Contents 1 Nouns: plurals, countable versus uncountable 2 Genitive: the possessive form of nouns 3 Inde fi nite article: a / an

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1 Contents 1 Nouns: plurals, countable versus uncountable regular plurals irregular plurals nouns ending in -s nouns indicating a group of people number-verb agreement countable nouns: use with articles singular countable nouns: use with and without a / an in scientific English uncountable nouns: general rules uncountable nouns: using a different word or form uncountable nouns: more details Genitive: the possessive form of nouns position of the s with authors and referees theories, instruments etc companies and politicians universities, departments, institutes etc animals genitive with inanimate objects periods of time Inde fi nite article: a / an a versus an: basic rules a versus an: use with acronyms, digits, and symbols a / an versus one a / an versus the: generic versus specific a / an versus the: definitions and statements a / an, the, possessive pronoun: parts of the body De fi nite article: the definite article (the): main usage specific versus general: examples other uses of the definite article Zero article: no article zero article versus definite article (the): main usage other uses of the zero article nationalities, countries, languages zero article and the: contradictory usage in scientific English ix

2 x 5.5 zero article versus a / an zero article and a / an: contradictory usage in scientific English Quanti fi ers: any, some, much, many, each, every etc quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns any versus some any versus no a little, a few vs. little, few much, many, a lot of, and lots of each versus every, every versus any no versus not Relative pronouns: that, which, who, whose that, which, who, whose that versus which and who omission of that, which and who avoiding ambiguity by using a relative clause in preference to the -ing form avoid long and difficult-to-read sentences involving which avoid ambiguity with which Tenses: present, past, future present simple vs present continuous: key rules present perfect: key rules present perfect: problem areas past simple: key rules present simple vs past simple: specifi c rules (aims and methods) present simple, present perfect and simple past: reference to the literature present simple vs past simple: specifi c rules (results and discussion) present perfect vs present perfect continuous past continuous and past perfect vs simple past will Conditional forms: zero, fi rst, second, third zero and first conditional second conditional other uses of would present simple versus would third conditional Passive versus active: impersonal versus personal forms main uses of passive passive better than active: more examples... 67

3 xi 10.3 active better than passive ambiguity with passive Imperative, in fi nitive versus gerund ( ing form) imperative infinitive in order to passive infinitive perfect infinitive gerund ( ing form): usage by versus thus + gerund to avoid ambiguity other sources of ambiguity with the gerund replacing an ambiguous gerund with that or which, or with a rearranged phrase verbs that express purpose or appearance + infinitive verbs that require an accusative construction (i.e. person / thing + infinitive) active and passive form: with and without infinitive active form: verbs not used with the infinitive let and make verbs + gerund, recommend, suggest verbs that take both infinitive and gerund Modal verbs: can, may, could, should, must etc present and future ability and possibility: can versus may impossibility and possibility: cannot versus may not ability: can, could versus be able to, manage, succeed deductions and speculations about the present: must, cannot, should deductions and speculations: could, might (not) present obligations: must, must not, have to, need past obligation: should have + past participle, had to, was supposed to obligation and recommendation: should Link words (adverbs and conjunctions): also, although, but etc about, as far as is concerned also, in addition, as well, besides, moreover also, as well, too, both, all: use with not although, even though versus even if and, along with as versus as it as versus like (unlike) as, because, due to, for, insofar as, owing to, since, why

