English Article Sentences

Reading List:

• The most common habits form more than 200 English papers written by graduate Chinese engineering students
• Science research writing: for non-native speakers of English

The Most Common Habits from English Papers written by Chinese Students

a, an, the

• "A" and "An" are indefinite articles
• "the" is a definite article

Very long sentences

Long sentences can be avoided by limiting each sentence to one or two topics. Semicolons should be used where the writer really wants to emphasize the relationship between ideas.

Prefacing the main idea of a sentence by stating the purpose, location or reason first

Bring the main idea to the beginning of the sentence stating any locations, reasons, etc., afterwards.

Tendency of placing phrases which indicate time at the beginning of a sentence

Placing the most important subject at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis

which/that

The noun to which "which" refers is not specific, causing confusion.

Respectively and respective

"Respectively" is usually at the end of the sentence. Mentioning the order must be important to the meaning of the sentence otherwise it is not used.

"In this paper", "in this study"

"In this paper" are reserved for primarily two uses

1. In the introduction and conclusion to emphasize the content of the paper.
2. In the body of the paper, after referring to work not done by the author such as in other journal articles or in standard.

"In this paper" can be replaced by "In this study".

Numbers and Equations

Arabic numerals should never be used at the beginning of sentences. It should be used to give data in technical papers, however they should not be used to give general information.

Equations should be introduced as much as possible, not inserted in place of words.

Format

• Paragraphs: All paragraphs start on a new line with an indent of about one inch or with an extra line between the two paragraphs. A paragraph can not be preceded by a single sentence on a single line.
• Figure and Table: Abbreviations are not used at the beginning of sentences and a space belongs between the word/ abbreviation and the number, e.g., Fig. 6
• Capitals: Capitals are not in the middle of the sentence.

"such as" and "etc."

• "Such as" means "for example" and implies that an incomplete list will follow.
• "etc." means "and so on" and is used at the end of a list to show it not complete.
• Using "such as" and "etc." together is redundant.

Some words do not need an "s"

• literature
• equipment
• staff
• faculty

Avoid redundancy in the following types of phrases

Others

• Never begin an English sentence with abbreviations and Arabic numerals such as Fig. and 8. Instead write Figure and Eight.
• Do not write "by this way". Instead write "by doing this", or "using this method"
• Never write "How to..." at the beginning of a sentence.
• Do write "the result are shown in Figure 2". Do not write "the result are showed as Figure 2".
• Italicize variables appearing in the text to differentiate them from words. This is especially important when the variables are English alphabets. Write "The graph shows i, a, and C as a function of time". Do not write "The graph shows t, a, and C as a function of time".
• Refrain from using the word obviously in a technical paper in the following way
  • Obviously, detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method. NO
  • Detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method. YES
• Avoid overusing the phrases "that is to say" and "namely". Instead, try to convey your meaning in one sentence.
• Do not use "too" at the end of a written sentence, especially in a technical paper.

Phases

1. Suffice it to say, ... 一言以蔽之，……
2. be attributed to 归因于
3. xx validity threats concern xx xx有效性威胁涉及xx
4. Per the usual terminology, ... 按照通常的术语，……
5. There may exist an inherent bias towards ...
6. It is a significant threat to the validity of ...

Words

Word	Translation	Example
realm	领域	the software engineering realm
proliferation	增殖	the proliferation of machine learning
indispensable	必不可少的
prerequisite	先决条件
notably	尤其
at scale	大规模	Towards automating code review at scale
rationale	理由	the rationale behind this approach is ...
leverage	利用	the information that an model could leverage to do sth.
		MOKA leverages the ability to observe a large number of interactions to do sth.
intuitively	直觉地
inform	提供	Our findings can inform future research in this area and ...
to this end	为此
error prone	容易出错的
sophisicated	复杂的
obstacles	障碍	... indicates that there are further obstacles to achieving high coverage
albeit	尽管	..., albeit some promising techiniques have been developed.
coarse-grained	粗粒度的
fine-grained	细粒度的