Sedgehead's Guidelines to writing formal English.

改写在：Last edited September 28, 2011.

我想打中文。 I want to write this blog in Chinese.  我想翻译英文在中文。I plan to slowly change most of what I write here into Chinese.  But I will start in English.

我的用意。 My goal is to teach you how to write formal English.  I want to write rules for formal writing.  This writing style can be use for English classes, writing scientific papers, writing letters, and to a lesser extent, for writing resumes.

经常的校订或是调整。I will revise this blog frequently.  Look at the revised date above to see if I have made changes.  Feel free to correct my use of Chinese.

On June 26, 2011, I worked on an article for a Chinese biologist.  I wrote down some ideas I will incorporate into this blog later.   Here’s what I wrote:

These are common things I fix for many Chinese writers of English.

1) Subject / verb agreement

In a few cases the subject did not agree with the verb. If you use the internet to search on "subject / verb agreement" you can read more. In short, a singular subject requires a singular verb and a plural subject requires a plural verb.

2) Use of a, an, and the

The use of these words is very confusing to non-native speakers. Many of my Chinese friends have difficulty with knowing when to use or not use these words.

3) Use of plurals

The Chinese language has no plural forms. So adding an "s" or using other plural forms is something many Chinese writers of English neglect. Many odd plurals exist. Here are few examples:

Singular: cactus, datum, mouse, herbarium.

Plural: cacti, data, mice, herbaria.

4) Shorter sentences, one idea per sentence.

My Chinese friends tell m they are taught to write long and complex sentences. Some scientific ideas require long sentences. But a good writer (as opposed to a good scientists) knows it is better to keep sentences short. Try to use only one idea per sentence. If you are tempted to use "and" or other conjunctions like or, then, because, if, etc, also consider simply using two sentences. Usually, shorter sentences are better.

5) Mixing Chinese fonts.

In a few places I found Chinese fonts in your writing. Journals do not want to publish Chinese fonts, so they need to be deleted. Many Chinese writers of English start with a paper written in Chinese. Then, one word and sentence at a time, they translate it into English. As they do this, they forget to remove the Chinese commas, degree marks (degrees C), colons, etc. If you want to avoid this completely, do not start with a Chinese document. Writing in Chinese is perfectly fine. But when you translate into English, use a completely new document. This will avoid the this problem completely.

An alternative way to do that is to translate one paragraph at a time. Keep the English part, completely separate from the Chinese paragraphs.

6) Table 1

Journals prefer methods that shorten text. Here's one that works well. Compare the length of the text.

Table 1 shows . . .

. . . as shown in Table 1.

目录 (Contents)

1) 数字 (numbers)

2) 标点 (punctuation)

3) Word usage

4) Phrases and sentences

5) Abbreviations

6) 格式 (references)

7) Common errors of Chinese writers of English

8) Following journal guidelines

1) 数字 Use of numbers in formal writing.

指导方针, 准则 ：Spell out the numbers 1 to 10 (or 12).  Do not spell out larger numbers.  Use a zero before a decimal point (小数点).  For large numbers, put a comma to separate three digits of whole numbers.  At the beginning of a sentence, always spell out any numbers; do not start a sentence with numerals (数词).  Do not use a comma after a decimal point.  我建议：One; seven; twelve; 13; 47; 3,584,200; 0.419000846; ten; 0.5; 512; etc. (等等).  很好的比如: The 2010 census (人口调查) says the US population is 308,745,538.  Three hundred and eight million, seven hundred and forty-five thousand, five hundred and thirty eight is about the same number of people that China had in 1930.  I have over 512 Chinese friends.  I know one of them is eleven years old.  The number 0.0000004574 is very small.  Forty-two is a famous number from Douglas Adam's book titled "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."  I have four brothers and four sisters, but I have more than 200 cousins!

转变: I want to frequently change and add to this list of rules.  Visit it often.

2) 标点 Using punctuation.

See also: http://ok-english.net/space-83-do-blog-id-156.html .

标点 (punctuation): Punctuation is very, very important in writing.  Many Chinese writers of English neglect good punctuation.  Here are a few simple rules.

指导方针, 准则 : Use two spaces after a period and one space after most other punctuation.  One exception is the 上引号, which has a space before it and not after it.

Many Chinese writers of English do not use good punctuation.  If you want to write formal English for publication you need to be extremely careful with punctuation.  Editors of scientific journals require extreme accuracy.

逗号 (comma): I need to mention two things about commas - , - for formal writing: 1) use a space after a comma, not before a comma, and 2) in a series, use a comma after each item.  Correct example: He likes birds, dogs, and cats.  Incorrect example: He likes birds, dogs and cats.

冒号 (colon): A colon - ; - is used primarily to separate complete sentences.  Correct example: He likes to swim; he also likes to run.

句号 (period): Use a period - . - to end a sentence.  Use a three periods with spaces in between - . . . - in a quotation to indicate something has been left out.  If a sentenced ended in the deleted text, use four dots with spaces between them - . . . . - like that. 

感叹号 (exclamation point): Use an exclamation point - ! - to express surprise.

