英文论文常见错误

本文摘录自 《The Most Common Habits from more than 200 English Papers written by Graduate Chinese Engineering Students》 ，主要是为了自己方便查阅。学习英语多年，模仿过CNS的文章，写过不少英语论文，但还是水平有限。这篇文章明确地指出了中国学者在写作英语论文时候所容易犯的错误，一对照，发现自己中了一半。现在将该文章简单摘录如下。

The single most common habit is the omission of articles a, an, and the. This occurs because Mandarin has no direct equivalent of articles and the rules for using them are somewhat complicated for a non-native speakers.

Articles signal that a noun will follow and that any modifiers between the article and the noun refer to that noun (a big blue bicycle / the first award). A and an are indefinite articles; the is a definite article. Every time a singular noncount noun, a common noun that names one countable item, is used the noun requires some kind of determiner.

Mistake: The, a, and an are

Very long sentences are especially common in Chinese-English writing because the writers often translate directly from Chinese to English. Although, in Chinese writing it is acceptable to put several supporting ideas in on sentence to show their relationship, in English,the main idea and each supporting idea is typically written in separate sentences.

One can usually recognize a very long sentence by its length – sixty words or more . However, sentences of smaller lengths can also be too long if they contain multiple statements that confuse the main idea . Long sentences can be avoided by limiting each sentence to one or two topics. Semicolons should be used where the writer really wants to emphasize the relationship between ideas. 句子太长，特别是那些超过60个单词的。还有一些就是一直逗号。真想将多个内容放到一个句子中，可以适当利用分号。特别有时候主句已经够长，后面还用which引导的从句，就显得更长。

example： This paper derives the cooling formula of fan-coil units based on the characteristics of fan-coil air-conditioning systems and heat transfer theories, and puts forward a new method to gauge cooling called Cooling Metering on the Air-side ，which . The new method can monitor...

Chinese writers often preface the main topic of a sentence by first stating the purpose, location, reason, examples and conditions as introductory elements. However, this has the effect of demoting the importance of the main idea and making the reader think the author is indirect. Bring the main idea to the beginning of the sentence stating any locations, reasons, etc., afterwards. 其实就是说中国学者喜欢开场白，把目的，地点，原因什么的东西摆在想表达的内容前面作为铺垫。但这样在英语中是不可取的，降低了论点的重要性，以及让人感到你不够直接。 example 1: For the application in automobile interiors, this paper studies the nesting optimization problem in leather manufacturing. 这个原因提前了，应该改成： This paper studies the nesting optimization problem in leather manufacturing for application in automobile interiors. example 2: Based on the triangulation structure built from unorganized points or a CAD model, the extended STL format is described in this section. 基于xxx放在句首，这个句式我经常用，还自以为很精彩，实际应该改成： The extended STL format is described in this section based on the triangulation structure built from unorganized points or a CAD model.

尽量将时间从句放在后面 example： When U is taken as the control parameter, the BDs for ∆=0.01 is shown in Fig. 8. 应改成： Figure 8 shows the BDs for ∆=0.01 when U is taken as the control parameter.

Two very common errors are those concerning the presentation of Arabic numerals, and equations. Chinese writers usually write Arabic numerals instead of spelling out the word. The use of Arabic numerals, itself, is not an error however; they should never be used at the beginning of sentences. 英语句子开头如果是数字，要用英语，不能用阿拉伯数字 example： 12 Twelve parameters were selected for the experiment.

Arabic numerals are overused. Arabic numerals should be used to give data in technical papers, however they should not be used to give general information. 阿拉伯数字主要用于给出数据，而一些普通的信息则不用 example： *All 3 three studies concluded that the mean temperature should be 30°C.

Equations should be introduced as much as possible, not inserted in place of words. Most journals, like the International Journal of Production Research, discourage the use of even short expressions within the text. 公式要表达清楚，不要直接用符号 example： If the power battery SOC > is greater than SOClo and the driving torque belongs to the middle load ,…(不直接用">"，而是用英文表述）

Paragraphs are separated to indicate the end of one idea or thought and the beginning of another. All English paragraphs start on a new line with an indent of about one inch or with an extra line between the two paragraphs. The latter is more typical for business writing.

The antecedent (noun or pronoun) to which which refers is not specific, causing confusion. 就是用这个从句有时候指意不明 example： ‘The Shijiazhuang south road underground bridge possesses the largest jacking force, which is built at 1978(10680t).’ ‘Shijiazhuang south road underground bridge possesses the largest jacking force which is built at 1978(10680t).’

Two errors occur when these phrases are used. The first is overuse. In some papers written by Chinese, these phrases can occur as much as twice per page. In papers written by native English writers these phrases are reserved for primarily two uses

Therefore, if either phrase occurs more than three times in a paper, its use is questionable. Actually, the reader is aware that the work presented is by the author (unless the author states otherwise) so there is no reason to repeat these phrases. The second error is more subtle. The two phrases are interchanged. example: In this paper, IDEAS was used to …. 改成： In this study, IDEAS was used to….

The ‘study’ is the work the author/s did. The paper is the mode to present this work and is what the reader is holding/ reading. Keep in mind the writer can also use other phrases such as ‘in this research’, and ‘this paper present’.

Such as and etc. are commonly misused by Chinese-English writers. Such as means ‘for example’ and implies that an incomplete list will follow; etc. means ‘and so on’ and is used at the end of a list to show it is not complete. Therefore, using such as and etc. together is redundant. Such as means that an incomplete list will be given and should not be used when a complete list is given. example: Studies of methodology and process of implementing remanufacturing mainly focus on durable products such as automobile motors, printers , and etc .

随着越来越多的学术论文涌向高影响因子期刊，语言问题成了影响学术成果传播的一个重要因素，在中国，每年因为语言表述不清,用词不当等语言问题被拒稿的仍然占总拒稿量的较高比例，高水平的研究成果能得到国际同行的认可与交流，语言关是首先要通过的。

查尔斯沃思论文润色编辑在润色中国作者稿件时总结出一些普遍存在的语言问题如下：

标题冗长、不准确、书写不规范

标题的重要性以前我们在文章中已经多次提过，在此不必过多强调，主要说作者常犯的错误。首先是字数太长，不简洁，这样不仅不利于期刊检索也会导致无法突出重点，过于笼统。

不同领域的学术期刊都有对标题的字数的限制，如JAMA（美国医学会杂志）规定不得超过42个印刷字符（一个英文字母占一个印刷符号、空格和标点占一个印刷符号）。英国皇家数学学会规定标题不超过12个单词。因此不要使用无信息量词汇，尽量做到简洁。

用词不当、错别字、缩略词

还记得去年3月份查尔斯沃思发表的文章《OA期刊 赞上帝 ,英语水平是硬伤》，就是因为一篇在PLOS ONE上有中国作者发表的文章，由于用词不当，中国作者将造物主理解为大自然也许没错，不过，在英文用词上就不能直译成 God，闹了把大笑话。

用词不当包括专业术语、语法、搭配等方面的使用不当，有些作者甚至会杜撰，如蓝藻（cyanophytes）又叫蓝绿藻（blue-green algae）,而有的作者会将其翻译成“blue algae”，完全是中国式英语。

另一个存在的问题是缩略词的使用，缩略词是为了方便信息的交流，但不能过度使用，有些缩略词由于存在一词多义的现象，如果使用这类缩略词往往会引起歧义，如AIS 既可表示自动识别系统也可表示会计信息系统和人工免疫系统，因此，在遇到这类缩略词时要用全称。

除了上述的几个问题外，还有许多语言方面的问题值得去说，这些我们将在以后的文章中讲解。

参考：查尔斯沃思论文润色网页链接