Some General Guidelines for Technical Writing in English

1. Some General GuidelinesforTechnical Writing in English Dr. Arthur Chiou College of Science & Engineering National Dong Hwa University Shoufeng, Hualien, Taiwan aechiou@mail.ndhu.edu.tw

2. Effective Oral Presentation: All you need to know To become a confident & joyful speaker Dr. Arthur Chiou College of Science & Engineering National Dong Hwa University Shoufeng, Hualien, Taiwan aechiou@mail.ndhu.edu.tw

3. Outline • The way we learn how to write (a technical paper) : what’s wrong? • The No. 1 problem in our writing : the logical structure & the logical link • The structural principles • Active vs. passive • The strong verb vs. the weak verb + the abstract noun • Write the way you talk: write (and read) with your ears • Parallelism • Conciseness • The English grammar: the tenses • The English grammar: the dangling modifiers/participles • The ambiguity • The generic vs. the specific • What scientists said vs. what they meant • The general components of a typical technical paper • References

4. The Way We Learn How to Write(a Technical Paper) : What’s Wrong? • Lectures on Technical Writing in English • The teachers • The students • The 3 C’s: Correct, Clear, and Concise • The readers: The readers do not just read; they interpret.

5. The No. 1 Problem in Our Writing :the logical structure & the logical link • Technical or Business Writing vs. Mysteries: The Readers’ Expectations • From Old to New: The Stress Position • The Logical Link: The Transitional Phrase or Sentence Sentence # 2 Sentence # 1 A (or) B (or) C B C D E A

6. George D. Gopen & Judith A. Swan,“The Science of Scientific Writing”, American Scientist, Vol. 78, 550 (1990). • The misplacement of old and new information turns out to be the No. 1 problem in American professional writing today. • Put in the topic position the old information that links backward; put in the stress position the new information you want the reader to emphasize.

7. The Structural Principles • Follow a grammatical subjects as soon as possible with its verb. • Place in the stress position the “new information” you want the reader to emphasize. • Place the person or thing whose “story” a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position. • Place appropriate “old information” (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward. • Articulate the action of every clause or sentence in its verb. • In general, provide context for your reader before asking that reader to consider anything new. • In general, try to ensure that the relative emphases of the substance coincide with the relative expectations for the emphasis raised by the structure. George D. Gopen & Judith A. Swan,“The Science of Scientific Writing”, American Scientist, Vol. 78, 550 (1990).

8. From Old to New: An exercise Brewery Effluent in China • With an estimated annual production of 6 million cubic meters, China has become the fifth-largest beer-consuming nation in the world, after the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Russia. • As a result of this heavy output of effluent, the brewery industries has become one of the major polluters in China. • As the standard of living has improved in the last ten years, beer, a Western beverage, has become very popular in China. • For each cubic meter of beer produced, these plants in general generate 20 to 30 cubic meters of effluent, much more than that reported to be produced by modern plants in Western nations. • Of the thousands of breweries in China, most are located in rural areas, use outdated technology, and until recently, have been little concerned with pollution.

9. Find the Missing Logical Links: An example Biomedical fiber-optical sensors attract a lot of attentions in last ten years. Bending fiber-optic sensors are simple and cost effective. The fiber-optic bending sensors can be applied to measure many physical quantities, such as voltage, strain, temperature, pressure, etc. With the wavelength division multiplexing techniques intensively grew up, the multi-channel high-speed WDM distributed fiber-optic bending sensor become an important issue. Such WDM fiber bending sensors can be applied in biomedical sensor systems.

10. Active vs. Passive Voices • Bees disperse pollen. • Pollen is dispersed by bees. • Three phases of analysis are included in their approach. • Their approach includes three phases of analysis • I was robbed (by somebody). • Somebody robbed me. • The building was completely destroyed in the second world war. • Leonard was rushed into the operating room. • Three hospital attendants and the ambulance driver rushed Leonard into the operating room. Your work vs. work done by other researchers

11. The Action Verbvs.the Abstract Noun + the Weak Verb • To investigate • To carry out an investigation of • An investigation of … has been carried out • To decide • To make a decision of • To explain • To provide an explanation of • To understand • To facilitate the understanding of

12. Write the Way You Talk:Write (and Read) with Your Ears If you read your manuscript (or paper) aloud to life audience, would it sound like a natural oral presentation ? See, for example, D. A. B. Miller, “Quantum well optoelectronic switching devices”, International Journal of High Speed Electronics, Vol. 1, No. 1, 19 – 46 (1990).

