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Download Grammatical Issues - University of Texas: Aerospace Engineering
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Goal of writing: You want to write clearly and concisely so that an educated person who may not be an aerospace engineering can understand you. Simultaneously, direct your writing intellectually towards your colleagues. Address these two layers of written communication. Keep your reading audience in mind and write accordingly. Things to look for and to know: 1) Do not make assumptions about your reader’s knowledge. You must spoon feed readers what they need to know. 2) Explain abbreviated terms the first time you use them –for example, Aerospace Engineering (ASE). Afterward this clarification, you may then abbreviate, although perhaps give reminders of meaning later on. Spelling out meanings will add variety later as well. 3) Explain your assertions. Do not say something is important, necessary, valuable, etc. w/o saying why it is important, necessary, valuable, etc. In a similar vein, never say that something “is interesting” in writing. Interestingly good? Bad? “Interesting” can mean a lot of things. Be specific! 4) Informalities – contractions, colloquial language, ending sentence with prepositions –omit these entities. Contractions: incorrect – don’t; correct – do not Prepositions – words such as to, in, for, about, from should be the last word used in a sentence or clause Informal Language (outside of direct quotes) – you wouldn’t say, e.g., that “the temperature gets up to.” Better is, “The temperature often rises to…” **Being formal does not mean you have to employ the most fancy, exotic words available in a thesaurus. Write with a vocabulary level that feels comfortable to you. But do remember that you are writing formal reports, not emails to friends and informal notes to friends, so avoid slang. 5) Comma usage – especially to separate transitions and proper nouns Transitions: however, in fact, nevertheless, for example Correct: “However, the experiment….” Or, “The experiment, however, did….” Proper nouns: “The University of Texas at Austin, an institution….” 6) Passive voice verbs–any form of “to be.” Examples: is, was, were, had been, will be. Passive voice often hides the doer of the action. In technical writing, you may find this voice used frequently. It is accepted. But sometimes you need active voice, if only for variation of tone. Passive writing says that “information was hidden from researchers”; active voice states that “a company tried to hide information from researchers.” 7) Use parallel constructions: with preps, e.g. - to build and to repair. You do not always have to include the 2nd “to,” but you probably need to do so if the second preposition comes a while after the first. Also, make other structures parallel, especially in a series of items: example - “I like biking, swimming, playing baseball,” not “I like biking, swimming, and to play baseball.” 8) NEVER SPLIT INFINITIVES – this is my grammar pet peeve and a sign of sloppiness. An infinitive equals “to” plus a verb, NOT “to” plus a noun. No matter how awkward it might seem not to put the modifier or other word between “to” and the verb, you may not do so EVER! Rearrange the sentence according so as not to split infinitives, which often obfuscate the meaning of what you really want to say. Correct: to write correctly Incorrect: to correctly write 9) Some basic grammar terms I use when describing sentences or sentence parts: Clause: group of words with a subject and a verb Two types of clauses: Dependent: can not stand alone Ex. – “As I was watching the television, …” Independent: makes a complete sentence in and of itself Ex. – “I ate nachos.” Phrase: group of words without a subject and verb Prepositional phrase: at the store Four types of sentence structures: Simple – basic, has main subject(s) and verb(s) Ex. - I ate nachos. Or, “He and I prepared and ate nachos.) Compound – 2 or more simple sentences joined together by a conjunction and comma. Conjunction – and, but, or, nor, for, yet Ex. – He ate nachos, and I ate tacos. Complex – a sentence with both dependent clause(s) and one independent clause Ex. – As I was watching the television, I ate nachos. I ate the nachos, which I prepared with the cheese that I bought today. Compound Complex – 2 or more independent clauses, each with at least 1 dependent Ex. – He ate the nachos that he bought earlier, and he ate the tacos that he bought an hour ago at the restaurant that is next to the mall. 10) Vary use of vocabulary and sentence structures. Watch that you do not begin sentences with dependent clauses too often. And do not repeat the same verb or nouns or phrases over and over. Find different ways of expressing your ideas as often as possible. 11) Use of demonstratives (this, that, these, and those) and personal (it, they, we, us, etc.) pronouns. Readers must have enough information to know antecedents –i.e., the word for which the pronoun stands- if you use pronouns. Ex. - “The cars and the people filled the roads and alleys. This did not allow for movement of traffic.” What “this” means really does not explain explicitly what you want to say. You want to say that “This congestion in the streets…” or something that spells out what “this” means. 