Chapter 4 Part 3在线视频

Part III Summary

Now

let's summarize this chapter

To tell your story clearly and concisely

in SCI papers

you should write sentences

accurately and elegantly

Accuracy

To write a sentence accurately

you need to avoid common writing flaws

Be sure that the subject

and the predicate make sense together

Be sure that

the subject and verb agree

Be sure that the tenses

are appropriate in each section of the text

Be sure that

the restrictive attributive clause

and nonrestrictive attributive clause

are used in a correct way

Be sure that

the dangling modifiers

are avoided in the sentences

Elegance

To write elegant sentences

you need to notice five elements

unity

coherence

emphasis

simplicity

and balance

Unity

To achieve unity in a sentence

you need to express a single complete thought

in one sentence

Coherence

To achieve coherence in a sentence

you need to properly connect words

or parts in one sentence

Emphasis

To control the emphasis in your sentences

you need to

Make the topic the subject

of the sentence

Put the action in the verb

Keep the subject

verb

and object close together

Use the active voice

Be cautious of topic-comment structures

Place the more complex information

at the end of the sentence

Simplicity

To write more simple sentences

you need to

Untangle adjective and noun clusters

Be cautious of the long sentences

with complicated structures

Be cautious of wordy expressions

Balance

To write balanced sentences

you need to

Put parallel ideas in pairs

Put parallel ideas in series

Put parallel ideas in comparisons

Part IV Practice

Which of the following sentences

do you think is more in agreement

with academic style

Now

You could think for one minute.

The first example is more in agreement

with academic style.

In the first example

the sentence is written accurately

without common flaws in grammar

The subject and the verb

make sense together to convey the right message

The subject and verb agree in number

The subject "this risk"

is in singular form followed by

the singular verb "is"

In the first example

each of the two sentences states

only one topic which is complete

in itself and clearer for the audience

In the first example

the subject "87.5%"

and verb "are" are close together

to convey the message in a clearer way

In the first example

the author achieves emphasis

of certain message by ending the sentence

with the more complex and important idea

and putting "having a BMI

of 25 kg/m2

or greater" at the end of the sentence

In the second example,

the sentence with two main clauses

are connected with the conjunction "and"

But it does not express a single

complete thought in this one sentence.

The first main clause

is a general statement of the relationship between

the risk of Diabetes Mellitus

and other traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

While the second main clause

is the specific detail of some

different cardiovascular risk factors

supported with vivid data

So

these two main clauses

are conveying two topics

which disobey the principle of unity

in a sentence

Analyse the following three sentences

Which one is not in the academic style

Please illustrate your choice

The first sentence

is not in the academic style

as it lacks coherence by putting "at first"

in a wrong place

It confuses the readers to wonder

if the method is used first

or the method sounded feasible at first

To modify the verb "used"

"first" alone could work by saying

"The method the scientists first used

sounded feasible"

The phrase "at first"

is usually used at the beginning

or in the end of a sentence

to modify the topic of a sentence

So the second and third sentence

are both in the academic style

by connecting the words and phrases

in a right way

Rewrite the following sentences to

express their meanings

more clearly and precisely

Though BMI is the most widely used metric

to assess adiposity associated risk

in general clinical practice

WC or central obesity (CO)

may also have a role

Here

we could untangle the noun

and adjective clusters "adiposity associated risk"

by using a hyphen to indicate the relations

between the noun adiposity

adjective "associated" and noun "risk"

The study population characteristics

were similar

The study population characteristics

were similar

In this sentence

The study population characteristics

is a noun cluster

We could use other words to help

untangle this noun clusters

So we change it to

The characteristics of study population

were similar

There are marked similarities

between the behavior of doctors and patients

in primary care within high income countries

despite divergent health systems

In this sentence

And there is a wordy expression "there are"

Actually, we can just say

The behavior of doctors and patients in

primary care share marked similarities

in high income countries

despite divergent health systems

In this sentence

So continuous reevaluation of the medication regimen

and adjustment as needed is recommended

In this sentence

Using active voice and avoiding nominalization

putting the action in the verb

could energize the sentence

and make it shorter

and more forceful

So we could say

So we recommend

reevaluating the medication regimen

and adjustment as needed