写出好句子------英文科技论文写作之根基

写出好句子------英文科技论文写作之根基

叶宬

华东师范大学外语学院

摘要：如何与国际同行进行学术交流？如何向国际期刊投稿？如何写出易被国际期刊采用的科技论文？这些都是令国内科技工作者头疼不已的问题。其实，英文科技论文写作并非高不可攀。对于大多数投稿者来说，掌握科技论文结构不是难题，关键是写不出好的句子。本文依据科技写作的特点介绍并具体举例分析如何写好单句。只有形成清晰、逻辑性强的思维才能真正地提高写作水平。

关键词：句子  科技英语写作  逻辑

1. 引言

科技英语是现代英语的一种社会功能变体。英语专家R.A.Close认为：“科技学生学习英语只需把时间和注意力放在那些对科技信息有效交际至关重要的语言特征上。” 话虽如此，科技英语相对独特的词法与句法却令初学者头疼不已。基于在美国伍斯特理工学院写作中心的访学经历以及多年的一线科技英语教学经验，笔者就常见的科技英语句子模式进行具体分析，旨在帮助科技工作者无障碍进行书面学术交流。

2. “Character-action”句式在科技英语中的应用

科技写作非常显著的特点就是简洁、明快。“Character-action”句型在科技写作中相当受欢迎。写句子其实就像写故事。把句子想象成故事。好的句子通常把主要角色放在句子的明星位置，即开头。而类似下面的表述模式就很难被接受：

The cause of the schools’ failure at teaching basic skills is not understanding the influence of cultural background.

对于读者来说，读句子就像听故事。读者希望一个句子的主语是它的主角。他们想让主角做点什么，他们希望主角活跃起来。读完此句，读者会发现重要角色其实是“school”，而非“cause”。因而当“cause”出现在首要位置时，读者会觉得该表述冗长且难以理解。

这时，我们需要做一些改动。首先，把“school”放到主语的位置；接着我们来思考：主角在做什么？我们在句子当中寻找动作动词，但是他们经常隐藏起来了或伪装成名词或形容词。比如该句中的“failure”一词。该句的动词又是一个乏味的be动词，而非主动动词。实际上，大多数初学者都会过度使用be动词或者被动语态，而忽略了主动动词显然更好、更准确、也更简短这一事实。在科技写作中，我们应尽可能地使用主动动词。试着将句子改成“Character-action”模式，效果好很多：

Schools fail to teach basic skills because they do not understand students’ cultural backgrounds.

或者改写成：

When teachers don’t understand students’ cultural backgrounds, they fail at teaching even basic skills.

或：

Culture influences student learning; teachers must understand this or they will fail to teach them even basic skills.

“主角+行动”模式显然更符合科技英语的写作习惯。这种句式在专业论文中经常出现。例如：

Recently, we introduced a simple method for self-folding of pre-strained polymer sheets (52).

又如：

This alignment gives muscle precursor fibers a key property: fiber anisotropy.

Guest materials can also modify the actuation of a muscle fiber and provide additional functionality.

         We assume that the entire domain of analysis is a potential crime spot, movement of the criminal is uninhibited, and the area in question is large enough to contain all possible strike points.

3. 谨慎使用被动语态

来看一个句子：

The CIRP Annals 2012 Manufacturing Technology (CIRP) and Fractals, and the   Interdisciplinary Journal on the Complex Geometry of Nature (IJCGN)

will be analyzed in this report. 

        漫长沉重的开头和主语令句子有头重脚轻的失衡感，有血有肉有情感的人用在句首明显来得自然：

In this report, I analyze two publications:  xxx and xxx.

        又或者直接将“report”置于主语的位置：

This report summarizes and compares the content and style of two professional publications, xxx and xxx, the first of which is xxx and the second yyy…

前面所提的Character-action模式同样适用于此处。比如科技写作中最常见的图表描述：

         Figure 3 (D to F) shows a folded structure with three independent but overlapping single folding panels.

