中国作者撰写英语论文中的一些常见问题，你遇着过吗？

1

STYLE, GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, 

AND OTHER ISSUES

1、逗号误用：逗号误用是指两个独立单句（即每个句子都可以是一个单独的完整句子）间只用逗号相连。独立单句可使用适当连接词（例如：and、but）或用分号隔开；或使用句号取代逗号，并开始新的句子。

2、先行词(antecedent)不清晰：我发现很多个句子中，代词(pronoun)的先行词不清晰。意思就是说读者难于理解代词所指代的是哪一个名词或名词短语。读者常常会回头看就近出现的名词，但有时会出现指代不明的情况。如果使用代词代替名词有可能出现误解，则应重复使用该名词而不用代词。

3、尽量避免使用“most”来描述已证实的研究文献：如果你写“大部分研究者发现什么什么（most researchers find such-and-such）”实际上你用了统计学的表达，意思是你知道一半以上的研究者已经发现什么什么。如果对含有“大部分（most of…）”的句子要求你证实其数量你能做到吗？这就是该单词（most）所蕴含的意思。你可以使用“many”或 “several” 或“a number of”来代替。

4、RESEARCHES（research的复数形式）：Research（研究）是一个集合名词，一般理解为包括大量的研究工作。因此，它实际上不应该使用复数形式，你可以使用“studies”或“investigations”或其他相似词来代替。

5、拟人化的名词：“研究结果（Results）”不会发现（find）任何东西，例如在句子中"our results found that…."；“量表（Scales）”也不能观察（observe ）任何东西。而应该是研究者发现结果，由结果引出结论。所以，结果（Results）往往是用“证实（document）”或“显示（show）”或“表明（demonstrate）”或者是你（由研究结果）得到了什么想法。对于“报告（report）”的应用也是一样的道理，“研究结果（Results）”不会报道任何东西，而是由研究者报告的；“量表（Scales）”不能观察任何东西，而是研究者观察到的。【PS：意思就是别把一些动词的主语由“人”误用为“物（如结果、量表等）”】

6、嵌套括号、背靠背括号：一般来说，不要在括号内再使用括号；也不要使用背靠背的两组括号以添加不同信息。

7、缩写和首字母缩写：在第一次使用时，对一个缩写或首字母缩写要进行定义（即写出全称），此后出现即一致使用该缩写。

8、主谓语不一致：单数主语（名词或名词短语）使用单数动词，复数主语使用复数动词。一个常见的错误是将最靠近的名词或名词短语作为主语来使用动词，这可能是也可能不是真正的主语。

9、当标点符号出现在引用短语结束处时（如：引号出现在句末），句子结束的标点符号（如：逗号、分号、句号或问号）应包括在引号内，比如 “…shows A is higher than B.”, “…what is the question?”

10、罗马数字或数字单词：一般对10或10以上的数字采用罗马数字表示；而个位数一般采用数字单词表示（如“one” 、“six”）。

STYLE, GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, AND OTHER ISSUES

COMMA SPLICE: A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (that is, each of them could be a separate complete sentence) are connected only by a comma. Either separate independent clauses with an appropriate conjunction (for example, "and," "but"), or with a semi-colon; or put a period in place of the comma and start a new sentence. There are very many comma splices in this paper. I correct some, but you should proofread the manuscript carefully to correct any I missed.

UNCLEAR ANTECEDENTS: I found multiple instances of pronouns with unclear antecedents. That means that the reader cannot easily tell to which preceding noun or noun phrase the pronoun is supposed to refer. Typically, the reader looks back to the most recently occurring reasonable noun; sometimes that is ambiguous, though. If there is a possibility of misunderstanding to which noun the pronoun is supposed to refer (i.e., what it's antecedent is), repeat the noun instead of using a pronoun.

Avoid the use of “most” when describing the state of the empirical literature. If you write “most researchers find such-and-such,” in effect you are making a statistical statement, saying that you know that more than half the researchers have found such-and-such. Could you, if called upon, justify that “most of…” statement with numbers? That’s what the word implies. Instead, use “many,” or “several,” or “a number of.”

RESEARCHES: Research is a collective noun, generally understood to include a body of work. As such, it really should not be used as a plural (i.e., researches). Instead, use "studies," or "investigations," or some similar word.

ANTHROPOMORPHIZING NOUNS: Results don't find anything, as in "our results found that…." Scales don't observe anything. Researchers find results; results lead to conclusions. Results therefore document, or show, or demonstrate, or… you get the idea. Ditto for "report:" Results don't report anything; researchers do. Scales don't observe anything; researchers do.

NESTED PARENTHESES, BACK-TO-BACK PARENTHESES: Generally, do not put parentheses inside parentheses. Generally, do not information in one set of parentheses back-to-back with other information in a second set of parentheses.

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS: Define an abbreviation or acronym on its first use in the paper. Once you have defined an abbreviation, use it routinely and consistently.

SUBJECT-VERB DISAGREEMENT: Singlular subjects (nouns or noun phrases) take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verbs. A common mistake is to have the verb agree with the closest noun or noun phrase, which may or may not be the actual subject of the sentence. There are noticeable instances of subject-verb disagreement throughout this paper. I changed many of them, but you should carefully check to make sure that all your subjects and verbs agree.

