Words
The choice of words you write is determined by rules of grammar, considerations of audience and matters of convention. For example, if you write She did a crime then the verb did is not grammatically wrong but it is conventionally inappropriate. The preferred verb would be committed. The following sections will help you to improve these aspects of your writing.
Articles
Articles (59KB | PDF)in English are the words a, an, and the. These are essential components in understanding whether you and your readers share the same knowledge about the world you are describing. This linked Academic Skills Unit flyer provides some advice on the use of articles with examples from writing in Education.
Useful references:
Swan, M. (1994). Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Masters, P. A. (1986). Science, Medicine, and Technology: English grammar and technical writing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Link: Purdue Online Writing Lab
Collocations
Collocation involves words that are frequently or conventionally combined to produce native speaker-like speech and writing. In English, these are usually fixed two-word combinations, for example, ‘heavy rain’ or ‘strong wind,’ or phrasal verbs such as ‘to give up,’ or ‘to put off’. Using the correct collocations helps you to write more clearly and precisely. Collocations can be formed from various combinations of adjectives, nouns, prepositions and verbs. Some examples include:
- adverb + adjective:
Are you fully aware of the implications of your action?
- adjective + noun:
- noun + noun:
The ceasefire agreement came into effect at 11am.
- noun + verb+ preposition:
The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise.
The bomb went off when he started the car engine.
Links:
www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations-samples.htm
http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/advdicts/collocation.htm
www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/worldservice/quiznet/quizengine?ContentType=text/html;quiz=1349_common_collocat
Useful references:
Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English, (2002) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
top of pageDiscipline-specific vocabulary (Science)
Scientific terms in English most often originate from the Greek and Latin languages, both the stem or root words and the accompanying prefixes or suffixes. For example, in Latin, fluvius means ‘river.’ When you combine it with the suffix ‘i/al’, we get the word fluvial, an adjective meaning ‘pertaining to rivers; produced by the action of a stream or river.’
Stem or Root Words |
Prefixes |
Suffixes |
anti-venom |
anti- |
|
bi-cellular |
bi- |
-ar |
endothermic |
endo- |
-ic |
fluvial |
- |
-ial, -al |
isobar |
iso- |
_ |
igneous |
- |
-ous |
Links:
https://airport.unimelb.edu.au/science/
http://serc.carleton.edu/ess_vocab/part3.htm
www.csun.edu/~vceed002/ref/language/index.html
The University Vocabulary Trainer from the University of Hong Kong has been specially designed to help you learn the key words for more effective university study. Includes definitions, examples of usage and guidelines for punctuation.
Clichés and redundancy
Clichés are over-used expressions that lack freshness or insight. Clichés make your writing seem lazy because they lack originality. Avoid them and try to use your own words. Redundancy (see below) is often a type of clichéd language.
Examples
- “As everyone knows” = Most adults know that . . .
- “In this day and age” = Today . . .
- “Every coin has two sides” = There are two sides to the argument: . . .
- “This modern technological society” = (Japanese/etc.) society
- “At this moment in time” = Now
- “Due to the fact that . . .” = Because
- “Slowly but surely” = Slowly
Links:
http://learnhub.com/lesson/page/5352-can-you-identify-the-cliches
Useful references:
Compact Oxford Thesaurus for Students: (2007) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Redundancy occurs when you use words that repeat meaning unnecessarily. The italicized words in the examples below are redundant.
- Each individual, basic fundamentals, true facts, important essentials, future plans, personal beliefs, consensus of opinion, terrible tragedy, end result, final outcome, free gift, past memories.
(Williams, Ten Lessons, 1994, 3rd edition, p.83)
Nouns can also be redundant:
- Heavy in weight, large in size, round in shape, at an early time, extreme in degree, red in colour
Further examples:
‘Not + adjective’ expressions (replace with more precise wording)
- Not different = similar
- Not many = few
- Not remember = forget
- Not have = lack
- Not allow = prevent
- Not admit = deny
Repeated noun (put it last only)
“Chinese students, Japanese students and Korean students” [Incorrect]
“Chinese, Japanese and Korean students” [Correct]
Repeated adjective (put it first only)
“Government policies, government processes and government procedures” [Incorrect]
“Government policies, processes and procedures” [Correct]
Where possible, simplify a large noun group containing a preposition:
- 'The teaching of English' to 'English teaching'
- The procedures in place in the school for disciplining students (10 words)to 'student discipline procedures'
Compound Nouns
Compound nouns combine or join two or more nouns together, (adjective + noun, preposition + noun, etc.) to form compact units of information like toothpaste, economic slowdown, and output.
Long strings of nouns are common in economics and the sciences. However these can be confusing, and may need to be re-written for the sake of clarity. For example:
Early childhood thought disorder misdiagnosis often occurs as a result of unfamiliarity with recent research.
What does ‘early’ mean in this example? The childhood, the disorder or the misdiagnosis?
You could clarify this confusion by writing:
Physicians often misdiagnose disordered thought in young children because they are unfamiliar with recent research.
(Williams, Ten Lessons, 3rd edition 1994, p84)
Links:
www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/worldservice/quiznet/quizengine?ContentType=text/html;quiz=129_compound_nouns
Cambridge On-Line Learner's Dictionary:
This site will give you some sample sentences for each word entry.