English for Research Usage Style and Grammar by Adrian Wallwork
Contents of English for Research Usage Style and Grammar
- Nouns: plurals, countable versus uncountable
- regular plurals
- irregular plurals
- nouns ending in -s
- nouns indicating a group of people
- number-verb agreement
- countable nouns: use with articles
- singular countable nouns: use with and without
- a / an in scientific English
- uncountable nouns: general rules
- uncountable nouns: using a different word or form
- uncountable nouns: more details
- Genitive: the possessive form of nouns
- position of the ’s with authors and referees
- theories, instruments etc
- companies and politicians
- universities, departments, institutes etc
- animals
- genitive with inanimate objects
- periods of time
- Inde fi nite article: a / an
- a versus an: basic rules
- a versus an: use with acronyms, digits, and symbols
- a / an versus one
- a / an versus the: generic versus specific
- a / an versus the: definitions and statements
- a / an, the, possessive pronoun: parts of the body
- De fi nite article: the
- definite article (the): main usage
- specific versus general: examples
- other uses of the definite article
- Zero article: no article
- zero article versus definite article (the): main usage
- other uses of the zero article
- nationalities, countries, languages
- zero article and the: contradictory usage in scientific English
- zero article versus a / an
- zero article and a / an: contradictory usage in scientific English
- Quantifiers: any, some, much, many, each, every etc
- quantifiers used with countable and uncountable nouns
- any versus some
- any versus no
- a little, a few vs little, few
- much, many, a lot of, and lots of
- each versus every, every versus any
- no versus not
- Relative pronouns: that, which, who, whose
- that, which, who, whose
- that versus which and who
- omission of that, which and who
- avoiding ambiguity by using a relative clause
- in preference to the -ing form
- avoid long and difficult-to-read sentences involving which
- avoid ambiguity with which
- Tenses: present, past, future
- present simple vs present continuous: key rules
- present perfect: key rules
- present perfect: problem areas
- past simple: key rules
- present simple vs past simple: specifi c rules
- (aims and methods)
- present simple, present perfect and simple past:
- reference to the literature
- present simple vs past simple: specifi c rules
- (results and discussion)
- present perfect vs present perfect continuous
- past continuous and past perfect vs simple past
- will
- Conditional forms: zero, fi rst, second, third
- zero and first conditional
- second conditional
- other uses of would
- present simple versus would
- third conditional
- Passive versus active: impersonal versus
- personal forms
- main uses of passive
- passive better than active: more examples
- active better than passive
- ambiguity with passive
- Imperative, in fi nitive versus gerund (−ing form)
- imperative
- infinitive
- in order to
- passive infinitive
- perfect infinitive
- gerund (−ing form): usage
- by versus thus + gerund to avoid ambiguity
- other sources of ambiguity with the gerund
- replacing an ambiguous gerund with that or which,
- or with a rearranged phrase
- verbs that express purpose or appearance + infinitive
- verbs that require an accusative construction
- (i e person / thing + infinitive)
- active and passive form: with and without infinitive
- active form: verbs not used with the infinitive
- let and make
- verbs + gerund, recommend, suggest
- verbs that take both infinitive and gerund
- Modal verbs: can, may, could, should, must etc
- present and future ability and possibility:
- can versus may
- impossibility and possibility: cannot versus may not
- ability: can, could versus be able to, manage, succeed
- deductions and speculations about the present: must,
- cannot, should
- deductions and speculations: could, might (not)
- present obligations: must, must not, have to, need
- past obligation: should have + past participle,
- had to, was supposed to
- obligation and recommendation: should
- Link words (adverbs and conjunctions):
- also, although, but etc
- about, as far as … is concerned
- also, in addition, as well, besides, moreover
- also, as well, too, both, all: use with not
- although, even though versus even if
- and, along with
- as versus as it
- as versus like (unlike)
- as, because, due to, for, insofar as, owing to,
- since, why
- both … and, either … or
- e g versus for example
- e g , i e , etc
- for this reason versus for this purpose, to this end
- the former, the latter
- however, although, but, yet, despite, nevertheless,
- nonetheless, notwithstanding
- however versus nevertheless
- in contrast with vs compared to, by comparison with
- instead, on the other hand, whereas, on the contrary
- thus, therefore, hence, consequently, so, thereby
- omission of words in sentences with and, but, both
- and or
- Adverbs and prepositions: already, yet, at, in, of etc
- above (below), over (under)