13. The Action Verb • The departure of the airplane is thought to be dependent on the weather. • Bad weather may ground the airplane. • To think that an answer that would be satisfactory had taken so long to arrive was something that put him into a state of deep resentment. • He deeply resented the long wait for a satisfactory answer. • It is clear that Deanna is in need of practice before the concert. The last time she played her violin was three weeks ago, and she is familiar with only the first movement of the Mozart symphony on the program. • Clearly, Deanna needs to practice before the concert. She has not touched her violin in three weeks, and she knows only the first movement of the Mozart symphony on the program.

14. Parallelism • She liked games, movies, and going to picnics. • She liked games, movies, and picnics. • He was intelligent but a boring boy. • He was intelligent but boring. • The trip had been both difficult and a great expense. • The trip had been both difficult and expensive. • A time not for words but action. • A time not for words but for action.

15. Parallelism Either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, first/second/third • Either I am always in doubt or I am always in trouble. • I am always either in doubt or in trouble. • I am always in either doubt or trouble. • They hoped to go not only to London but also to Paris. • They hoped to go to not only London but also Paris. • For love, for honor, for fame, or for money. • For love, honor, fame, or money.

16. Parallelism President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom, symbolizing an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal as well as changes …. …… So let us begin anew, remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Now the trumpet summons us again – not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,” a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself. And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

17. Conciseness: Make Every Word Count • There is a slight difference in terms of speed between the two methods. • The two methods differ slightly in speed. • It is important to develop a more effective approach to solve the complicated problem. • A more effective approach must be developed to solve the complicated problem. • There is a comparison made in this article of the major differences between commercially successful keyboards. • This article compares the major differences between commercially successful keyboards. • It is interesting to note that …. • There is increasing evidence that …. • It has long been known that ….

18. Conciseness: Make Every Word Count • red color, or red in color red • round in shape round • falling down falling • join together join • actual fact fact • very unique, or quite unique unique • in a position to can • despite the fact that although • a length of 5 mm 5 mm long • It is interesting to note that interestingly • It is obvious that obviously • It is our opinion that we believe that • There is a necessity for must

19. Conciseness: Make Every Word Count To All Employees The management of this company after due and careful consideration of certain regrettable practices which have recently been brought to our attention, is desirous of again reminding you of the fact which of course has been pointed out on several previous occasions but which nevertheless has apparently been overlooked or ignored by an all too preponderant proportion of our present personnel that all members of this firm should make an earnest, sincere, continuous and persistent effort to eschew and avoid all excessive wordiness, repetitive phraseology, unnecessarily complicated sentence structure and lengthy involved or obscure paragraphs in transcribing internal communications of any nature whatsoever to one or more fellow employees. The Management P.S. In other words, make it brief.

20. Present, Past, and Present Perfect •Use present tense for well established fact e.g - Smith (1975) showed that process A is faster than process B by more than a factor of 5. • Use past tense for un-established results or results that cannot be generalized e.g. - In our study, the damage threshold was about 10KW/cm2. e.g. - Jones reported that 25% of the sample was damaged. • Use present tense to refer readers to your figures or tables. e.g. - Table 5.2 shows that .... e.g. - The peak occurred at m = 5, as figure 6 indicates. • Use present perfect tense for events that have been repeated or continued from the past to the present e.g. - Optical phase conjugation has been studied for aberration correction since the first concept demonstration in 1978.

