1st Edition
Written English A Guide for Electrical and Electronic Students and Engineers
A research paper or graduate essay demonstrating weak English and poor formatting is likely to be rejected by an editor or marked down by an assessor; but why should these gaps in your English knowledge undermine your subject knowledge and skill as an engineer or student of the discipline?
Written English: A Guide for Electrical and Electronic Students and Engineers is the first resource to work at the sentence level to resolve the English language problems facing international engineering students and scholars. Informed by hundreds of research papers and student essays, this valuable reference:
- Covers grammar essentials and key terms in the fields of electrical engineering, electronic engineering, and communication systems
- Uses real-world examples to reveal common mistakes and identify critical areas of focus
- Provides practical solutions to formatting, vocabulary, and stylistic issues
Written English: A Guide for Electrical and Electronic Students and Engineers equips readers with the necessary knowledge to produce accurate and effective English when writing for engineering.
GRAMMAR
Nouns
Noun formation
Countable and uncountable nouns
Compounds
Articles
The definite article
The indefinite and zero articles
Proper nouns
Fixed phrases
Omitting the article
Example errors
Pronouns and quantifiers
Personal pronouns
The 'of' phrase
Example errors
Subject/verb agreement
Identifying the subject
Using two subjects
Singular or plural form?
Words of quantity
Uncountable nouns
Verbals
Choosing the -ing form
Present and past participles
Choosing the infinitive
Selected samples
The verb ‘to be’
Confusion with 'being'
Confusion between has been / was
Modal verbs
Golden rule
Questions
Phrasal verbs
A few examples
Position of the particle
Types of errors
Adjectives and adverbs
Adjective / adverb comparisons
Adverb placement
Comparatives and superlatives
The past participle
Excessive adjectives
Example errors
Prepositions
Prepositional phrases (at, to, with, of, by, for, on, in)
Clauses
Types of clause
Conjunctions
Conditional clauses
Comparative construction
Only
Example errors
Prefixes
Forms and errors
Hyphens and prefixes
STYLE AND PUNCTUATION
Style: Clarity and brevity
Redundant and unnecessary terms
Position of the subject
Of
Conjunctions
Using lists
Style: Voice and verb choice
Tense
Merits of both voices
Nominalization
Verb strength
Tense
Changing tenses
Tense selection
Future events
Time and duration
Opening statements
Time expressions
Titles
Titles of the paper
Titles of chapters and figures
Spelling form
Differences between AE and BE
Capitalization
General principles
Colons, parentheses, dashes
Colons and semicolons
Horizontal lines
Parentheses
Apostrophes
DATA AND REFERENCING
Figures and tables
Using figures
Using tables
Permissions
The grammar of figures and tables
Numbers and units
SI units
Punctuation and spacing
Style
Position of the number
Percentages
Errors
Equations
Formatting
Terminology
Further suggestions
Example errors
Referencing
The number system
Reference list (bibliography)
A–Z LIST OF ERRORS
Absorption – commutate
Compete – efficient
Electrical – lack
Lifetime – rely
Resonance – strengths and weaknesses
Survey – worth
INDEX
Biography
Steve Hart has been editing and proofreading for international academics and graduate students of engineering since 2005. A former high school teacher with a background in sociolinguistics, he has written grammar guides for the Indian market and produced coursebooks for several academies in the United Kingdom. He is currently English Skills Coordinator at a higher education institution in Cambridge, England.
"This is the perfect reference for an international audience. In addition, this is a text that one would want on his or her shelf as an undergraduate, through graduate school, and into one’s professional career."
—William Magrino, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, USA"… provides many good examples (with errors and with corrections), covers some of the most common errors, and employs a design throughout, making it easy for readers to review the information quickly."
—Dan Jones, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA"... useful for beginner non-native English writers, such as international graduate students. ... covers many of the most common mistakes made by beginner writers."
—Agung Julius, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA
