Generally speaking, academic paper writing, like other types of English writing, should follow the principles of clarity and conciseness, which are mainly reflected in the following points:
1. Active voice and passive voice
The active voice in English is concise and powerful, and the sender of the action is clear, while the passive voice is long, so sometimes you can't tell who the sender of the action is (for example, we can't be sure who should take the action from this sentence). In academic papers, the subject should be clearly pointed out in many places (such as who operated the experiment and who measured the data), and the language should be as concise as possible. Therefore, active voice should be used more in academic papers.
Similar to the following sentence:
(1)Raul(2007) considered whether countries are operating well on cross-border issues such as immigration.
(2)Jones(2005) thinks that poor food, poor housing, poor sanitation and a large family are the main reasons for poverty.
It should read:
(1) Raul (2007) considered whether the country operates well on transnational issues such as immigration.
(2) Jones (2005) thinks that poor food, poor housing, poor sanitation and large families are the main reasons for poverty.
So is it necessary to use the passive voice?
Yes Passive voice can be used when we are not clear about the sender of the action, or when we need to emphasize the action itself rather than the sender of the action. For example:
(1) Up to 90% of the energy in the light bulb is wasted in the form of heat.
(2) the first edition of Freud's earliest works about dreams was published in 1899.
The sender of the action of "wasting" in the first sentence can't be clear (and it's not necessary to be clear), and it doesn't matter who published Freud's works in the second sentence, so it's not necessary to use the active voice to explain who the publisher is.
2. Comparative sentences
We know that in English comparative sentences, sometimes the verbs behind the comparative subject can be omitted, such as:
On average, men are taller than women.
Can be omitted as:
Generally speaking, men are taller than women.
But this omission sometimes causes ambiguity, such as:
Women prefer friendly doctors to men.
If we omit do, it will become:
Women prefer friendly doctors to men.
At this point, this sentence will be ambiguous, because it can have two different understandings:
Women prefer friendly doctors to men.
Women prefer friendly doctors to men. Women prefer friendly doctors to men.
In order to avoid ambiguity, we should maintain the formal integrity of comparative sentences. Such a sentence:
(1) The finance department pays more attention to profit than the human resources department.
(2) Country A subsidizes high-tech innovation more than country B..
It should read:
(1) The finance department pays more attention to profit than the human resources department.
(2) Country A subsidizes high-tech innovation more than country B..
Replace nouns with verbs.
Verbs in English are usually simpler than nouns, because nouns themselves can't see actions, and they often need extra verbs to modify them. For example, to express "make a contribution", you should say "make a contribution" in the form of nouns, but if you use verbs, you only need to say "make a contribution". When you can use verbs in your paper writing, try to use verbs as much as possible to keep the article concise. Such a sentence:
Thompson (2006) listed three reasons why English has become so important.
(2)Smith(2007) discussed the challenges and strategies of promoting ERP.
Need to change to:
Thompson (2006) listed three reasons why English has become so important.
(2) Smith (2007) discussed the challenges and strategies to promote and promote enterprise resource planning.
4. reduce the use of there be sentence patterns and it.
Be sentence pattern may be one of the most familiar sentence patterns for China students, but most be sentence patterns are not concise enough and can be replaced by other forms. For example:
It is necessary to choose a semi-structured method.
Can be changed to a more concise version:
A semi-structured approach must be chosen.
Another example is:
It is necessary for the president of the association to implement this policy on a larger scale.
It can be changed to:
The president of the association must implement this policy on a larger scale.
We can also simplify the formal subject, such as:
(1) It is necessary to modify the model.
(2) Government intervention is very important.
It can be changed to:
(1) The model must be modified.
(2) The government must intervene.
5. misplaced modifiers
Dislocation of modifiers refers to the phenomenon of putting modifiers in the wrong place, which leads to ambiguity. For example:
I was told that I would be awarded a scholarship by my professor.
This sentence is ambiguous because my professor put the modifier inappropriately. I was told by my professor that I would get a scholarship or I was told that my professor would grant me a scholarship. The way to avoid ambiguity is to adjust the position of my professor, for example:
My professor told me that I would get a scholarship.
Similar examples are:
A team led by Dr. craig smith of the University of Hawaii at Manoa found these crabs using a remote-controlled submersible.
This sentence is also ambiguous, because using a remote control can not be understood as the action issued by the crab, but also as the action issued by the research team. To avoid ambiguity, this sentence can be changed to:
A team led by Dr. craig smith from the University of Hawaii at Manoa used a remote submersible to find crabs.
Step 6 be careful with pronouns
We sometimes use pronouns to refer to the above-mentioned nouns or sentence elements, but it has a disadvantage: it is sometimes difficult for readers to determine which part pronouns refer to. Writing academic papers requires clarity and rigor, so pronouns must be used carefully and can be replaced if necessary. For example:
The case study method is selected; This makes it possible to observe a single specimen more carefully.
In the sentence, this may refer to the case study method or choose the case study method. In order to make the meaning of this sentence clearer, we can change this sentence to:
A case study method is chosen to observe a single sample more carefully.
Another example is:
X essentially changed y. This shows that y can be modified by the proposed model.
This sentence can be changed to a clearer version:
X essentially changed y. This discovery shows that Y can be modified by using the proposed model.
7. Avoid using pronouns that may cause gender discrimination.
When using pronouns such as he, he, his, her and him, we should avoid taking sides. For example:
When a politician runs for public office, he must spend a lot of money to compete with his opponent.
The pronoun here refers only to the male side. In order to avoid gender discrimination, we can use plural forms of nouns and pronouns:
When politicians run for public office, they must spend a lot of money to compete with their opponents.
Or remove pronouns from sentences:
A politician running for public office must spend a lot of money to compete with his opponent.
At the same time, when using some nouns, we should also pay attention to gender issues. For example, to express "human", it is better to use humanity than humanity, because human beings have a certain gender color. Some people will question why only humans don't have womankind, but it will be much fairer to use humans.
I hope I can help you, and I hope to adopt it!