        Figure 1 summarizes the phases that occur during LA and plasma evolution with their approximate timescales, while also highlighting the most influential plasma parameters and environmental conditions.

当然并非说科技写作中一概不能使用被动语态。比如只是强调过程，而不需要表达谁来做的时候就可以使用被动语态。科技论文写作“Method”这个环节，使用被动语态的情况比较常见。比如：

Consequently, twist and writhe can be converted between each other even when fiber ends are tethered to fix the linking  number.

        或者在介绍背景知识的时候：

Today, information-intensive models can be constructed using heat-map techniques to identity the hot spots for a specific type of crime, or to derive associations between the rate of criminal activity and attributes of a location.

4. 句子的逻辑关系

1）衔接词的使用

句子有四种类型——简单句、复杂句、复合句以及并列复合句。写作时可能需要合并句子，但英语非母语的科技工作者往往不知道用什么方法来衔接。他们会写出这样的句子：

The first publication is CIRP Annals 2012 Manufacturing Technology. This was established in 1997.  It has a large readership. The readership is over 6000 a year. 

        其实，只要增加适当的衔接词或者标点符号，就可以将语义破碎的句子衔接起来：The first publication, CIRP Annals 2012 Manufacturing Technology, was established in 1997, and it has since attracted a large readership of over 6000.

         实际上，句子的连接是思维的连接。使主题连贯，便能将句子自然整合。孤立的语法练习起不到作用，单纯记住词性和动词时态等技术名称也是收效甚微。写出正确的句子有助于帮助完善作者各观点之间的逻辑关系，便于读者更好地接纳重要信息。

2）句子的多样化

       看一个例子：

The CIRP Annals 2012 Manufacturing Technology (CIRP)  and Fractals, and the   Interdisciplinary Journal on the Complex Geometry of Nature (IJCGN) will be analyzed in this report.  [simple] The first publication thatwas analyzed was CIRP Annals 2012 Manufacturing Technology.

[complex] This was established in 1997. [simple]  It  has a large readership  of over 6000  a year. [simple] It is interesting[mainly for engineers and manufacturers. [Simple] These readers are updated on the latest technology in the field [simple] .  They can review  articles published the past year. [simple] The second analyzed journal was IJCGN [simple]. It has a bigger audience. [simple] Over 15000 people read it each year. [simple]This is because it is of interest to a big range of  professionals. [complex] Fractals are very popular and useful to many engineers and scientists. [simple] It is newer. [Simple] The journal was started in 2005. [simple]

这段话中，具有相似主题的句子彼此之间很接近，这对连贯性很有好处，但是句子之间的衔接却很糟糕。他们只是不断重复主题，并添加另一个描述性细节。何不把所有的句子合并起来，将其中一些变成从句或修饰短语呢？ 同时，句子类型也有问题。近150个字的段落，竟然多达12个句子。其中10个是简单句，复杂句只有2个。没有复合句，也没有并列复合句。整合部分句子将有助于解决所有这些问题：

In this report, I analyze two publications in my field, Annals of CIRP  x and the journal of  IJCGN x.  Established in 1997, CIRP attracts a readership of over xx., which consists of  professionals in engineering  and manufacturing.  Readers can find in the Annals any article  published  that year; most of the articles  feature  the newest technology in the field. Established in 2005, IJCGN attracts a bigger audience of 15,000, including professionals from a variety of disciplines who may find fractals useful in their work.

简单句、复杂句、以及并列复合句的使用丰富了句式的多样性，读起来也流畅得多。注意改写的版本仍旧使用了“Character-action”模式。

5. 结论

精简是科技写作的一个基本法则。牢记“Character-action”模式，避开雷区；培养逻辑能力，学会将句子组织成流畅的篇章。写好句子是有效的写作练习，只有单句过关了，才能写出好的长篇科技论文。

参考文献：

1. Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein  They say I say     (Second Edition) W.W. Norton & Company .2010
2. Joseph Williams & Gregory Colomb.Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace by (Forth edition).   Pearson. 2010
3. Lorraine Higgins.  Lecture “Writing Better Sentences” 2016
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