如果英语不是你的母语,那么用英文写作已经够难了,但用英文写科技相关的内容更难。首先,你必须确保所有技术词汇都正确。其次,你必须确保其它内容也书写清楚,这可不简单。心情好的时候,英语里便常有些地方让人感到困惑;心情不好的时候……算了,我们不谈这些了。

有那么多的词汇听起来都一样,却意指完全不同的事物。亦或是短语,如果不正确使用,可能会使原本合理的工作变得看起来是错误的。但是,别让用词混淆变成习惯!请查看以下关于科技写作中一些经常遇到的词汇和短语的正确使用列表。

About vs. approximately

除了科技写作外,About是英文里最常用的词语。在科技写作中,优选approximately。

Accept vs. except

accept某事/物就是接受它或认为其合适。例如:

“Most scientists accept Darwin’s theory of evolution.”

“多数科学家认同达尔文的进化论。”

Except意思是排除或忽略某事/物。例如:

“Student members of the society are excepted from paying membership dues.”

“这个社团的学生会员不用支付会费。”

Accord vs. accordance

accord即协议。例如:

“The Paris Accord is a climate agreement.”

“巴黎协议是一个气候协议。”

然而,accordance意指一致性。例如:

“The enzyme levels in the HeLa cells were in accordance with previous studies.”

“海拉细胞中的酶水平和先前的研究一致。“

Adapt vs. adopt

在科学领域,adapt指的是改变或修改某事/物用于另一种用途。例如:

“The protocol of Sambrook et al. (1989) was adapted in the following way.”

“用以下方式调整了Sambrook等人(1989)的方案。”

这意味着对该方案进行了修改,并且将在随后进行描述。

adopt某事/物即录用、接受或遵循计划。例如:

“The protocol of Yu et al. (2001) was adopted.”

“采用了Yu等人(2001)的方案。”

这意味着Yu等人的方案未经修改就按照描述的使用。

Adverse vs. averse

Adverse指的是有害的或令人不快的事/物。例如:

“a drug can have an adverse effect”

“药物可能有副作用”

Averse是指对某事/物的消极感受。例如:

“She was averse to asking for advice about her failed experiment.”

“她不愿对她失败的实验征求意见。”

Affect vs. effect

affect(动词)某事/物即影响它,而effect (名词)是对某事/物有影响的某事/物。例如:

“The relative humidity in the chamber affects the growth of the plants.”

“房间里的相对湿度影响了植物的生长。”

“The relative humidity in the chamber has an effect on the growth of the plants.”

“房间里的相对湿度对植物的生长有影响。”

Alternate vs. alternative

作为形容词,alternate是泛指替代,而alternative 通常是更好的选择。例如:

“We can synthesize this compound via the alternate reaction.”

“我们可以通过替代的反应来合成这种化合物。”

表明其它反应效果跟第一个反应一样好。

“We can synthesize this compound via the alternative Michael addition.”

“我们可以通过可供选择的迈克尔加成来合成这种化合物。”

暗指迈克尔加成对于合成该化合物来说是更好的选择。

作为名词,这两个词可互换使用。例如:

“He is a good alternate for the keynote speaker.”

“他是很好的主讲人替换人选。”

“He is a good alternative to the keynote speaker.”

“他是替换主讲人的很好的人选。”

指的是同一件事且两者都合意。

Analog vs. analogue

Analog应在提及计算机或电子学时使用。Analogue应该在要表达某物和另一事物相似时使用,或用于化合物。

As yet; as of yet

避免使用这两个短语。用yet,still或so far代替。

At the present time;

at this time; at present

这些可以用更简单的now,today或currently替换。

At the time that;

at the time when

避免使用这些短语。when这个词效果最好。

By means of

用这个短语是不必要的冗长。用by或with代替。

Compare with vs. compare to

这些短语经常互换使用,但它们有细微的区别。在同时比较相同点和不同点时用compare with。当你想要强调事物之间的相同点时用compare to。例如:

“The percent yield with our method was higher and lower compared with the yields obtained by Brett et al. and Tsing et al., respectively.”

“用我们的方法得到的产率分别比Brett等人得到的产率高,比Tsing等人低。”

用compare to的例子是:

“The morphological changes were similar compared to those observed by Kwak et al.”

“此形貌变化与Kwak等人观察到的相似。”

Comprise vs. compose

这两个词经常被混淆。要记住这些词的用法,记住“The whole comprises the parts,” “整体包含部分”以及“The parts compose the whole.” “部分组成整体”。例如,你可以写成:

“The genus Glycine comprises several species, including max and soja.”

“大豆属包含若干物种,包括大豆和野生大豆。”

然而,你也可以写成:

“The species max, soja, and others compose the genus Glycine.”

