Brittman读了200多篇中国人的SCI论文，总结出了这些高频错误，你中枪了吗？

首先来感慨一下，这个世界真是研究什么的都有，有的人琢磨怎么把试验成果发表成SCI文章，有的人则在琢磨这些发表SCI的人——Felicia L. Brittman女士作为一名专利审核员，在2003年的某一天就突发奇想，通过阅读200多篇中国工科研究生撰写的论文，总结出了这篇“常见错误合辑”，我相信她一定是有中国背景的，于是我找到了她的Linkedin主页，就是这里：https://www.linkedin.com/in/felicia-l-brittman-642a3650从中可以看出，她曾于2002~2003年期间在上海交通大学担任客座讲师，并通晓汉语，这点很重要，这使得她的这篇文章非常具有针对性。

目前，由于网上流传的版本并不是经格式化的期刊论文pdf文件，因此可能被误解为是美国的一位教授或期刊编辑写的普通文档，而事实并非如此。Brittman并非教授，也不是期刊编辑，这篇文章也是发表在正式期刊里的一篇论文：

Brittman, F., 2003. The Most Common Habits from more than 200 English Papers written by Graduate Chinese Engineering Students. Structure 1–17.

言归正传，直接上干货：

 

定冠词与不定冠词 a, an, the 不分

冠词后面会跟着名词，而且任何在冠词和名词之间的修饰词，都是用于指向后面的那个名词的，如一种蓝色的大自行车(a big blue bicycle)/第一个奖品（the first award）。a和an是不定冠词，the是定冠词，当一个单数的非可数名词，一个常见名词作为一个可数的项目时，这些名词就需要限定词。

 

Incorrect ： Figure 2 shows the distribution of relative velocity on surface of main and splitter blades.15

Correct ： Figure 2 shows the distribution of relative velocity on the surface of the main and splitter blades.15

问题：表示特指的时候，不要忘了The

Incorrect ：The software PowerSHAPE is chosen to be a 3D modeling tool; it is good at dealing with free surfaces and curves.

Correct ： The software PowerSHAPE is chosen to be the 3D modeling tool; it is good at dealing with free surfaces and curves.

问题：由于文章中的3D模型只出现过一次，于是这个模型就需要特指

Incorrect ：A theoretical method for calculating the inner flow-field in centrifugal impeller with splitter blades and investigation of the interactions between main and splitter blades is presented in this paper. The vortices are distributed on the main and splitter blades to simulate the effects of
flows. Systematical study of number and distribution of vortices is conducted.

Correct ： A theoretical method for calculating the inner flow-field in a centrifugal impeller with splitter blades and an investigation of the interactions between main and splitter blades is presented in this paper. The vortices are distributed on the main and splitter blades to simulate the effects of
flows. A systematical study of the number and distribution of vortices is conducted.

冠词的作用是限定名词的意义范围，比如说明一个名词是具有一般性的(a tree)，还是特指的(the tree)。定冠词The和不定冠词a/an的主要区别在于，如果一个名词是已经知道的(known)或者是特指的，需要用the，如the plan的言外之意在于作者和读者已经都知道plan是什么，而a plan则表明是一般泛指，提出一个plan，后面再详细表述。

 

名词按类别分：

• 普通名词：表示一类群组、地点、人或物体，如dog, house
• 可数名词：表示可数的物体或项目，如radio, streets, idea, fingernails
• 不可数名词：表示不可以计数的物体，如water, time
• 具体特指的名词：表示有具体特指的物体，用定冠词the
• 非具体特指名词：表示任何一个相同的项目，用不定冠词a/an

过长的句子

通常，如果把中文直译成英语，就会造成这个问题。

Too long： According to the characteristic of fan-coil air-conditioning systems, this paper derives the cooling formula of fan-coil units based on the heat transfer theories and puts forward a new method to gauge cooling named Cooling Metering on the Air-side, which can monitor the individual air-conditioning cooling consumption during a period of time by detecting the parameters of inlet air condition–temperature and humidity – of the fan-coil air-conditioning system as well as the parameters of inlet cooling water provided by the chiller.

Correct： This paper derives the cooling formula of fan-coil units based on the characteristics of fan-coil air-conditioning systems and heat transfer theories, and puts forward a new method to gauge cooling called Cooling Metering on the Air-side. The new method can monitor individual air-conditioning cooling consumption during a period of time by detecting the condition of inlet air – temperature and humidity – of the fan-coil air-conditioning system as well as the parameters of the inlet cooling water provided by the chiller.