问号 (question mark): Use a question mark - ? - at the end of a sentence like the word 吗 to indicate a question.

撇号, 单引号 (apostrophe): - ‘ -

引号, 上引号, 下引号 (quotation mark): - “ -

3) Word usage.

A) Use of the word “respectively.”  The word “respectively” is not needed after a series of words separated by commas. 

                  Correct example: “. . . dogs, cats, and mice.” 

                  Incorrect example: “. . . dogs, cats, and mice, respectively.” 

The word “respectively” is used to connect two series of words to relate the first list to the second list.  Correct example: “The groups of dogs, cats, and mice ran north, south, and east, respectively.”  That means the dogs went north, the cats went south, and the mice went east.

Another way to describe the use of the word "respectively” follows. The word "respectively" needs to be associated with something specific. For example:

Correct: Dogs and cats eat meat and mice, respectively. This means dogs eat meat and cats eat mice.

Also correct: Dogs and cats both eat meat.

Incorrect: Dogs and cats both eat meat, respectively.

4) Phrases and sentences

A) Use of dependent clauses.  It is easier to read a sentence if the dependent clause follows the independent clause.

Good example: Root biomass is also required to estimate the total biomass of a tree.

Less desirable wording example: To estimate the total biomass of a tree the root biomass is also required.

B) Words in a series.  You can choose to use a comma after each item in a series or to omit the last comma.  It is acceptable to use either of these methods, but the first is preferred.

Preferred: Air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, radiation, and precipitation were monitored.

Also correct but less technically accurate: Air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, radiation and precipitation were monitored.     

These examples show why the first is preferred.  In the case of “wind speed and direction” these are one item in the series.  This makes “radiation and precipitation” also look like one item in the series, but it is actually two items.

5) Abbreviations

Abbreviations.  A sentence should not start with an abbreviation. 

            Correct example: Eucalyptus camaldulensis is a small tree.

            Incorrect example: E. camaldulensis is a small tree.

Note: In recent years it has become acceptable to start a sentence with an acronym or an abbreviation in a journal.

6) 格式 References for scientific research papers.

格式 (format): In formal writing for scientific publications, the format of an article is extremely important.  Even many native English speakers from the United States fail to format their documents correctly.  This document provides (or at this point, will provide) several topics related to formatting of documents.  When I was in college working on my master's degree my professor, Dr. Edwin B. Smith, made an excellent observation.  He told me, "When I am asked to review a scientific paper for publication, the first place I look is the references.  I ask myself several questions.  Are the references formatted to meet the journal's standards?  Did the writer list each paper he cited?  That is, when the manuscript cites a research paper, is it listed in the references?  Is every paper listed in the references cited in the body of the manuscript?  Is the spelling correct?  Has the author used the standard abbreviations for each scientific journal mentioned?  Has the author been consistent in the use of spaces, periods, and the sequence of the items listed in the literature cited section (also known as the references)?  I found that if the author prepared the references carefully, the paper usually was well written.  If the author produced a sloppy list of references, the paper was probably not worth publishing.  Poorly prepared references usually meant the paper was too poorly written to be published."  In my experience review nearly 100 research papers and many other documents, I have found his observations to be perfectly accurate.  I'll write a full section on this topic later.

7) Common errors of Chinese writers of English

The following section discusses some common errors of Chinese writers of English.

1) Grammar and sentence construction.

The most common problem for Chinese scientists who write English is being able to write good English sentences.  Let me explain.  Most American scientists cannot write a word of Chinese.  So the fact that Chinese scientists can write English surprised me.  Nevertheless, I work as an editor improving the English of Chinese scientist.  So I often see this type of a comment from a journal:

In its current state, the level of English throughout your manuscript does not meet the journal's desired standard. There are a number of grammatical errors and instances of badly worded/constructed sentences. Please check the manuscript and refine the language carefully.

The best way to improve the English, if you cannot improve it yourself is to pay someone like myself or a professional editing service to edit it for you.  One such service charges a minimum of $220 US for such a service, but I know of services that are much less expensive.

2) use of the word "respectfully"

The use of the word "respectfully" can be confusing when connecting a series of words.  For example, I could say:

"The research found 15 types of spiders, 42 types of butterflies, 13 types of moths, 27 types of beetles, 52 types of flies, 27 types of bees, and 12 types of grasshoppers in the study area." 

The words "types of" are repeated over and over.  To save space, authors can use the word "respectively."

8) Following journal guidelines.

Many authors never read the journal’s guidelines.  This is a major mistake.  A journal’s guidelines have a purpose.  Authors ignore them at their own peril.  Here are some actual comments from one journal that rejected the author’s paper:

Please note that the reference list must conform strictly to the Guide for Authors.

Conclusion provided should be within 100 words. Your conclusion exceeds the maximum length of 100 words.

Please avoid full justification, i.e., do not use a constant right-hand margin.

The order of the figures and tables at the end of the manuscript should be: figure captions page, tables, and figures. Please revise.

Type the whole manuscript with uniform double line spacing.

The author could have avoided rejection of his or her paper by simply following the journal guidelines.  I hope to discuss these issues and the reasons for them elsewhere in this blog.