“大豆、野生大豆以及其它物种组成了大豆属。”

Criteria

Criteria是criterion的复数。写成criterias是错误的。

Data

在科技写作中,data是复数;datum是单数。

Disk vs. disc

除了某些专业术语以外,Disk是最通用的拼写。请核实那么领域特有的术语以确定该使用disk还是disc。例如,你可以写:

“disc gel electrophoresis” “圆盘凝胶电泳”

但要写:

“disk drive” “磁盘驱动器”

Due to the fact that

这过于冗长了。保持简洁,用because代替.

Either…or

如果单独使用either作主语,必须用单数动词。例如,你可以写成:

“Either buffer works for gel electrophoresis.”

“任一种缓冲剂都可用于凝胶电泳。”

如果用 “either…or”,句子必须是平行结构的。例如:

“Either the DNA or the RNA can be diluted using DEPC water.”

“DNA或RNA都可以用DEPC水稀释”

Farther vs. further

通常,这些词被互换使用,并且这是可接受的。然而,习惯上farther指的是物理距离,而further则指的是无法测量的距离。例如,按惯例你应该写成:

“The restriction fragments of BamHI migrated farther than those generated by SacI,”

“BamHI的限制酶断片比SacI产生的迁移得远”

然而:

“Further study is needed to understand the mechanism underlying the virus’ entry into the host.”

“需要进一步的研究来了解病毒进入宿主所潜在的机理。”

First, second, third vs. firstly, secondly, thirdly

First、second、third是优选用于列表的形式,但使用firstly、secondly、thirdly也没错。

I.e. vs. e.g.

I.e.是 id est或 “that is”的缩写。E.g.是exempli gratia或 “for example”的缩写。如果用这些缩写,则应该带有逗号。

If vs. whether

在科技写作中,用whether更合适。

Impact; impactful

请注意impact不是动词,虽然它经常被这样误用。它是个名词。因此:

“This research will have a large impact on the field,”

“此研究将会对该领域产生较大的影响”

而不是:

“This research will impact the field,”

“此研究将会影响该领域”。

第一个句子最好写成:

“This research will have a large effect/influence on the field.”

“此研究将会对该领域产生较大的影响”。

此外,不应使用impactful。用influential代替。

Imply vs. infer

Imply意思是暗示或提示,而infer意思是推论。例如,你可以写成:

“The increased enzyme activity during gastric cancer implies that the enzyme plays a role in gastric cancer,”

“胃癌期间加强的酶活性意味着酶在胃癌中起着一定的作用,”

然而:

“Because the enzyme activity was increased during the initiation of cell division, we inferred that it played a role in this process.”

“由于细胞分裂初期酶活性增强,所以我们推测酶在此过程中起一定的作用。”

Induce vs. deduce

用于科技写作中时Induce和deduce是相反的。Induce意思是基于观察形成普遍原理,而deduce意思是基于普遍原理的使用得出结论。例如:

“Based on close observation of the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands, Darwin induced his theory of evolution,”

“基于对加拉帕戈斯群岛的植物群和动物群的密切观察,达尔文提出了他的进化论,”

然而:

“We were able to deduce that the genes would be closely related between the two species of fly based on the theory of evolution.”

“基于进化论我们可以推断,这两种物种之间的基因可能有较近的亲缘。”

In order to; in order for

保持简洁,只用to或for。

In regard to

这个短语是正确的,但它可以用诸如about、regarding或concerning的词简化。

Irregardless

这不是个真实的词。别被骗使用它。Regardless或irrespective才是正确的。例如,你可以写成:

“Regardless of the wind speeds, we were able to obtain depth data.”

“不管风速多大,我们都能获得深度数据。”

Its vs. it’s

Its和it’s经常被混淆,但its是it的所有格,而it’s是it is的缩写。例如:

“Its radioactive nature was detected using a Geiger counter.”

“用盖革计数器检测了它的放射性。”

“It’s a challenging time to be a researcher.”

“这个时代成为研究人员是有挑战性的”都是对的。”

Lead

在科学领域,lead是一种金属,而动词lead的过去式是led而不是lead。例如:

“The results led us to conclude that there was no correlation between the two factors.”

“结果使我们推论出这两个因素之间没有相关关系是正确的。”

Less vs. fewer

体积或质量用less,例如:

“Less buffer was needed for running the smaller agarose gel.”

“较小的琼脂凝胶只需要较少的缓冲剂来跑胶。”

可数名词或个体用fewer,例如:

“Fewer bacteria were found in the water column.”

“水柱中发现了较少量的细菌。”

“Fewer data were obtained for the swamp transect.”

“获得了较少的沼泽断面数据。”

Media vs. mediums

在科学领域以及在讨论大众传媒时,medium的复数是media。例如:

“The bacteria only grew on two of the three media tested.”