Too long ：The gear transmission is grade seven, the gear gap is 0.00012 radians, the gear gap has different output values corresponding to any given input value, non-linearity of the gear gap model can be described by using the phase function method, the existing backlash block in the non-linear library of the Matlab/zdimulink toolbox can be used, the initial value of gear gap in the backlash block is set to zero.

Correct： The gear transmission is grade seven. The gear gap, which is 0.00012 radians, has different output values corresponding to any given input value. The non-linearity of the gear gap model can be described by using the phase function method. The existing backlash block in the non-linear library of the Matlab/zdimulink toolbox can be used; the initial value of gear gap in the backlash block is set to zero.

把一个超级长的句子打散成若干短句的组合，这样更容易被读者理解，如何做到呢——记住，每句话只需要表达一个简单的意思，千万不要贪多嚼不烂。

还有一种情况容易出现超长句子，那就是作者希望在一句话中提供太多的数据和内容，这个时候的最佳选择并不是句子，而是列表：

不习惯用倒装句

中国人的思维模式是“因为...所以...”，句子中的后面是重点，而英语当中恰好相反。这一点我们学英语的时候都已经非常清楚，然而在撰写论文的时候还是屡屡忘记把一个句子中的核心内容放到前面说。

Incorrect： For the application in automobile interiors, this paper studies the nesting optimization problem in leather manufacturing.

Correct： This paper studies the nesting optimization problem in leather manufacturing for application in automobile interiors.

Incorrect： To ensure sheet metal quality as well as assembly quality, CMMs are widely used in automotive industry production.

Correct： CMMs are widely used in automotive industry production to ensure sheet metal quality as well as assembly quality.

在句子的开头放置表示时间的短语

Incorrect： When U is taken as the control parameter, the BDs for ∆ =0.0, 0.001, 0.005 are shown in Fig. 8.

Correct： Figure 8 shows the BDs for ∆ =0.0, 0.001, and 0.005 when U is taken as the control parameter.

为了表示强调，通常把最重要的部分放在句子开头

Incorrect ： Based on the triangulation structure built from unorganized points or a CAD model, the extended STL format is described in this section.4

Correct： The extended STL format is described in this section based on the triangulation structure built from unorganized points or a CAD model.

“which/ that”

需要用which作为先行词(代词指代的名词或代词)的时候，一定要注意是否会引起缺乏特指、指代不明而引起的混淆，如下面的例子：

The Shijiazhuang south road underground bridge possesses the largest jacking force, which is built at 1978(10680t).

Shijiazhuang south road underground bridge possesses the largest jacking force which is built at 1978(10680t).

‘Respectively’ and ‘respective’

Respectively用于之前已经提到顺序的两个或两个以上的人或物，表示他们之间“分别地”关系，如果之前给出的是两个列表，则respectively指两个列表之间元素一一对应的关系。因此使用respectively，作者可以在一个句子中给出相对较多的信息。

例如: Bobby, Nicole and Daren wore red, green and blue coats, respectively.

List 1                  List 2
Bobby     wore a      red coat.
Nicole    wore a      green coat.
Daren     wore a      blue coat.

错误使用的情况：

（1）Respectively放在了其所指的名词之前

Incorrect： Equations 2～6 can be respectively linearized as:……(equations given)…
Correct： Equations 2～6 can be linearized as:……(equations given)…, respectively.

Incorrect： The weights of the two experts are respectively 0.600 and 0.400.
Correct： The weights of the two experts are 0.600 and 0.400, respectively.

（2）Respectively虽然被插入句子中，但句子本身结构中并不存在“一一对应”的关系

Incorrect： If both the core technology score and core quality score of a bottleneck process are, respectively, below certain scores, then we refer to strategy 1, otherwise, if either is, respectively, above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 2. Similarly, if the core technology and core quality are, respectively, above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 3, otherwise, if either is, espectively, below a certain score, then we refer to strategy 4.

Correct： If both the core technology score and core quality score of a bottleneck process are below certain scores, then we refer to strategy 1, otherwise, if either is above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 2. Similarly, if the core technology and core quality are above a certain score, then we refer to strategy 3, otherwise, if either is below a certain score, then we refer to strategy 4.

