and of.