Editor's last inch
Common problems with lab, senior design reports, in no special order.
1. Write for the uninformed reader; do not write a personal essay
2. Introduction — begin with topic sentence; then give background
(literature is often bad role model); give conclusions; avoid long, drawnout personal narrative; make abstract informative summary of paper
3. Conclusion — make sure it actually draws conclusions, does not merely
outline the paper. Compare with known values when appropriate
4.
Punctuation, layout, and notation
Use serial comma: A, B, and C — not A, B and C
Use × or • not * for mult (* = convolution)
Use 10 5 not 10E05 not 10^5
Use right number of significant figures
Avoid naked decimal points
Avoid run-on sentences: blah blah; however, blah blah not blah blah,
however blah blah
Off of, inside of — considered nonstandard
Ital not und
5.
Figures and tables
No title above graphs (use caption); no frames; no shading; no
horizontal gridlines; no legend box; no R2; no color
Make sure axes cross at lower left
Label axes with physical quantity, units
Delete trailing zeros from tick labels on axes
Limit rules in tables to about 3 horizontal, no vertical
Put meaningful title above table, caption below figure
6.
Capitalization and punctuation
Cap only proper nouns (names) and trade names: detector circuit not
Detector Circuit
Usually no comma before paren: The dog (who ...) not The dog, (who
...) — in references, use 141-143 (1998) not 141-143, (1998)
We ate and drank not We ate, and drank
7.
Paragraphs — often not enough; indent paragraphs and skip line
between them; watch equations:
v= at ,
where a is acceleration, ... (no cap, no indent; you need to override MS
[ugh] Word’s defaults)
8.
Units and symbols — use symbols not complete spellings (minor
exceptions): 10 K, not 10 kelvins and certainly not 10 Kelvin.
Exceptions: a few amperes, a few kelvins
Use ampere not Amp, kelvin not Kelvin (but A and K); micrometer not
micron
Use SI prefixes (m, n, M, k), not high powers of 10 — 10 MW not 107 W
Avoid * for multiplication, ^ for exponentiation
9.
References, documentation
Reference must give complete bibliographic information, including title,
last page (help reader find it!)
Private communication not useful, esp without contact information; use
Acknowledgements instead
10.
Be less formal
Said techniques, aforementioned report (lawyer's words!)
Use There are not There exist or A framus exists that ... (but see
circumlocutions)
11.
Use will not would, esp in proposals (more forceful)
The experiment would = The experiment will
12. After rinsing it, I would clean = After rinsing it, I cleanedThis without
antecedent — I have tested a pump that works at 10–6 Torr. This is
needed to... . (What? The pump, the pressure, or the testing?)
13.
Dangling and misplaced modifiers
Make sure that any -ing or -ed word that begins a sentence refers to the
subject
Partly assembled and dirty, I disassembled the pump
By adjusting the initial conditions, a galaxy will form
14. Personal pronouns — avoid when not necessary: our voltmeter = the
voltmeter. But use I or we to avoid a passive verb
15.
Vogue words (words that are overused and often ambiguous)
Determine = measure, calculate, decide — It was determined = We
decided
Create = write, design, build, draw
Size = diameter, height
Reasonable approximation (to whom?) — use good, fair, poor
Issue (= problem), via (= by or by means of), as (for because), exists (=
there is, but see circumlocutions), believe (≠ think ≠ feel), utilize (= use)
16.
Circumlocutions and dead words
Control of the experiment is accomplished [or done] by = The experiment is
controlled by
There is a pump that evacuates = A pump evacuates ....
There is this dog that my sister has that I like to photograph (real!)
Avoid able to, process, in the process of, proceeded to, purposes of, the
use of, amount of, serves to, it can be seen (pointed out, shown) that,
the reason for the change was (= because)
17.
Enough already!