(3)并不知道 respectively指代的是什么

Incorrect ：The dynamic characteristics of a rotor with asymmetric stiffness or with initial warp have been studied before respectively [1-4]

Correct ： The dynamic characteristics of a rotor with asymmetric stiffness or with initial warp have been studied before [1-4].

‘In this paper’, ‘in this study’

这个短语有两种错误用法，一个是用的太多了，甚至在一页中出现超过两次。

通常这个短语有两种用途：

1. 在Introduction和conclusion中用于强调文章内容
2. 在正文中，在讨论作者未做的工作之后(如他人论文和标准规范等)

如果用的过多，会让人疑惑作者到底做了哪些工作。

第二个错误用法就比较微妙了，这二者之间是可以互换的。

Awkward： In the paper, a SZG4031 towing tractor is used as the sample vehicle, it components equivalent physical parameters are obtained by UG design and testing.

Correct： In this study, a SZG4031 towing tractor is used as the sample vehicle, it components equivalent physical parameters are obtained by UG design and testing.

‘study’是作者做出的工作，‘paper’指的是读者正在读的这篇论文(在工作的基础上加工而成的)，对比理解 ‘in this research’, and ‘this paper present’

数字和公式

Incorrect： 12 parameters were selected for the experiment.
Correct： Twelve parameters were selected for the experiment.

句子的开头不要出现阿拉伯数字

Incorrect： All 3 studies concluded that the mean temperature should be 30°C.
Correct： All three studies concluded that the mean temperature should be 30°C.

数字最好只用于确切的试验数据，对于泛指的内容尽量不要用，尤其是尽量不要在一个句子中用太多数字。

Incorrect： If the power battery SOC > SOClo and the driving torque belongs to the middle load,…

Correct： If the power battery SOC is greater than SOClo and the driving torque belongs to the middle load,…

许多文献都不主张在正文中用短的表达式代替文字

格式

段落

所有的段落应该有1英寸的缩进，段落之间应该有空行

‘Figure’ and ‘Table’

关于figure 和 table 的缩写是 Fig. and Tbl。在文中使用全称figure或者简写fig，需要统一，不要二者都写，而且在句子开头不要使用缩写

Incorrect： Figure.6, Figure6, Fig.6, Tbl10

Correct： Figure 6, Fig. 6, Tbl. 10

变量

尤其是英文字母代表的变量，应该使用斜体表达

大写字母

Incorrect： In table 1, The mark…
Correct： In table 1, the mark…

‘such as’ and ‘etc.’

Such as表示for example，并且暗示：incomplete list will follow

etc.表示and so on，并且暗示 list is not complete

二者同时使用是完全没有必要的

Incorrect ：Studies of methodology and process of implementing remanufacturing mainly focus on durable products such as automobile motors, printers, and etc.

Correct： Studies of methodology and process of implementing remanufacturing mainly focus on durable products such as automobile motors, and printers.

Incorrect： Compared to traditional industry, Micro-electronic fabrication has three characteristics such as high complexity, high precision and high automation.

Correct： Compared to traditional industry, Micro-electronic fabrication has three characteristics: high complexity, high precision and high automation.

上面由于three characteristics都给出来了，因此不能用such as

无需复数

有些词汇单复数相同，因此不需要加“s”，如：

• literature (when referring to research)
• equipment,
• staff (referring to a group of people)
• faculty

避免啰嗦

需要复数表达

一些表达

不要‘by this way’. Instead write ‘by doing this’, or ‘using this method’.

句子不要以 ‘How to…’ 开头

No： How to find the optimal parameter is the main objective.
Yes： Determining how to find the optimal parameter is the main objective.

对： ‘the results are shown in Figure 2’.

错：‘the results are showed as Figure 2’.

避免 obviously这个词的滥用：

No： Obviously, detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method.
Yes： Detecting regimes by means of PMH maps is a novel method.

国际文章中，不要写‘at home’, ‘abroad’, ‘here’, ‘our country’，因为读者大多不是中国人，写成 ‘in China’

避免写‘that is to say’ and ‘namely’，尽量在一个句子里表达你的意思

在句子的结尾避免用‘too’

***

总结完成之后，我突然想到，本文中出现的各种实例，真的可以从已经发表的论文中看到吗？应该不会吧，我想这应该就是Brittman在中国的这一年，为学生修改论文时搜集来的实例吧。真是佩服她这个有心人！P.S.上交大外交还帮忙润色论文啊，简直是太强大了。