The purpose of this post is to solicit questions and
excerpts from your writing that confound you.
Some aspects of English writing are difficult for many
native English speakers as well, e.g., choosing between its and it's or using
transitions between paragraphs. Others
are more difficult for Chinese authors, e.g., the use of the articles a, an and the, which are unnecessary in Mandarin or Cantonese because context
provides clarity.
As a general rule, I recommend focusing first on what is
essential to convey your meaning and ignoring the rest until the penultimate
pass. (Many native English speakers
don't know what "penultimate" means.) Ten years ago, I was much less flexible
when editing; since that time, so many ESL authors have begun publishing in
American scientific journals that I find numerous deviations in print. I've discussed this with journal copy editors
and learned that--without admitting as much--standards have relaxed.
This is not due only to their being overwhelmed by the
cutbacks in staffing due to the recession, but to the nature of the English
language itself. Unlike Spanish and
French, for example, there is no single guide to proper usage.
The influx of papers from scientists whose native language originated
in China, India, Egypt, Italy, Kenya, Brazil or Chile affects the English of
today, particularly in America, a polyglot nation. 'Twas ever thus. We are more familiar with new words than with
new structures, but both types of changes have occurred for centuries as
English-speaking people migrated westward and emigrants from other countries followed.
(Just reading a dictionary transports me
to exotic climes for hours.)
Nevertheless, there are
some hard and fast rules--I can hear you cheering!--and some guidelines are
prescriptive though not proscriptive. So
send your questions and samples and we'll have fun with them as we separate the
"musts" from the "maybes".
By the way, in case you noticed that I placed the period at
the end of the preceding sentence outside
the final quotation mark, I follow the logical system on that rule and you can,
too--except when you're submitting a paper to a journal that follows
traditional American style. According to
what I've read, the only reason Americans moved the comma and period outside
was to accommodate a fragile type of printing press that is no longer in
use.
The British logically include all punctuation within the
final quotation mark, and so do I! Take
that, Chicago Manual of Style! What's up, o people of the windy city? Can't
you feel the punctuation paradigm shifting? Wikipedia rules! Hip hip hooray!
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