21. Present, Past, and Present Perfect An example Abstract Digital data-page holograms consisting of 1024 x1024 arrays of binary pixels have been stored and subsequently retrieved with an optical exposure consistent with a data rate 1Gbits/s. Each input pixel was precisely registered with a single detector pixel, and a raw bit-error rate as low as 2.4 x 10-6was demonstrated with global-threshold detection. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the often-cited goal of holographic data storage of megabit data pages and a gigabit-per-second data rate. R. M. Shelby, et al., “Pixel-matched holographic data storage with megabit pages,” Opt. Lett., Vol. 22, 1509 (1997).

22. Dangling Modifiers/Participles As a mother of five, my kitchen is always busy. No bacteria were observed using this technique. Young and inexperienced, the task seemed easy to me. Following experimentation, bacteria multiplied. Being in poor condition, we were unable to save the animals. Using this method, a strong correlation peak was observed. In drawing the picture, his wife was used as the model. As a mother of five, I am always busy in my kitchen. Using this technique, we do not observed any bacteria. Young and inexperienced, I thought the task was easy. Following experimentation, we found the bacteria multiplied. We were unable to save the animals because they are in poor condition. Using this method, I observed a strong correlation peak. In drawing the picture, he used his wife as the model.

23. The Ambiguity: • He noticed a large stain in the rug that was right in the center. • He noticed a large stain right in the center of the rug. • You can call your mother in London and tell her all about George’s taking you out to dinner for just sixty cents. • For just sixty cents, you can call your mother in London and tell her all about George’s taking you out to dinner. • New York’s first commercial human-sperm bank opened Friday with semen samples from 18 men frozen in a stainless steel tank. • New York’s first commercial human-sperm bank opened Friday when semen samples were taken from 18 men. The samples were then frozen and stored in a stainless steel tank. • All the members were not present. • Not all the members were present. • He only found two mistakes. • He found only two mistakes. To avoid ambiguity, keep related words together.

24. A Dozen Fumblegrammar Rules for Scientists • It is recommended by the authors that the passive voice be avoided. • Subjects and verbs even when separated by a word string has to agree. • Writing science carefully, dangling participles must not appear. • If you reread your writing you will find that a great many very repetitious statements can be identified by rereading and identifying them. • Avoid using “quotation” marks “incorrectly” and where they serve no “useful” purpose. • The naked truth is that editors will read the riot act to any Tom, Dick, or Harry that uses cliches; avoid them like a plague. • In formal scientific writing, don’t use contraction or exclamation points!!

25. A Dozen Fumblegrammar Rules for Scientists • If we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousand times, a writer who uses hyperbole will come to grief. • In scientific writing, and otherwise, avoid commas, that are, really, unnecessary. • Subjects and their verbs whenever you notice and can do so should be placed close. • Remember it is better not to, if you can avoid it, split an infinitive. • Proofread your manuscript carefully to be sure you didn’t any words out.

26. The Generic vs. the Specific • Action of antibiotics on bacteria • Inhibition of growth of mycobacterium tuberculosis by streptomycin and neomycin • The temperature changed. • The temperature increased from 15C to 23C.

27. Ten Principles for Improving Clarity & Precision of Written Documents (Writing with Precision, by Jefferson D. Bates) • Prefer active voice • Don’t make nouns out of good, strong “working verbs” • Be concise • Be specific • Keep related sentence elements together; keep unrelated elements apart • Avoid unnecessary shifts of number, tense, subject, voice, or point of view • Prefer the simple word to the far-fetch, and the right word to the almost right

28. Ten Principles for Improving Clarity & Precision of Written Documents (Writing with Precision, by Jefferson D. Bates) • 8. Don’t repeat words, phrases, or ideas needlessly, but don’t hesitate to repeat when the repetition will increase clarity • Use parallelism whenever it is appropriate – that is when you are expressing similar thoughts, make sure you write your sentences so that the elements are in similar or parallel forms. But do not use parallel structure when expressing thoughts that are not truly similar • Arrange your material logically

29. What Scientists Said vs. What They Meant • It has long been known that …. • I have not bothered to look up the original reference, but … • Of great theoretical and practical importance … • Interesting to me or important for me to publish … • Typical results are shown …. • The best results are shown …. • It is clear that much additional work will be required before a complete understanding of … • I do not understand it. • It is suggested that …. Or It is believed that … • I think • Agree to within an order of magnitude …. • Disagree by a factor of …

