文档介绍：Common English Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Patrick Fleisch
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
12/2/2017
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Goals of This Presentation
Help you avoid some of the mistakes that Chinese writers make very often
Give you a better understanding of plications of the English language
Improve your scientific English
Give you some English tips
Get your feedback
12/2/2017
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Verb Tenses
Past Tense
Description of the materials/methods used in the experiment
Attributing work to another author
Present Tense
Background/accepted information
Description of figures
Discussion of results and drawing conclusions
Part I: Common Mistakes
12/2/2017
3
Verb Tenses (cont.)
Example 1
Incorrect: “…has been shown in Fig. 1.”
Correct: “…is shown in Fig. 1.”
Example 2
Incorrect: “…are impregnated over silica particles…”
Correct: “…were impregnated over silica particles…”
Part I: Common Mistakes
12/2/2017
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“the” and “a”
This is often a difficult distinction to make even when you know the rules.
Always use “the” when referring to something specific or previously mentioned in the paper.
Use “a”
Talking about a general class of something
Mentioning something for the first time
Singular count nouns
Part I: Common Mistakes
12/2/2017
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“the” and “a”(cont.)
Examples:
Based on the previous research mentioned above…
The resulting membranes had a somewhat lower permeance than the ones prepared…
During the 10-hour stable run time…
Ethyl nitrite first dissociates into an adsorbed ethoxy radical…
Part I: Common Mistakes
12/2/2017
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Active vs. Passive Voice
Passive voice is sometimes appropriate, but should not be used often.
If the sentence can be rewritten with the subject performing the action, do it!
Example:
Active: I ate all the dumplings
Passive: All the dumplings were eaten by me.
Part I: Common Mistakes
12/2/2017
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Active vs. Passive Voice (cont.)
More recently, a new catalyst system for the synthesis of higher alcohols was designed by introducing FT-elements (Fe,