END 011 科技英文寫作 ( 二 )-9 English Technical Writing ( 二 )-9

END 011科技英文寫作 (二)-9English Technical Writing (二)-9 Prof. Jeffrey Shiang Fu 傅祥教授 jeffsfu@gmail.com 0987-520-488 / (03)2118-800*5795

6 MATERIALS

OVERVIEW Although the second major section of the experimental research report is often called “method”, it is some times titled materials and method.

This combined title indicates that researchers generally describe these two aspects together when they write up their research. That is they simultaneously describe any equipment or other materials they used with each step in their procedure.

In this chapter we examine materials description in detail and learn how to integrate it with the procedural description.

INFORMATION CONVENTIONS By materials we mean any items used to carry out a research project. They may fall into any of the following categories:

MATERIALS • Laboratory equipment • Field equipment • Human or animal subjects • Natural substances • Fabricated materials • Surveys, questionnaires and tests • Computer models • Mathematical models

Ordering Your Information If the materials you used are well known to researchers in your field, it is conventional to identify them only.

However, if you used specially designed or unconventional materials in your experiment, it is common to write a detailed description of them in the report. In this case, you should include the following information, in the order given:

DESCRIBING SPECIALLY DESIGNED MATERIALS: Three Steps • Overview: This step consists of one or two sentences that give a general idea of the material and the purpose for which it is intended.

Description of principal parts: Here, each major part or characteristic of the material is described in logical sequence. • Functional description: This last step shows how the various features described in Step B function together.

Ordering the Description of Principal Parts －Step B In Step B you describe the principal features of the material used in your study. There are two main organizing plans that you can use in this step, depending on your material.

ARRANGEMENT PLANS FOR DESCRIBING PRINCIPAL PARTS OF MATERIALS (STEP B)

Spatial arrangement: Describe the features from top to bottom, front to back, left to right, from the center to the outside, or in some other spatial way. This arrangement is especially useful for describing equipment consisting of various connected parts.

Functional arrangement: Describe the principal features in the order in which they function, from beginning to end. This arrangement is best for describing parts that operate in a fixed sequence.

Integrating Materials with Procedure The materials used in a study are sometimes described separately from the procedures.

This arrangement may be used when several different pieces of conventional laboratory equipment are used to carry out a routine procedure. This can be seen in the following example form the field of chemistry.

All the aromatic compounds used were commercially available materials without further purification. 2-propanol was distilled from sodium metal.

The instrumentation used included an HFT-80 and NT-300 spectrometer, a Hewlett Packard 5980-A mass spectrometer, a Waters Associates HPLC Instrument, Model 600A, and a Varian Aerograph 1400 GC instrument with a 10-ft column containing 15% Carbowax on Chromosorb W.

More commonly, however, materials and methods are described in an integrated form, often with both elements mentioned in each sentence.

Notice this arrangement in the following section from the same chemistry experiment. (The material mentioned in each sentence is underlined, and the procedure is circled.)

1Aqueous sodium hydroxide (30g, 185mL) was cooled in ice in a 500-mL beaker, stirred magnetically while 5 g of nickel-aluminum alloy was added in several small portions, and gradually warmed to 100℃ as required to maintain the hydrogen evolution.

2 The nickel was then allowed to settle, and the liquid was decanted. 3 After being washed with 5% fresh sodium hydroxide and distilled water until neutral, the nickel suspension was filtered with a glass funnel and then finally washed with 100 mL of 2-propanol.

4 The catalyst was transferred with small amounts of dry 2-propanol to a glass-stoppered bottle.

END 011 科技英文寫作 ( 二 )-9 English Technical Writing ( 二 )-9