Tips -- tips in SCI thesis writing

example 1: Poor expression :

“It is important to highlight the most recent works that…”

High quality expression :

“The most recent works that (…) are important to highlight.”

example 2: Poor expression :

“There is little attention given to the event.”

High quality expression :

“Little attention is given to the event.”

2. Learn to "the" The correct use of

Try not to use "the", Only when referring to a specific event / object / Only when using characters .
example ：

“The cells were plated…”

Especially in scientific papers , Get rid of "the" Will look more professional .

example ：

“Cells were plated…”

But if the phrase refers to a specific person 、 place 、 Or event , You should add "the"."the" The usage of depends largely on the context of the article .

3. Get rid of "that"

This is a writing style problem that non-native speakers often commit , Overcoming this can be quickly mastered l Thesis polishing skills , And it can help you write high-quality English articles ."that" It is generally used to guide clauses or modify nominal subjects . Sometimes remove "that" It doesn't change the meaning of the sentence , It will also read more coherently .
example ：

“The results showed many people like fruits.”

Read the sentence aloud , You will find that remove "that" Make sentences more coherent .

However , In other cases , You have to use "that"

“The results that were found in this study showed many people like fruits.”

Here are some words commonly used in scientific papers , These words usually do not need to be followed by "that":

Suggest/suggested

Observed

Found /was found

Show / shown

Is important

Highlight

4. About "of" Usage of

There are some common mistakes ：
error :

“In 2010, there were 8.8 millions of new cases of this disease around the world.”

correct :

“In 2010, there were 8.8 million new cases of this disease around the world.”

5. Try not to use the first person (“I" and "we”) , And use the passive voice
these years , There has been a heated debate about the use of active voice and passive voice in scientific papers . Some people think that the active voice is more relevant , The passive voice also has its uses .

example ：

“We found various types of mosquitos.”

actually , Many native English speaking researchers often use "we". About the phenomenon that scientific papers use the passive voice more frequently than other types of English written materials , There is a clear theory . Generally speaking , The passive voice is used to emphasize the object of the action . example ：

active : “The man ate the apple.”

The main meaning of this sentence is that that person is the one who eats apples .

If we use it upside down

passive : “The apple was eaten by the man.”

The main point of this sentence is , The apple was eaten .

Back to the previous topic , If you say “we found various types of mosquitos”, So the emphasis is “ You ” Found the result . If you change to the passive voice : “Various types of mosquitos were found”. At this time, the emphasis is on the result , As for who discovered it, it no longer matters . In this case , The sentence emphasizes , In your well-designed research, you found all kinds of mosquitoes , And any other researcher can repeat this study and get similar results . After all, in academic exchanges , Reproducing the research results is the most important .

Once you want to use " we ", Please keep the above theory in mind . If you really need , Also limit the frequency of use . Besides , stay “ Passive verbs + Gerund ” In the structure , When the agent subject of a gerund does not match , You should use “we” Replace the passive voice . example ：

Wrong expression ：“PCR was conducted using taq DNA polymerase.”

ad locum , Not at all PCR Used taq DNA polymer , It's the author , So use “we”.

Express... Correctly ：“We conducted PCR using taq DNA polymerase.”

In the above example sentence , Verb “to use” Most often misused . You can work at Microsoft Office Word Check whether the verb form is used correctly by using the function of finding and replacing .

6. Prepositional phrases at the beginning of sentences 、 Commas should be added after transitional words and adverbs

example ：

“In this study, this result was found.”

In Brazil,

Of these,

However,

Therefore,

Currently,

As previously reported,

7. Tense of sentence

When quoting literature results , Conclusions published in the past can be considered as admitted facts , Should use the past tense , Tell about the experiment and its results in the past tense .
about table or figure When the results shown in , You can use the present tense , The results of calculation and statistical analysis should be in the present tense .

8. Try to put adverbs in front of verbs

Error model ：

In order to show…clearly

Correct demonstration ：

In order to clearly show,…

9. Details that are easy to ignore

• Representation of complex numbers of graphs or formulas
  chart 5 Sum graph 6 Shows …

Figs. 5 and 6 show that…

Be careful Fig To add s, alike ：

Equations (1) and (2)

• There must be a space between numbers and units

Error model ：

10m/s

Correct demonstration ：

10 m/s