4 xii 13.9 both and, either or e.g. versus for example e.g., i.e., etc for this reason versus for this purpose, to this end the former, the latter however, although, but, yet, despite, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding however versus nevertheless in contrast with vs. compared to, by comparison with instead, on the other hand, whereas, on the contrary thus, therefore, hence, consequently, so, thereby omission of words in sentences with and, but, both and or Adverbs and prepositions: already, yet, at, in, of etc above (below), over (under) across, through already, still, yet among, between, from, of (differentiation and selection) at, in, to (location, state, change) at, in and on (time) at, to (measurement, quality) before, after, beforehand, afterwards, first (time sequences) beside, next to, near (to), close to (location) by and from (cause, means and origin) by, in, of (variations) by and within (time) by now, for now, for the moment, until now, so far during, over and throughout (time) for, since, from (time) in, now, currently, at the moment in, inside, within (location) of and with (material, method, agreement) Sentence length, conciseness, clarity and ambiguity maximum two ideas per sentence put information in chronological order, particularly in the methods section avoid parenthetical phrases avoid redundancy prefer verbs to nouns use adjectives rather than nouns be careful of use of personal pronouns: you, one, he, she, they

5 xiii 15.8 essential and non-essential use of: we, us, our avoid informal words and contractions emphatic do / does, giving emphasis with auxiliary verbs ensuring consistency throughout a manuscript translating concepts that only exist in your country / language always use the same key words: repetition of words is not a problem avoid ambiguity when using the former / the latter, which, and pronouns avoid ambiguity when using as, in accordance with, according to when expressing a negative concept using a negation Word order: nouns and verbs put the subject before the verb and as near as possible to the beginning of the phrase decide what to put first in a sentence: alternatives do not delay the subject avoid long subjects that delay the main verb inversion of subject and verb inversion of subject and verb with only, rarely, seldom etc inversions with so, neither, nor put direct object before indirect object phrasal verbs noun + noun and noun + of + noun constructions strings of nouns: use prepositions where possible deciding which noun to put first in strings of nouns position of prepositions with which, who and where Word order: adverbs frequency + also, only, just, already probability manner time first(ly), second(ly) etc adverbs with more than one meaning shift the negation word (no, not, nothing etc.) to near the beginning of the phrase Word order: adjectives and past participles adjectives multiple adjectives ensure it is clear which noun an adjective refers to past participles

6 xiv 19 Comparative and superlative: -er, -est, irregular forms form and usage position comparisons of (in)equality the more the more Measurements: abbreviations, symbols, use of articles abbreviations and symbols: general rules spaces with symbols and abbreviations use of articles: a / an versus the expressing measurements: adjectives, nouns and verbs Numbers: words versus numerals, plurals, use of articles, dates etc words versus numerals: basic rules words versus numerals: additional rules when 1 10 can be used as digits rather than words making numbers plural singular or plural with numbers abbreviations, symbols, percentages, fractions, and ordinals ranges of values and use of hyphens definite article (the) and zero article with numbers and measurements definite article (the) and zero article with months, years, decades and centuries once, twice versus one time, two times ordinal numbers, abbreviations and Roman numerals dates Acronyms: usage, grammar, plurals, punctuation main usage foreign acronyms grammar punctuation Abbreviations and Latin words: usage meaning, punctuation usage punctuation abbreviations found in bibliographies common Latin expressions and abbreviations

7 xv 24 Capitalization: headings, dates, fi gures etc titles and section headings days, months, countries, nationalities, natural languages academic titles, degrees, subjects (of study), departments, institutes, faculties, universities figure, table, section etc.; step, phase, stage etc keywords acronyms euro, the internet Punctuation: apostrophes, colons, commas etc apostrophes ( ) colons (:) commas (,): usage commas (,): non usage dashes (_) hyphens (-): part hyphens (-): part parentheses ( ) periods (.) quotation marks ( ) semicolons (;) bullets: round, numbered, ticked bullets: consistency and avoiding redundancy Referring to the literature most common styles common dangers punctuation: commas and semicolons punctuation: parentheses et al Figures and tables: making reference, writing captions and legends figures, tables legends referring to other parts of the manuscript Spelling: rules, US versus GB, typical typos rules some differences in British (GB) and American (US) spelling, by type some differences in British (GB) and American (US) spelling, alphabetically misspellings that spell-checking software does not find

8 xvi Appendix 1: Verbs, nouns and adjectives + prepositions Appendix 2: Glossary of terms used in this book Index

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