《中国学生写英语论文的常见错误总结》读书笔记

标题：

The Most Common Habits from more than 200 English Papers written by Graduate Chinese Engineering Students

原文链接如下：（不能保证是原始出处）

http://me.sjtu.edu.cn/document/Most%20Common%20Mistakes%20of%20200%20Technical%20English%20Papers.pdf

时间：

2003以后

阅读时间：

2005.9.27

 

摘要：

本文提出了几种最常见的中式英语习惯，它们是从超过两百份中国学生写的英文论文中观察得来的。文中解释了这些习惯，并且在大部分情况下给出了从实际论文中出现的例子以及正确的用法。我们试图去解释如何去改正和避免这些错误。一些情况下，我们还解释了为什么这些习惯会出现。本文可以成为一个单独的科技论文编写指南，尤其是当很难寻找一个母语为英语的编辑时。

大意

Section 1

a, an, the

冠词后面将跟随一个名词，并且任何冠词与名词之间的修饰词都用来修饰这个名词(a big blue bicycle / the first award)。A和an是不定冠词，the是定冠词。单数形式的不可数名词以及指代一个可数事务的普通名词，它们每次都需要一些限定词（determiner）。

它们的使用方法如下图所示：

Incorrect Figure 2 shows the distribution of relative velocity on surface of main

and splitter blades.15

Correct Figure 2 shows the distribution of relative velocity on the surface of the

main and splitter blades.15

分析上面的例子，surface是一个单数、可数、没有限定词的特定的单词，因此要用the修饰。而blades是一个复数、可数、没有特殊限定词、并且特定的单词，因此也要用the修饰。

 

very long sentence

太长的句子不利于读者理解，应该尽量分为多个句子。对于一些参数的陈列，尽量使用列表或者整齐的子句。

 

Prefacing the main idea of a sentence by stating the purpose,

location or reason first

在句子的前面陈述目的、位置、原因等，而不是陈述句子的主要含义。这样减弱了句子的主旨，混淆了读者的理解。

Incorrect For the application in automobile interiors, this paper studies the nesting

optimization problem in leather manufacturing. 5

Correct This paper studies the nesting optimization problem in leather manufacturing

for application in automobile interiors.

 

Tendency of placing phrases which indicate time at the beginning of

a sentence

倾向于把表示时间的短语放在句首。这样是不自然的。

Incorrect When U is taken as the control parameter, the BDs for Δ =0.0, 0.001, 0.005

are shown in Fig. 8.

Correct Figure 8 shows the BDs for Δ =0.0, 0.001, and 0.005 when U is taken as the

control parameter.

 

Place the most important subject at the beginning of the sentence for

emphasis

将最重要的主题放在句首以示重视。这样的理解是错误的。

Incorrect Based on the triangulation structure built from unorganized points or a CAD

model, the extended STL format is described in this section.4

Correct The extended STL format is described in this section based on the triangulation

structure built from unorganized points or a CAD model.

 

“which/ that”

 

‘Respectively’ and ‘respective’

1. Respectively is misplaced in the sentence; it is put before the nouns to which it refers.

Incorrect Equations 2～6 can be respectively linearized as:……(equations given)…13

Correct Equations 2～6 can be linearized as:……(equations given)…, respectively.

Incorrect The weights of the two experts are respectively 0.600 and 0.400.19

Correct The weights of the two experts are 0.600 and 0.400, respectively.

 

2. Respectively is inserted to express that there is a certain order in which something was

done. However, the order is already implied elsewhere in the sentence or does not need

to be expressed because it does not add value to meaning of the sentence.

Incorrect If both the core technology score and core quality score of a bottleneck process

are, respectively, below certain scores, then we refer to strategy 1, otherwise, if

either is, respectively, above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 2.

Similarly, if the core technology and core quality are, respectively, above a

certain score, then we refer to strategy 3, otherwise, if either is, respectively,

below a certain score, then we refer to strategy 4.19

 

Correct If both the core technology score and core quality score of a bottleneck process

are below certain scores, then we refer to strategy 1, otherwise, if either is

above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 2. Similarly, if the core

technology and core quality are above a certain score, then we refer to strategy

3, otherwise, if either is below a certain score, then we refer to strategy 4.