30. The General Componentsof a Typical Technical Paper • Front Matter • Title • Byline • Abstract • Introduction • Stasis – define research territory • Disruption – interrupt stasis so as to create a niche within territory • Resolution – occupy or defend that niche • Methods • Procedures used to occupy or defend niche • Materials used in carried out procedures • Theoretical principles & assumptions behind procedures

31. The General Componentsof a Typical Technical Paper • Results and Discussion (separate or joined) • Experimental or calculated results in text, tables, figures • Comparison of results • Present vs. published earlier • Baseline vs. altered state • Experimental vs. theoretical • Reference to previous research for purposes of criticism or support • Interpretation of significance of results & comparisons • Explanation for surprising or contradictory results

32. The General Componentsof a Typical Technical Paper • Conclusion • Main claims derived from having occupied niche • Wider significance of those claims to research territory • Suggestion on future work to validate or expand upon • Back Matter • List of literature cited • Acknowledgement of assistance provided during writing or research

33. Title for a Research Paper:Be succinct & specific • Optics • Nonlinear optics • Photorefractive nonlinear optics • Photorefractive two-beam coupling • Photorefractive two-beam coupling in barium titanate crystal • Photorefractive two-beam coupling in rhodium-doped barium titanate crystal • Photorefractive two-beam coupling in rhodium-doped barium titanate crystal at 1.3mm • Temperature dependence of photorefractive two-beam coupling in rhodium-doped barium titanate crystal at 1.3mm

34. Summary • The way we learn how to write (a technical paper) : what’s wrong? • The No. 1 problem in our writing : the logical structure & the logical link • The structural principles • Active vs. passive • The strong verb vs. the weak verb + the abstract noun • Write the way you talk: write (and read) with your ears • Parallelism • Conciseness • The English grammar: the tenses • The English grammar: the dangling modifiers/participles • The ambiguity • The generic vs. the specific • What scientists said vs. what they meant • The general components of a typical technical paper • References

35. References • The Plain English Approach to Business Writing, Edward P. Bailey, Jr., Oxford University Press, Oxford (1990). • Plain English at Work: A guide to business writing and speaking, Edward P. Bailey, Jr., Oxford University Press, Oxford (1996). • Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Joseph M. Williams, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc, New York (1997). • Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, Joseph M. Williams, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1995). • How to Write, Speak, and Think More Effectively: Your complete course in the art of communication, Rudolf Flesch, Penguin Books USA Inc., New York (1946). • Technical Writing and Professional Communication for Nonnative Speakers of English, Thomas N. Huckin, and Leslie A. Olsen, McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York (1991). • Style and Readability in Technical Writing: A Sentence-Combining Approach, James DeGeorge Gary A. Olson, and Richard Ray, Random House, New York (1986). • Better Scientific and Technical Writing, Morris I. Bolsky, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs (1991).

36. References • How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, Robert A. Day, ISI Press, Philadelphia (1998). • How to Write & Publish Engineering Papers and Reports, Herbert B. Michaelson, Oryx Press (1990). • Successful Scientific Writing: A step-by-step guide for the biological and medical sciences, Janice R. Matthews, John M. Bowen, and Robert W. Matthews, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996). • Communicating in Science: Writing and Speaking, Vernon Booth, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1985). • Writing a Thesis: Substance and Style, R. Keith Van Wagenen, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs (1991). • Academic Writing: Working with sources across the curriculum, Mary L. Kennedy, Hadley M. Smith, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs (1986). • An English Style Approach for Chinese Technical Writers, Ted Knoy, Taipei (1998). • An Editing Workbook for Chinese Technical Writers, Ted Knoy, Hsinchu, Taiwan (2000). • English Scientific Reports and Presentations, C. J. Fraser, Taiwan (1996). • IEEE Transaction on Professional Communication, IEEE Press, New York (1982). • A Guide for Writing Better Technical Papers, Craig Harkins and Daniel L. Plung, Ed., IEEE Press, New York (1982).