Link:/Question /3 1864290/ Answer/17374226.

Source: Zhihu.

The copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for authorization for commercial reprinting, and please indicate the source for non-commercial reprinting.

The usage of articles in thesis writing is consistent with that in public English writing. The core rules are:

Generally refers to the indefinite article used in the singular form of countable nouns,

Generally refers to uncountable nouns or countable nouns in plural without articles,

Certain nouns (especially unique things, proper nouns composed of many common words) always use definite articles.

In the comments, some students asked what is general and what is specific. Then I'll explain it briefly here.

Generally speaking, we have a lot in common, but we don't know which one we are talking about, just say one. For example, if I invite you to eat an apple, I say to you: Take any apple and eat it. I don't know which one you want This situation is a general term.

Specifically, it has two meanings. First, there are a lot of the same things, but I will say this one. For example, if I invite you to eat an apple, I will pick up an apple for you and say, eat this apple, which is red and sweet. This situation is specific. Another meaning is something unique. Such as the sun, the moon, the earth, People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States.

Generally speaking, when we first mention a concept or a thing in a paper, as long as it is countable, we must add the indefinite article A in front of it. In the future, as long as you mention it again, you must add the definite article the before it.

For example, I mentioned a drug for treating cardiovascular diseases ... I didn't specify what kind of drug it was, so I can only use a general statement here, preceded by an indefinite article A.

In the next paragraph, I mentioned this medicine again. It is found that the drug can effectively improve the coronary blood flow, but it can specifically dilate the penis cavity. Therefore, the drug should be added before it.

Coronary artery blood flow is a phrase, and the head word flow is an uncountable noun, which does not specifically mention anyone's coronary artery blood flow, so it is a general term here and no articles can be added.

Penile cavernous artery (JJ cavernous artery) is a phrase, and the central word artery is a countable noun, so this phrase is preceded by either an indefinite article or a definite article. There is a clear suggestion in the previous article that the drug can dilate the cavernous sinus artery of JJ, so the cavernous sinus artery of JJ here is clear, and this article must be added. Seeing the students studying medicine here, they all reacted: this medicine is the famous sildenafil, and the commodity name is Viagra.

Please refer to the English grammar book for details.

However, for some academic vocabulary, how to add articles, the general English grammar book will not talk about it. I have read some prose writing tutorials written by China people before and gained a lot of experience, but now I have forgotten a lot, so I can only write something I am sure of by memory. The suggested topic refers to the process of China people writing academic papers in Chinese.

The names of substances (whether systematic naming, popular naming or drug naming) are uncountable without articles. For example: methane, ethanol, ethyl acetate, penicillin. However, if the name of a substance is used as an attribute to modify a head word, it usually comes before it, such as methane molecule.

Naming rules and formulas do not add articles. Such as Newton's first law, Euler's formula and Mendel's law. However, in organic chemistry, people's name reaction needs articles. Like the Reformatsky reaction.

Especially a letter in the formula without an article, for example, the formula of Newton's second law is a = f/m, where a is accumulation, f is external force and m is mass.

The abbreviations of companies, organizations and research funds should be omitted, and their full names should be added, for example, Microsoft and Microsoft Corporation, NCBI and National Biotechnology Information Center, NSF and National Science Foundation (China).

Universities do not have full names or abbreviations, such as my alma mater, China Pharmaceutical University (CPU). Some schools * * * share the same school name, such as Tsinghua in Beijing and Tsinghua in Hsinchu. You can't add The, you can only add city as a distinction.

Headlines of newspapers and magazines, whether full names or abbreviations, are not preceded by the, such as: Nature, Science, journal of the American chemical society. Of course, some newspapers have their own headlines, so don't confuse them, such as The New York Times.