Calculating and Reporting

Calculating andReporting Wu-Lin Chen(wlchen@pu.edu.tw) Department of Computer Science and Information Management

Calculating • Mathematics is the language of science. • It is inevitable to deal with calculating in the scientific writing. • The accuracy of predictions depends on the accuracy of the measurements and computations used in experimentation.

Using English To Calculate • Mathematical relationships can be expressed in sentences using phrase like • is equal to • is proportional to • is the product of

Using English To Calculate • EX: … the weight of the air at sea level is equal to 14.7 pounds per square inch. • weight = 14.7 pounds / 1 square inch • EX: The pressure inside your body equals to the pressure outside. • pressure1 = pressure2 • EX: The pressure on a diver is thus equal to the weight of the atmospheric pressure plus the water pressure. • pressure on diver = atmospheric pressure + water pressure

Using English To Calculate • The pressure of the water is directly proportional to the depth. • water pressure ∞ depth • Mathematical relationships are expressed in the present tense because they are universals.

Indefinite Articles • Rules for using indefinite articles (a and an) • Plural nouns never take the indefinite article. • Some nonplural nouns (countable singular nouns) take indefinite articles and some (uncountable nouns) do not. • Some nouns used frequently in scientific writing can be countable or not countable, depending on how they are used. • sound (in general) or a sound (a particular sound) • glass (the substance) or a glass (the kind we drink from) • color (in general) or a color (such as red or blue)

Definite Articles • The definite article (the) may be used with • plural nouns • either countable or uncountable singular noun. • Common rules in scientific writing are: • to specify or refer to something that has been already mentioned • to refer to something that is unique • to refer to something specific • to express superlatives • with ordinal numbers • with a noun that is followed by an of phrase • EX: the theory of relativity

Writing Skills (Parallel Form) • It is preferable to write a list of items in parallel form. • EX: Ellen likes to paint, swimming, and dance. (wrong) • EX: Ellen likes painting, swimming, and dancing. (correct) • EX: Ellen likes to paint, to swim, and to dance. (correct) • EX: Ellen likes to paint, swim, dance. (correct)

Writing Skills (Parallel Form) • There should be some consistency and regularity in tense and person in any paragraph. • Decide the most appropriate tense (present, past, or future) and use that tense throughout. • Then, decide if you are going to write in the first person (I or we), second person (you), or third person (he, she, they, John, and son on).

Reporting • Modern science did not really begin until people started reporting their observations and discoveries and communicating their idea. • Today, scientists report their findings and detail their experimental methods in journals, inviting others to perform experiments to verify or disprove the results.

Using English to Report • Different tenses are used to report past actions. The simple past tense is the most frequently used in scientific writing.

Using English to Report • A completed action • This one-celled organism ate, grew, responded to its surrounding, reproduced itself, and spread throughout the oceans. (These actions have taken place a long time ago and are completed.) • Simple past tense: ate, grew, responded, reproduced, spread • Probably those first tiny organisms were not all alike. (This sentence reports a condition rather than an action.) • …their characteristics were passed onto the next generation. (The passive form is used because the action is more important than the performer of the action.)

Using English to Report • An uncompleted action • To date, more than 400,000 species of plants and 1,200,000 species of animals have developed. (This is an action that has taken place over a period of time, it taking place now, and will probably continue into the future.) • Present perfect tense: have developed • All life has probably evolved from that single cell … (This action is also incomplete, that is, life is still evolving.)

Using English to Report • An action completed before a given past time • Therefore, about 2.5 billion years had passed on the earth when life originated. • Past perfect tense: had passed

Sentence Pattern • Reporting a completed action (Simple Past Tense) published announced proposed his theory of evolution in 1859. Darwin

Sentence Pattern • Reporting an uncompleted or recent action (Present Perfect Tense) often already just seldom sometimes not yet recently still not usually Biologists He/She have has new discoveries. made

Sentence Pattern • Reporting an action completed before a given time (Past Perfect Tense) • By the time we {arrived}, the bomb {had exploded.} • By 1957, Russia {had launched} the first Sputnik.

Sentence Pattern • Reporting a continuous action (Past Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, and Past Continuous Tenses) • Darwin {was working} on his theory while in the Galapagos. • The universe {has been expanding} {for 15 billion years (since its inception)}. • Darwin {had been riding} in his carriage when the idea came to him.

Sentence Pattern • When reporting • Adverbs of time and frequency (such as often, already, and usually) are usually used with the present perfect tense. • The continuous past tenses do not occur frequently in scientific writing.

Writing Skills • When you are reporting facts, which answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Calculating and Reporting