12) Misplaced (dangling) modifiers, whether they be only a word, a phrase, or a clause Examples: “There could have been an error in the cursers after a certain point that was not caught.” “The call will stand on the field” – Sunday Night Football, ESPN, November 7, 2004. Particularly Problematic: Participles A present participle is a verb ending in –ing. This form is called a dangling participle when the subject of the -ing verb and the subject of the sentence do not agree. An example is, "Rushing to finish the paper, Bob's printer broke." Here the subject is Bob's printer, but the printer is not doing the rushing. Better would be, "While Bob was rushing to finish the paper, his printer broke." (Pay close attention to sentences beginning with When ——ing.) One way to tell whether the participle is dangling is to put the phrase with the participle right after the subject of the sentence: "Bob's printer, rushing to finish the paper, broke" doesn't sound right. NOTE: Not all words in -ing are participles: in the sentence "Answering the questions in chapter four is your next assignment," the word answering functions as a noun, not a verb. (These nouns in -ing are called gerunds.) Source: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/d.html#dangling As a rule, put any modifier as close to what’s modified as possible. 13) Condense writing – look for places where you can combine into one pithy sentence those ideas which you stated in two sentences. Ex. – verbose: “De-icing mechanisms were installed to prevent significant amounts of ice from forming along the span of the wing and tail. When ice forms and accumulates, the resultant ice formation can cause a considerable disturbance to the flow over the airfoil. The disturbance can cause surfaces to vibrate and go into oscillations.” Better: “De-icing mechanisms were installed to prevent significant amounts of ice from forming along the span of the wing and tail, which causes considerable disturbance to the flow over the airfoil and leads to vibrations and oscillations of surfaces. 14) Do not create extremely short paragraphs. Shoot for the 10-12 line range. 15) Topic sentences Topic sentences should set up your paragraph’s use of evidence, and they usually comprise the first sentence of the paragraph. TS’s are the rudders of the paragraphs and alert the reader to what will follow. Two uses for TS’s: topic sentences for paragraphs and for sections. The best TS’s are dynamic. That is, they explain what the paragraph will say in relation to the overall thrust of the paper. TS’s often play off the paragraph before and set up the current paragraph’s evidence for your main argument in the paper. Concluding sentences allow for segue into the next paragraph. Examples: what’s logically wrong about the TS and what follows? Does the paragraph reinforce the topic idea? -In this lab we used a wide variety of tools and equipment that need a little of explanation. We first started by calculating the undamped natural frequency of the RLC circuit using the given values of L and C, which were L=0.553 H and C=0.01 μF, respectively…. (Hint: Does the rest of the paragraph discuss “a wide variety of tools? The paragraph ought to do so as the TS indicates it will.) 16) No need to write “in my opinion” or similar phrases. You are the writer, so it is all your opinion. 17) Use “since” to denote time, not in place of “because,” which shows a causal relationship. 18) No need to use the “ize” suffix with many verbs, i.e., “utilize,” for “use” will suffice. 19) Comma usage – be especially careful when setting off transitions and proper nouns, for example. These types of words require commas. 20) Make spacing between headings and text consistent. 21) In the introduction, tell me significance of your research in relation to previous work in the field. In the conclusion section, give future recommendations for experiments on your topic. In these two sections and in the abstract, give the context of your experiment, i.e., why is it important in engineering and the “real world.” Your report needs context to make people aware of your work’s significance and want to read about what you have done. Otherwise, readers may move on and read something else more appealing. (ASE 369K class only) Abbreviations used in grading: C = comma missing ww = wrong word sp = spelling error run-on (or, r-o) = run-on sentence (two or more complete sentences not joined properly) # = number, or singular/plural issues s/v = subject/verb disagreement TS = topic sentence sp. inf. = split infinitive misplaced mod. = misplaced modifier, could denote adjective (only word) or adjectival/adverbial phrase or clause that you have misplaced (see below) prep = preposition informal = means language used is colloquial or not suitable for formal writing frag = fragment. In other words, an incomplete sentence – lacks main subject or verb ex. “In particular, the scattered points in the phase angle plot for the minimum damping case that varied from the theoretical.” Has a verb, but that verb lies in a dependent clause describing “case,” so it does not count as a main clause (independent) verb. ___________ word/phrase_| word/phrase : the boxy part means you need to switch words or phrases ¶ = paragraph sent = sentence Further consultation/explanation: www.dictionary.com (Good for the thesaurus, to help you vary vocabulary.) see link Grammar, usage & style on dictionary.com. At this page, you might try the following: Guide to Grammar and Style, by Jack Lynch is helpful. Or, The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. Jane Straus' reference guide and workbook Also, the UT library homepage (see “Reference Sites” under “Research Tools”) has some great dictionaries and thesauruses. For a more fun read on some common mistakes, see http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Features/Columns/?article=grammarmain If you happen to find any other wonderful sites, let me know so I can update my paper here. Also, feel free to notify me of any mistakes in this handout so I may correct them. Thanks!