Chap5f文献检索及科技科论文写作

Chapter 5: Improving Clarity (I)Next to the attribute of fluency, let us now introduce techniques of improving the clarity. Very few readers will continue reading patiently an article that is written unclearly. Regardless of the technical content, editors and reviewers most likely will harbor negative feelings toward our manuscripts whose clarity is low. 5-1. Techniques of Improving the Clarity(a) Do not belittle punctuationsExamples abound, showing disasters when we do not watch out punctuations. *下雨天留客天留我不留. Correct form: [下雨。

天留客。

天留，我不留], or [下雨天，留客天。

留我不？留！]* Let us eat Grandpa. Correct form: [Let us eat, Grandpa.] How can we afford to belittle punctuations? Our grandpa’s life depends on our writing!* Woman -- without her, man is nothing. Better form (better because authors of this chapter are exclusively men): [Woman, without her man, is nothing.] * Xiamen is situated in the subtropical area where fruits abound. I enjoy eating bananas, apples, oranges, papayas and grapes. Better form: […papayas, and grapes.][Authors: Without the comma, readers tend to think that papayas and grapes are more intimately related than other fruits are.]* He, who works diligently, will likely succeed. Correct form: [He who works diligently will likely succeed.][Authors: When the whole sentence does not make too much sense if the clause is removed, commas should be absent.]* My cousin who used to work 12 hours a day averagely was promoted to the CEO of his company last week. Correct form: [My cousin, who used to work 12 hours a day averagely, was promoted to the CEO of his company last week.][Authors: When the whole sentence remains meaningful regardless whether the clause exists or not, commas should be present.]* Mie scattering describes the light scattering by particles, whose diameters are larger than the wavelengths of impinging lights. Correct form: [… scattering by particles whose …]* By contrast, Rayleigh scattering of which the mechanism contributes to the bluecolor of the sky describes the light scattering by particles whose diameters are smaller than the light wavelength. Correct form: [By contrast, Rayleigh scattering, of which the mechanism contributes to the blue color of the sky, describes the light …][Authors: the underlined clause can be removed without damaging the integrity of the entire sentence.](b) Pay keen attention to pairs of words that look similar but mean differently.Here is a short story that is written by authors, and is interjected with numerous such pairs of words:dairy/diary, lama/llama, callus/callous, guerilla/gorilla, ordinance/ordnance, hanged/hung, loose/lose, advise/advice, resign/re-sign, secret/secretive, farther/further,clash/crash/crush, weary/wary, compliment/complement, valuable/invaluable, lie/lay, massage/message,distinct/distinctive, flush/blush, and valance/valence.Enjoy the story.As he approached a dairy on the hill, a lama, riding a llama and looking at the callus on his feet, jotted down on his diary, “Those callous guerilla fighters, who slaughtered gorillas in the jungle, should have been given the disciplinary ordinance, instead of the harmful ordnance. Some of them should have been hanged before they were let loose. When I called and advised the defense minister, it was unfortunate that he did not take my advice after he hung up the phone. Hope that he will resign and let the new minister re-sign the pact. Otherwise, soon guerilla’s tanks will secretly march farther to crash into barrack walls. Their fighters will further clash with, and crush, the government troops who likely will lose.” When arriving at the dairy, he looked weary.“What a beautiful llama!” a dairy clerk complimented. “Yes, it is a valuable animal, and is invaluable to my brother personally,” the lama replied. He tied the llama to a tree carefully, feeling wary that it might be stolen, as someone seemed to be secretively sneaking around behind the barn. He let the llama lie down on the ground, massaged its head passionately, and remembered to lay a cloth on it to keep it warm. He continued his message to the clerk, “My brother likes red tea; I like green tea, which smells distinctly. Although we complement each other, he and I also possess different characters distinctively. For example, when strangers talk to us, my brother will flush with uneasiness, whereas I will blush with shyness. In addition, my brother, who is now living in a room decorated with valances, enjoys doing research in characteristics of electrons in the valence band.”Dear readers, it is actually possible for us to continue the story, as there are more such pairs of words. Ah, we have a good idea. How about leaving it for us as a homework exercise?(c) Pay keen attention to pairs of words that mean both similarly and differently.Well, it is too bad that we must publish in order not to perish. Discerning the subtle difference between following pairs of words, we will increase the rigorousness in our manuscripts, and thus also increase the chance of acceptance by reviewers.Examples: (c1) The Runge-Kutta algorithm is of fourth-order accuracy because the truncation error in the Taylor’s series expansion is of Ο[(∆t)4] between the numerical solution and the exact solution (if it exists). When speaking of accuracies, in our mind we compare our results with true values. By contrast, if we use a thermocouple to measure the temperature of the sample repeatedly with results of 28℃±0.001%, then we can claim that our experiments achieve high precision. Therefore, when speaking of precision, in our mind we relate it to repeatability.(c2) Transient phenomena, within a reasonable period of time, will reach steady state. Unsteady phenomena may remain time-dependent all the time. In the literature, there may be thousands of journal papers in which these two words are mixed. Ignore them. We mind our own business.(c3) We randomly select numbers between zero and unity. By “randomly”, we actually adopt certain rational rules to make our selections, although we may not consciously know what they are. If not, these numbers will no longer be random. By contrast, terrorists arbitrarily select people to kill without any rational rules. In our manuscripts, most likely we will use the word “random” more frequently.(c4) Are “every” and “each” interchangeable? Not really. Every six months, Jennifer goes home in Shanghai to visit her parents. Every (or each) month, she goes to Quanzhou to see her fiancée. Therefore, “every” is used for repeated events. Each of her parents is very happy when she goes home. Being a decent daughter, Jennifer carries fruits and Chinese herbsin each of her hands for parents. We certainly cannot write “Everyof her parents …in every of her hands”. Here we realize that, for two entities, we must use “each”.(d) How to use the frequently-used verb, “attribute”We attribute A to B. Alternatively, A is attributed to B. Here A is the consequence;B is the cause.Examples: (d1) We attribute the occurrence of beautiful reddish sunsets to the mechanism of Rayleigh scattering.(d2) The sudden collapsing of twin towers in 911 catastrophe was attributed speculatively to stress fatigue induced by structural vibrations after the airplane collision.5-2 Homework exercise(a) Continue the story of lama or create your own story interjected with:contend/content, command/commend, council/counsel, cohesive/coherent decent/descent, desert/dessert, expansive/expensive, generic/genetic, genius/ingenious [watch out the “o” in the latter word], hard/hardly, haven/heaven, idea/ideal, intend/intent, lessen/lesson, low/lowly, nature/(the nature), nature/nurture, suit/suite, stationary/stationery, among others.(b) How many errors are there in [Jack is a man who harbors much brevity. Incidentally, he was also the man who jumped into the river and saved his neighbor’s cat three days ago.]?(c) Identify the error in [With a kind intend, Kathy intents to telephone her cousin not to visit her house.](d) Give a daily-life example in which an invaluable item may not be valuable.。