- across, through
- already, still, yet
- among, between, from, of (differentiation
- and selection)
- at, in, to (location, state, change)
- at, in and on (time)
- at, to (measurement, quality)
- before, after, beforehand, afterwards,
- first (time sequences)
- beside, next to, near (to), close to (location)
- by and from (cause, means and origin)
- by, in, of (variations)
- by and within (time)
- by now, for now, for the moment, until now, so far
- during, over and throughout (time)
- for, since, from (time)
- in, now, currently, at the moment
- in, inside, within (location)
- of and with (material, method, agreement)
- Sentence length, conciseness, clarity and ambiguity
- maximum two ideas per sentence
- put information in chronological order, particularly
- in the methods section
- avoid parenthetical phrases
- avoid redundancy
- prefer verbs to nouns
- use adjectives rather than nouns
- be careful of use of personal pronouns: you, one, he,
- she, they
- essential and non-essential use of: we, us, our
- avoid informal words and contractions
- emphatic do / does, giving emphasis
- with auxiliary verbs
- ensuring consistency throughout a manuscript
- translating concepts that only exist in your
- country / language
- always use the same key words: repetition of words
- is not a problem
- avoid ambiguity when using the former /
- the latter, which, and pronouns
- avoid ambiguity when using as, in accordance with,
- according to
- when expressing a negative concept using a negation
- Word order: nouns and verbs
- put the subject before the verb and as near as possible
- to the beginning of the phrase
- decide what to put first in a sentence: alternatives
- do not delay the subject
- avoid long subjects that delay the main verb
- inversion of subject and verb
- inversion of subject and verb with only, rarely,
- seldom etc
- inversions with so, neither, nor
- put direct object before indirect object
- phrasal verbs
- noun + noun and noun + of + noun constructions
- strings of nouns: use prepositions where possible
- deciding which noun to put first in strings of nouns
- position of prepositions with which, who and where
- Word order: adverbs
- frequency + also, only, just, already
- probability
- manner
- time
- first(ly), second(ly) etc
- adverbs with more than one meaning
- shift the negation word (no, not, nothing etc ) to near
- the beginning of the phrase
- Word order: adjectives and past participles
- adjectives
- multiple adjectives
- ensure it is clear which noun an adjective refers to
- past participles
- Comparative and superlative: -er , -est , irregular forms
- form and usage
- position
- comparisons of (in)equality
- the more … the more
- Measurements: abbreviations, symbols, use of articles
- abbreviations and symbols: general rules
- spaces with symbols and abbreviations
- use of articles: a / an versus the
- expressing measurements: adjectives,
- nouns and verbs
- Numbers: words versus numerals, plurals, use of articles,
- dates etc
- words versus numerals: basic rules
- words versus numerals: additional rules
- when – can be used as digits rather than words
- making numbers plural
- singular or plural with numbers
- abbreviations, symbols, percentages, fractions,
- and ordinals
- ranges of values and use of hyphens
- definite article (the) and zero article with numbers
- and measurements
- definite article (the) and zero article with months,
- years, decades and centuries
- once, twice versus one time, two times
- ordinal numbers, abbreviations
- and Roman numerals
- dates
- Acronyms: usage, grammar, plurals, punctuation
- main usage
- foreign acronyms
- grammar
- punctuation
- Abbreviations and Latin words: usage meaning,
- punctuation
- usage
- punctuation
- abbreviations found in bibliographies
- common Latin expressions and abbreviations
- Capitalization: headings, dates, fi gures etc
- titles and section headings
- days, months, countries, nationalities,
- natural languages
- academic titles, degrees, subjects (of study),
- departments, institutes, faculties, universities
- figure, table, section etc ; step, phase, stage etc
- keywords
- acronyms
- euro, the internet
- Punctuation: apostrophes, colons, commas etc
- apostrophes (’)
- colons (:)
- commas (,): usage
- commas (,): non usage
- dashes (_)
- hyphens (-): part
- hyphens (-): part
- parentheses ( )
- periods ( )
- quotation marks (‘ ’)
- semicolons (;)
- bullets: round, numbered, ticked
- bullets: consistency and avoiding redundancy
- Referring to the literature
- most common styles
- common dangers
- punctuation: commas and semicolons
- punctuation: parentheses
- et al
- Figures and tables: making reference, writing captions
- and legends
- figures, tables
- legends
- referring to other parts of the manuscript
- Spelling: rules, US versus GB, typical typos
- rules
- some differences in British (GB) and American
- (US) spelling, by type
- some differences in British (GB) and American
- (US) spelling, alphabetically
- misspellings that spell-checking software
- does not find
