TECHNICAL AND
SCIENTIFIC ENGLISH
WRITING
COURSE INTRODUCTION
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I. Technical Writing and Creative
Writing
1. Audience
2. A point to make
3. Structure
Behaviorism is a school of psychology
maintaining that to understand human
behavior, one needs only to consider the
reinforcing properties of the environment—
that is, how positive and negative events
in the environment are associated with
specific behaviors. For example, dogs
come when they are called because they
have learned that compliance is followed
by positive reinforcement (e.g., food and
fondling); children will memorize their
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multiplication tables more quickly if you
praise them, smile at them, and paste a
gold star on their forehead following
correct answers. Psychologists in this
tradition, such as John Watson and B. F.
Skinner, suggested that all behavior could
be understood by examining the rewards
and punishments in the organism’s
environment and that there was no need
to study such subjective states as thinking
and feeling.
--Exploring Content 1
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In order to improve the brightness and
contrast while maintaining the structural
benefits of polymer networks, polymer
walls have been formed in high polymer
content PSCT displays. The formulations
were composed of ultraviolet (UV) curable
monomers and chiral nematic liquid
crystals. The formation of polymer walls
was achieved by irradiating selective
areas of a cell with UV light through a
photomask to induce phase separation by
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phopolymerization. This method was also
used by researchers from Sharp in the
formation of polymer walls for fabrications
of axially symmetric aligned microcells and
polymer matrix supertwisted nematic liquid
crystal displays. The polymer walls in the
interpixel regions not only improve the
electro-optic characteristics of PSCT
displays, but also provide excellent
pressure resistance preventing distortion
of a display image.
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The war wasn’t all terror and violence.
Sometimes things could almost get sweet.
For instance, I remember a little boy with a
plastic leg. I remember how he hopped
over to Azar and asked for a chocolate
bar—”GI number one,” the kid said—and
Azar laughed and handed over the
chocolate. When the boy hopped away,
Azar clucked his tongue and said, “War is
a bitch.” He shook his head sadly. “One
leg, for Chrissake. Some poor fucker ran
out of ammo.”
--Tim O’Brien
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American Poetry (Louis Simpson)
Whatever it is, it must have
A stomach that can digest
Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems.
Like the shark, it contains a shoe.
It must swim for miles through the desert
Uttering cries that are almost human.
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The Red Wheelbarrow
(By William Carlos Williams)
so much depends
upon a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
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II. How to write well?
1.
2.
3.
3.
4.
Writing with a purpose
Audience
The basics
Structures
Stylistic issues (clarity, flow, concision,
coherence, parallelism, etc.)
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5. Our particular problems
( sentence structures, punctuation, etc.)
6. Reading
7. Thinking in English
8. Writing
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Sentence Structures
Incorrect Sentence Structures
1. Higher precipitation should, of course,
lead to increased river flows, this trend
has been confirmed by a number of
regional studies.
2. Even the odds of such calamities may be
small, the consequences would be
extraordinarily destabilizing.
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Correct:
1. Higher precipitation should, of course,
lead to increased river flows, and this
trend has been confirmed by a number of
regional studies.
2. Even though the odds of such calamities
may be small, the consequences would
be extraordinarily destabilizing.
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Incorrect:
3. The media have been objectifying women for
so long, therefore researchers have had time to
create a body of literature on the effects of
these images on women.
4. Since our goal is to create an electron beam, so
we measure the charge contained in the
electron beam at the output of the rf gun and
use it in the calculation of quantum efficiency.
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Correct:
3.The media have been objectifying women for so
long; therefore, researchers have had time to
create a body of literature on the effects of these
images on women.
4.Since our goal is to create an electron beam, we
measure the charge contained in the electron
beam at the output of the rf gun and use it in the
calculation of quantum efficiency.
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Incorrect:
Unlike most natural processes, that take
hundreds of years to evolve, the crisis
could hit soon.
One of the reasons the loss of planet’s ice
cover is accelerating is because as the
poles white surfaces shrinks, it changes
the relationship of Earth and the sun.
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Correct:
Unlike most natural processes, which take
hundreds of years to evolve, the crisis
could hit soon.
One of the reasons the loss of planet’s ice
cover is accelerating is that as the poles
white surfaces shrinks, it changes the
relationship of Earth and the sun.
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Incorrect:
Given the complexities of earth’s
biosphere. It is inevitable that some
unfolding water tread will have both
negative and positive consequences.
Correct:
Given the complexities of earth’s
biosphere, it is inevitable that some
unfolding water tread will have both
negative and positive consequences.