 

Respectively通常出现在句子的结尾，当两个或者更多的人或事被按照一定的顺序提起或者指定时，使用Respectively。它包含了一种顺序，这种顺序可以是在前面提到的，也可以是被读者领会到的。

例子：

For example: Bobby, Nicole and Daren wore red, green and blue coats, respectively.

List 1 List 2

Bobby wore a red coat.

Nicole wore a green coat.

Daren wore a blue coat.

 

‘In this paper’, ‘in this study’

study指作者做出的工作；paper指作者表达工作的论文。不可混淆。

这两个短语最好只用在两个地方：

1.       介绍或者总结全文时；

2.       在文中，当指出了其他作者的一些没有完成的工作之后，使用这两个短语来描述自己的工作。

 

Numbers and Equations

阿拉伯数字不应该出现在句子的开头，而应该使用英文单词。

Incorrect 12 parameters were selected for the experiment.

Correct Twelve parameters were selected for the experiment.

阿拉伯数字被滥用，它们应该在给出技术指标时使用，而不用来表示普遍的信息。

不要在句子中使用符号或者表达式，而应该以语言描述。（一般的论文要求所有的表达式都单独写出来，并使用特定的格式）

Incorrect If the power battery SOC > SOClo and the driving torque belongs to the

middle load,…

Correct If the power battery SOC is greater than SOClo and the driving torque

belongs to the middle load,…

 

Format

Paragraphs

分段的错误有两个：第一种是换行但是没有缩进，所以让读者不知道这是否是新的一段。

第二种是一段的最前面是一个单行的句子，这个句子和这一段同时都缩进了。

（这句话的理解不太清晰，我怀疑我理解错了。原文是：The second

error occurs when a paragraph is preceded by a single sentence on a single line. The

single line is indented along with the succeeding paragraph as in example #. This

commonly occurs in Chinese texts but is never done in English.）

 

‘Figure’ and ‘Table’

Figure和Table的正确缩写分别是Fig.和Tbl.。缩写不能出现在句首，并且Figure/Table和数字之间必须有一个空格。

 

Variables

变量必须使用斜体。

 

Capitals

大写字母不能出现在句中，只能出现在句首。

 

‘such as’ and ‘etc.’

such as的含义和for example一样；etc.的含义等于and so on。它们如果放在同一个句子里则是冗余的。

Such as意味着后面跟随一个不完整的列表，如果后面列出了所有的元素，则不应使用such as。

Incorrect Compared to traditional industry, Micro-electronic fabrication has three

characteristics such as high complexity, high precision and high automation.

Correct Compared to traditional industry, Micro-electronic fabrication has three

characteristics: high complexity, high precision and high automation.

 

Section 2

1．下列单词具有同样的单数和复数形式：

literature (when referring to research)

equipment,

staff (referring to a group of people)

faculty

 

2．下列单词不要同时使用，仅仅使用一个就可以了

3．一些单词要求它所修饰的名词必须为复数：

4．永远不要以阿拉伯数字或者英文缩写作为句子的开头。

5．不要使用by this way，而用by doing this或者using this method代替。

6．永远不要使用How to作为一个句子的开头。（口语中也不要说）

No How to find the optimal parameter is the main objective.

Yes Determining how to find the optimal parameter is the main objective.

7．不要写“The results are shown as Figure 2”，要写“The results are shown in Figure 2”。

8．变量要使用斜体，特别使变量用英文字母表示的时候。

9．避免如下使用单词“Obviously”的方法：

No Obviously, detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method.8

Yes Detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method.8

10．国际论文不应该使用地域相关的单词，例如at home，abroad，here，our country等等。应该使用“in China”。

11．避免过度使用“that is to say”或者“namely”，而应该尽量在一个句子中表达完整你的意思。

12．不要在句子的末尾使用too，尤其是在科技论文中。

后记

看完此文，受益匪浅。如果没有上过科技论文写作课，那么此文绝对会对你有很大帮助。其实很多大学开设的科技论文写作课都没什么作用。正如作者在文中说的，找一个母语为英语的老师不难，但是找一个母语为英语同时懂科技论文写作的就很难了。目前多数大学的外教很少有熟悉科技论文写作的。因此中国学生写英文论文只能照葫芦画瓢，虽然有的画得似模似样，但是很多中文习惯也被带进去了。并且，细微之处难以分明。中国人读英文文章，还可以囫囵吞枣，到了英语为母语的人眼里，则是含混晦涩了。

总之，值得一读。