“细菌仅在三个测试的培养基中的两个上生长。”

Mediums指的是招魂论者。

Neither…nor

这个构造遵循和either…or同样的规则。

On the one hand/on the other hand

使用时,这两句必须一起使用。例如:

“On the one hand, my results support my hypothesis. On the other hand, they are opposite to those obtained by Greer et al. (2001).”

“一方面,我的结果支持我的假设。另一方面,它们和Greer等人(2001)获得的结果相反”。

虽然技术层面上讲是正确的,但使用on the one hand/on the other hand太冗长了。上述例句可以更简单地写成:

“My results support my hypothesis. However, they are opposite to those obtained by Greer et al. (2001).”

“我的结果支持我的假设。然而,它们和Greer等人(2001)获得的结果相反”。

也可使用While、whereas以及in contrast来直截了当地表达相同的观点。

Partly vs. partially

这两个词都表示“某种程度上”或“部分地”。然而,partially还有额外的“不完全地”的意思。例如:

“The cell culture contamination is partly responsible for the failure of the experiment.”

“细胞培养污染在某种程度上是实验失败的原因。”

仅仅意味着污染是实验失败的一个原因。然而:

“The cellulose was partially converted to sugars by cellulase.”

“纤维素通过纤维素酶部分转化成了糖。”

表明并非所有纤维素都转化成了糖。

Peak vs. peek

peak (名词)即顶端,而peek是快速的一瞥。例如:

“The peak level of hemoglobin was achieved when the root nodules were initially formed.”

“最初形成根瘤时,血红蛋白达到峰值水平。”

这是正确的。Peak也可用作动词。例如:

“Hemoglobin peaked 7 days post-inoculation with the symbiont.”

“接种共生体后7天血红蛋白达到峰值。”

Phenomena

Phenomena是phenomenon的复数。Phenomenas是错误的。

Principle vs. principal

作为名词,principle即规则,而principal是最高权力机构的人。例如:

“Archimedes’ principle can explain why boats can float.”

“阿基米德定理可以解释船为什么能浮起来。”

然而:

“The principal of the private school was strict.”

“这所私立学校的校长曾经很严厉。”

principal这个词也可以用作形容词,意思是“最重要的”。例如:

“The principal factor in the patient’s demise was an overdose of warfarin.”

“该患者死亡的最主要的因素是华法令阻凝剂过量。”

Proved vs. proven

Proved是动词prove的过去式,而proven是个形容词。例如:

“The Hershey-Chase experiments proved that DNA was the genetic material.”

“赫尔希-蔡斯实验证明了DNA是遗传物质。”

这是正确的。然而:

“The Hershey-Chase experiments had proven that DNA was the genetic material.”

“赫尔希-蔡斯实验已经证明了DNA是遗传物质。”

这是错误的。然而:

“SDS-PAGE is a proven technique for separating proteins based on their molecular weights.”

“SDS-PAGE是一种已被证明用于根据分子量分离蛋白质的技术。”

这也是正确的。

Regime vs. regimen

请注意这是两个意思非常不同的词。regime是一段统治时期、一种政体或一种社会制度,而regimen是一种系统的计划。

Respective; Respectively

这些词意味着两个不同系列的组元间的一一对应。如果只有一个系列或名词,则不应使用这些词。例如:

“There were 5, 10, and 15 wasps in nests 1, 2, and 3, respectively.”

“巢1、2和3里分别有5、10和15只胡蜂。”

这是正确的。然而:

“There were wasps in nest 1, 2, and 3, respectively.”

“巢1、2和3中分别有胡蜂。”

这是错误的。

Since

Since是略微柔和形式的because,但在现代英语中这两个词可以互换使用。

That vs. which

先不讨论限制和非限制性从句,有个记住什么时候用that和which的诀窍。如果将that或which后面的词去掉会改变句子的意思,则用that。例如:

“The experiments that were done at 20°C were successful.”

“20°C下做的实验成功了。”

如果移除“that were done at 20°C”,那么这个句子读作:

“The experiments were successful.”

“实验成功了。”

这个句子现在是在说所有实验都成功了,不只是20°C下进行的那些实验。如果这个句子是:

“The experiments, which were done at 20°C, were successful.”

“20°C下做的那些实验成功了。“

这就表示所有实验都成功了。请记得在which前而不在that前加逗号。

Use vs. utilize

多数情况下Use比utilize更好。然而,当有特定的意义“为……找到实际用途”的时候,utilize比较合意。例如:

“Duct tape was utilized to hold the vacuum tube in place when the stopper wouldn’t stay in the flask.”

“当瓶塞无法保持在烧瓶中时,利用管带将真空管保持的适当位置上。”

转自:LetPub美籍编辑撰写