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The Mormons earned more from trade with
prospectors on their way to the gold fields than
most of the miners did after they got there.
Congress could no more prevent a slaveowner
from taking his human property to the territories
than it could prevent him from taking his horses
or hogs there.
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His loyalty to his friend was not affected by the
latest poll. His adherence to his own policies
was even less affected by the latest poll.
His loyalty to his friends was no more affected
by the latest poll than was his adherence to his
own policies.
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The Constitution furnishes no excuse for
reviving the African slave trade. For the
same reason it can not furnish any excuse
for permitting slavery going into the free
territory.
The Constitution can furnish no more
excuse for permitting slavery to go into the
free territory than it could for reviving the
African slave trade.
Every bit as unattainable as Barbie-doll
proportions and the heroin-chick look are
the broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted, fatfree, muscle-sheathed male physiques
littering today’s media.
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Stylistic Issues:
Which of the following is better?
Congress’s reduction of the deficit resulted
in the decline of interest rates.
Interest rates declined because Congress
reduced the deficit.
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Which is better?
There are predictions by business
executives that the economy would
experience a quick revival.
Business executives predicted that the
economy would quickly revive.
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Which is better?
Attempts by economists at defining full
employment have been met with failure.
Economists have attempted but failed to
define full employment.
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Which is better?
In this study, the dynamics of an ion
interacting with multiple electrostatic
waves propagating perpendicularly to an
ambient field with shear is investigated.
In this study, we investigate the dynamics
of an ion interacting with multiple
electrostatic waves propagating
perpendicularly to an ambient field with
shear.
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The objective of this study is to investigate
the dynamics of an ion interacting with
multiple electrostatic waves propagating
perpendicularly to an ambient field with
shear.
In this study, we investigate how an ion
interacts with multiple electrostatic waves
propagating perpendicularly to an ambient
field with shear.
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Which is better?
However, to our knowledge, the
understanding of the motion of an ion
interacting with multiple electrostatic
waves perpendicularly to an ambient
magnetic field with shear is still lacking.
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However, to our knowledge, there is a lack
of understanding regarding the motion of
an ion interacting with multiple
electrostatic waves perpendicularly to an
ambient magnetic field with shear.
However, we still do not fully understand
the motion of an ion interacting with
multiple electrostatic waves
perpendicularly to an ambient magnetic
field with shear.
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Which is better?
It is inevitable that some unfolding water
trends will have both negative and positive
consequences, given the complexities of
the Earth’s biosphere.
Given the complexities of the Earth’s
biosphere, it is inevitable that some
unfolding water trends will have both
negative and positive consequences.
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because
since
as
because of
due to
as a result
resulting in
resulting from
therefore
consequently
the reason that…is that
with the result that
with the consequence that
as a consequence
in consequence
the reason for
the cause of
to cause
in that
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Start with simple sentences:
If the ocean water becomes diluted by
freshwater, the salt concentration
drops. The water gets lighter. It idles on
top and stalls the current.
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Improved:
If the ocean water becomes diluted by
freshwater, the salt concentration
drops, and the water gets lighter, which
idles on top and stalls the current.
If the ocean water becomes diluted by
freshwater, the salt concentration
drops, and the water gets lighter, idling on
top and stalling the current.
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Start with a simple sentence:
Carbon dioxide represents just s few
hundred parts per million (ppm) in the
overall air blanket. However, they are
powerful parts. The reason is that they
allow sunlight to stream in but prevent
much of the heat from radiating back out.
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Improved:
Carbon dioxide represents just s few
hundred parts per million (ppm) in the
overall air blanket, but they are powerful
parts, because they allow sunlight to
stream in but prevent much of the heat
from radiating back out.
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Start with simple sentences:
Hayward dispatched groups of executives
to newly established BP “Operations
Academy.” This is a program at MIT. They
spent three two-week sessions there.
They learn to better manage their
businesses and they deal with risk. It
includes a case study on what went wrong
at Texas City.
Improved:
Hayward dispatched groups of executives
to newly established BP “Operations
Academy,” a program at MIT where they
spent three two-week sessions learning to
better manage their businesses and deal
with risk, including a case study on what
went wrong at Texas City.
V. Typical Technical Writing Structure
a. Title
b. Abstract
c. Introduction
d. Experimental Procedures (or Data Collection
and Presentation)
e. Results and Discussion
f. Conclusion
g. Acknowledgements
h. References
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Course Objectives:
1. Sentence Structures
2. Introduction, Experimental Procedure,
Results, Discussion, and Conclusion.
3. Stylistic issues: Clarity, Concision,
Cohesion, Coherence, Parallelism etc.
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