TECHNICAL WRITING IN ENGLISH

外教蛮帅的哦！

Three Golden Rules

• Focus on READABILITY
• Focus on STRUCERS
• Don’t forget ETHICS

Appropriate language(READABILITY)

1. Level of Formality
   say→ state
   think → believe
   put out → publish
   find out → investigate
   for sure → with certainty
   people → individuals

2. Avoid contraction
   x don’t   aren’t   isn’t
   √ do not

3. No emotion
   DON’T USE ANY ADJCTIVES
   Such as:
         beautiful;
         surprising
   Can only use:
   hope
   fear
   disappointment
   satisfaction

4. Don’t be vague
   few
   enough
   a lot

5. Practical and Precise

Sentence

Pain and simple

1.Length: short

over 30 words are hard to read

2.One general idea pre sentence
3.Use more passive forms

Transform too complex academic writing into clear

via:

• Deleting redundancies（冗余）
• Dividing long sentences into many shorter sentences
• Replacing ‘hundred-dollar words’ with ‘ten-cent words’ whenever possible

意思是说，不要为了用高级词汇而用高级词汇

• Being factual, clear and emotion-less, instead of being metaphoric(隐喻) or poetic

Structure

REMEMBER----------- Scientific writing is NOT literature

“I M R A D ” theory

I -----------Introduction 直入主题，不拖泥带水
M----------Materials and Methods 理论事实支撑
R----------Results 总结
A----------(And)
D----------Discussion

Be Ethical and Honest

a) Accuracy ----------Be honest in your results
b) Originality -------Your finding must be new
          --------DON’T SEND the same paper to several publishers
c)Plagiarism --------Do not take credit for someone else’s work.(不要把工作归功于别人)

Different between China and Western Countries

Don't be too modest

• Western people are likely to promote their own selves

Just like Trump💩

• They favors individuality and personal success

You mustn’t feel embarrassed about putting forward your findings, and those of others, as individuals.

• Go straight to the point

Paragraphs and Sentences

• A paragraph is a series of sentences that are organized and coherent, and are all related to a single main idea, a topic

How they work?

• a series of brief examples or a single long illustration of a general point;
• It might describe a place, character, or process;
• narrate(讲述) a series of events;
• compare or contrast two or more things;
• classify items into categories;
• or describe causes and effect.

TOPIC SENTENCES

Sentences that contain topic and the controlling idea

EXAMPLES:

1. People can avoid plagiarizing by taking certain precautions
2. There are several advantages to online education

Examples or explanations --------The body

Conclusion or link

This last part summarises the connections between the information discussed in the body of the paragraph and the paragraph’s controlling idea.

It can also link the paragraph with the next one and to the main topic of the essay

More tips

• Be consistent with
  - Don’t switch point of view.(不要切换观点)
  - Stick with the same verb tense (past or present)

• Use transition words
  - first of all
  - for example
  - in the other words
  - in fact
  - moreover
  - instead of

• Repeat key words and phrases(短语)

• Another Golden rule: Make short sentences

BUT DO NOT just for writing short sentences.When there are only short sentences, it feels robotic or choppy.

Vary length from 12 to 20 words.

Our goal is to make it easier to understand.

E-mails