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Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals PDF

242 Pages·2011·1.16 MB·English
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fi Scienti c English fi Scienti c English A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals Third Edition Robert A. Day and Nancy Sakaduski Copyright2011byRobertA.DayandNancySakaduski Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsina review,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Day/RobertA.,1924– ScientificEnglish:aguideforscientistsandotherprofessionals/RobertA.Dayand NancySakaduski.—3rded. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978–0–313–39173–6(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN978–0–313–39174–3(ebook) —ISBN978–0–313–39194–1(hardcopy:alk.paper)1. Englishlanguage—Technical English—Handbooks,manuals,etc.2. Technicalwriting—Handbooks,manuals,etc. I.Day,Nancy.II.Title. PE1475.D38 2011 8080.0665—dc22 2011016002 ISBN:978–0–313–39173–6 978–0–313–39194–1(pbk.) EISBN:978–0–313–39174–3 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook. Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails. Greenwood AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC ABC-CLIO,LLC 130CremonaDrive,P.O.Box1911 SantaBarbara,California93116-1911 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica To Joe, Barton, Robin, Sarah, Hilary, Matt, Ian, and Allie Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 PrinciplesofScientificWriting 1 2 KindsofWriting 7 3 WritingStyle 11 4 TheEnglishLanguage 21 5 Grammar 25 6 Words 35 7 NameWords(NounsandPronouns) 45 8 ActionWords(Verbs) 57 9 DescriptiveWords(Adjectives,Adverbs,andArticles) 61 10 FunctionWords(Conjunctions,Prepositions,andInterjections) 69 11 PrefixesandSuffixes 75 12 RedundanciesandJargon 81 13 Abbreviations,Acronyms,andInitialisms 89 viii Contents 14 Phrases 97 15 Clauses 103 16 Sentences 109 17 Paragraphs 121 18 Voice,Person,andTense 125 19 Punctuation 131 20 WritingforElectronicMedia 157 Glossary 169 Appendix1:PrinciplesofPunctuationPresentedPlainly 175 Appendix2:ProblemWordsandExpressions 185 Appendix3:WordsandExpressionstoAvoid 205 Notes 217 Index 219 Preface Outofclutter,findsimplicity. —AlbertEinstein Good writing appears effortless. The reader is absorbed by the message and not distracted by the author screaming “Hey, lookat me!” Words snap with precision, sentences crackle with clarity, and paragraphs pop from the page without a single wasted word. To the casual observer, the result looks spare, evensimplistic. Takeoneofthemostfamouspoemsofalltime,“TheRoadNotTaken”by RobertFrost.Anotherwriter—ascientistforexample—might betemptedto embellishitalittletomakethesubjectmatterseemweightierandtheauthor morescholarly: TheTransportationThoroughfareNotSelected Anexploratorystudywasundertakentoevaluateatestsubject’spreferences withrespecttotwotransportationpathwaysthatdivergedinaportionofthe EasternDeciduousForest.Previousstudieshaveindicatedthatoutcomesare affectedbyraceandstature(Tolkien,1937).Thetestsubjectwasallowedonly oneselection,butwasgivenanunlimitedperiodoftimeinwhichtomakea decision.Twopathwayswereintroducedandthesubjectwasaskedtoselect one.PathwayAwasidentifiedasonecontaining>50%undergrowth.Pathway Bwasdeterminedtobecomparable,butcontainedsubstantiallymorespeciesin thePoaceaefamily(seeFigure1),indicatinglesstrafficpressure(Barleycorn, 1970).Afteratimeintervalof9.4minutes,thetestsubjectselectedPathway B.Itisdoubtfulthatatimelimitwouldhavesignificantlyaffectedtheoutcome. Atthefinalconclusionofthestudy,thesubjectwasquestionedregardinghis choice.ThesubjectrespondedthatthechoiceofPathwayBhadmadeasignifi- cantimpact;infactheobservedit“hasmadeallthedifference.”1Thissuggests

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English is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages to master. Yet while the English language has a vocabulary of upwards of 500,000 words, it only uses nine parts of speech, and all of these words fall into one (or more) of those nine categories. Scientific English: A Guide for Scienti
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