When punctuation occurs at the end of a quoted phrase (e.g., quotation marks occur at the end of a sentence), the end punctuation (e.g., a comma, semi-color, period or question mark) should be enclosed within the ending quotation mark.

NUMBERS AS NUMERALS vs. NUMBER WORDS: It is common practice to use numerals for numbers 10 or greater and number words (e.g., "one," "six") for single digits.

2

“cause”和“prove”

“cause”和“prove”是问题单词，在科技论文写作中需要引起格外注意，除非非常确定，否则一定要慎用。证明因果关系（causality）比单一的统计检验的要求要多的多（在这个问题上作者应该阅读一些相关背景的材料）。使用空的假设检验意味着我们永远不能“证明（prove）”任何假设，因为我们所得到的只是一个可能被拒绝的零假设。概率上说我们总可能会错误地拒绝零假设。（这种可能性或许很小，但可能其实是正确的 - 这就是所谓的I型错误）。

CAUSE, PROVE: The words “cause” and “prove” are problem words and need extra caution in scientific writing. Demonstrating causality requires much more than a single statistical test (authors should do some background reading on this issue). Using a null hypothesis testing procedure means that we can never “prove” any hypothesis, because all we get is a probability that the null hypothesis can be rejected. Therefore, there is always a possibility, perhaps small, that we might be rejecting the null hypothesis in error (it might, in fact, be correct – this is known as a Type I error).

3

Present vs. past tense

一般现在式和一般过去式

Think carefully about the use of present vs. past tense verbs in your writing. Use past tense most of the time, because the events you describe have already happened. Use present tense to describe a current state of affairs (for example, what the current literature shows). Several instances of future tense ("we will do such and such") just sound very, very odd in the context of a report of research already completed.

写作的时候仔细思考一下一般现在式和一般过去式的用法：大多时候使用的是一般过去式，因为你要报道的研究/实验是已经发生过的事件（比如，A inhibited B in a dose-dependent manner）或别人过去发表的结果（比如，John Doe et al reported…）。使用一般现在式描述当前文献中广为接受的理论或现象，（例如：Tobacco use is linked to lung cancer）或写作时刻的动词（例如：Table 1 shows…; This suggests…）；在一篇研究报告中偶尔会使用将来时态 ("我们将会做…")，通常很少。

PASSIVE VOICE: Avoid passive voice sentence constructions. They typically add words and decrease understanding. Particularly in the abstract, they increase length unnecessarily.

被动语态：很多作者都认为科学论文只能或必须多用被动语态，不能出现“we”, “I”等。但事实并非如此。虽然“I”的使用比较罕见，大多是杂志都是不忌讳适量的“we”的。相反，写作时应避免使用被动语态的句子结构。他们通常会导致字数增加，且加大理解难度。尤其在摘要部分，使用被动语态会增加不必要的字数。很多作者的初稿中都发现有这样的问题，我们修改了很多。

CONFUSABLE WORDS: The English language contains many words that look alike but are in fact different words with different meanings. They may or may not sound alike, as well. Some words English words, to make this even more difficult, can function as either a noun or a verb ("affect" and "effect" are two notoriously confused words – both can be nouns and both can be verbs). Your spelling checker may not pick these up, because the incorrectly used word might actually be spelled correctly. And grammar checkers are not really set up to pick out incorrectly used words. So the only way to find any such instances is proofreading by eye.

易混淆词：英语中有很多词看起来很相像，但其实是不同的词且有着不同的含义。它们的发音听起来有可能相似，也有可能不同。有些既可以做名词又可以做动词的一类单词区别起来就更加困难了（“affect”和“effect”是两个出了名的易混淆词语 - 既可以是名词，也可以是动词）。你的拼写检查器可能已经检查不出来了，因为不正确使用的词实际上可能是正确的拼写。而语法检查功能尚不能挑出错误使用的单词。因此，唯一的办法只有通过眼睛校对。

ARTICLES: In English, singular nouns are often preceded by an article ("a," "an," or "the"). The articles "a" and "an" are indefinite, referring to any occurrence. Use "a" for nouns that begin with a consonant and "an" for nouns that begin with a vowel (or sometimes a vowel sound, as in "hour). The article "the" is the definite article, referring to a specific instance. Eastern languages (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Russian) do not use articles in the same fashion that English does, so native speakers of those languages need to be particularly careful to include appropriate articles in their English-language writing.

冠词：在英语中，单数名词之前往往会有一个冠词（"a," "an," 或者 "the"）。冠词“a”和“an”不是特定的，泛指一类事物。 “a” 用在辅音开头的单词前，“an”用在元音开头的单词前面（或者元音发音的单词前，如 “hour”）。 “the”是定冠词，指的是一个特定的事件。东方语言（例如，中国，日本，俄罗斯）不同于英语，它们不像英语这样使用冠词，以这些语言为母语的写作者在用英语写文章的时候需要格外注意使用合适的冠词。

（来源：LetPub官网）

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