Glossary
Given below is an excerpt from The Craft of Scientific Writing.
Like many subjects, scientific writing contains a number of specific terms: noun, active voice, and infinitive phrase. Are these terms really valuable to know? I believe that they are. By having working definitions of these terms, you are in a position to better analyze your own writing and to comment on the writing of others. For instance, how can you really when to use affect and effect if you do not know what a noun and verb are?
The terms in this glossary belong to a core of knowledge that, as E.D. Hirsch [1996] asserts, all English-speaking people should possess to function effectively in our society. For you as a writer, possessing this core of knowledge does not mean that you must have a textbook definition of each term. Rather, possessing this core means that you can understand and correctly use these terms in your dealings with others.
Like many subjects, scientific writing contains a number of specific terms: noun, active voice, and infinitive phrase. Are these terms really valuable to know? I believe that they are. By having working definitions of these terms, you are in a position to better analyze your own writing and to comment on the writing of others. For instance, how can you really when to use affect and effect if you do not know what a noun and verb are?
The terms in this glossary belong to a core of knowledge that, as E.D. Hirsch [1996] asserts, all English-speaking people should possess to function effectively in our society. For you as a writer, possessing this core of knowledge does not mean that you must have a textbook definition of each term. Rather, possessing this core means that you can understand and correctly use these terms in your dealings with others.
adjective
A word that modifies a noun or pronoun: “Scientists were surprised when the huge earthquake and unexpected landslide triggered such a massive eruption.”
adverb
A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb: “When Mount Pelee erupted, the lava gushed so rapidly through Saint-Pierre that only two citizens survived.”
clause
A group of words containing a subject and a finite verb. A clause may be dependent, meaning that it cannot stand alone as a sentence (“when elephants search for food”) or independent, meaning that it can stand alone as a sentence (“elephants communicate to one another by making rumbling noises similar to gargling”).
conjunction
A word that joins words, phrases, or clauses. There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, correlative, and subordinating. Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor) join words, phrases, and clauses of equal rank. Generally, these are the words that people mean when they say the word” conjunction.” Correlative conjunctions are simply coordinating conjunctions used in pairs (both ... and, not only ... but (also), either ... or, neither... nor) to join words, phrases, and clauses of equal rank. Subordinating conjunctions are words such as because, although, and when that introduce dependent (or subordinating) clauses.
dependent clause
A clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence. These clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions such as “although,” “when,” “because,” and “if”: “Because anemometers are so delicate, they cannot be used to measure directly the wind speeds of tornadoes.”
finite verb
(see verb)
fragment
A group of words missing one or more of the three elements of a sentence: subject, main verb, or complete thought.
gerund
A present participle that functions as a noun: “Walking is great exercise.” Often, the gerund is part of a phrase that serves as a noun: “In scuba diving, ascending too quickly will not allow your body enough time to dispose of the nitrogen that it has absorbed.”
grammar
The rules of writing that dictate how words are to be arranged into meaningful sentences. Actually, English, when compared with other languages such as German, does not have many rules of grammar. English does, though, have a host of rules for usage.
infinitive phrase
A verb phrase in which the verb is coupled with the word “to”: “To calculate the energy, you multiply the frequency by Planck’s constant.”
main verb (of sentence)
(see verb)
noun
A word that identifies an action, person, place, quality, or thing. Examples include “flight,” “scientist,” “laboratory,” “curiosity,” and “oscilloscope.”
object
A noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that receives the action of the verb (“The viper bit my leg”).
participle
A special form of a verb. Present participles end in “-ing” (working) and past participles often end in “-ed” (worked). Participles and participial phrases often serve as modifiers: “Hunting at night, the tagged tiger was rarely seen making a kill.” When a present participle serves as a noun (“Swimming burns many calories”), it is called a gerund.
phrase
A group of words that may contain a subject or finite verb, but not both. Examples include prepositional phrases (“of oper grasslands”), participial phrases (“foraging for food”), and infinitive phrases (“to warn others in the herd”).
preposition
A part of speech that indicates a relationship such as time, manner, or place between its object and another word in the sentence. Examples include about, above across, after, against, beside, between, beyond, by, despite, down, in, inside, like, near, of, through, to, until, upon and with. Prepositions introduce noun phrases that bring these details of time, manner, and place into sentences: “within a few hours,” “with much speed,” and “under the bridge.”
pronoun
A part of speech that may be used instead of a noun. Examples are “I,” “he,” “she,” “it,” “we,” and “they.”
run-on sentence
Sentences are the fundamental units of expression in scientific documents. Readers of professional writing expect authors to write in sentences. When a sentence runs on, readers often lose their place in the paragraph. They also lose confidence in the author.
The most common type of run-on sentence occurs when the writer tries to use an adverb such as however, otherwise, or therefore to join two independent clauses. In such cases, consider one of the following: (1) begin a second sentence; (2) join the clauses with a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, or but; or (3) make one of the clauses a dependent clause.
Mistake: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, however, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s. However, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
The most common type of run-on sentence occurs when the writer tries to use an adverb such as however, otherwise, or therefore to join two independent clauses. In such cases, consider one of the following: (1) begin a second sentence; (2) join the clauses with a coordinating conjunction such as and, or, or but; or (3) make one of the clauses a dependent clause.
Mistake: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, however, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s. However, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
Correction: Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, scientists have isolated the gene that causes it.
sentence
A group of words with a subject and verb (finite) that expresses a complete thought. Sentences often contain an object that receives the action of the verb: “The virus attacked the cell.” Here, virus is the subject, attacked is the verb, and cell is the object. To this sentence you can add adjectives, adverbs, phrases, and dependent clauses. While a subject and verb appear in every sentence, an object does not.
subject (of sentence)
Who or what the sentence or clause is about. The subject usually consists of a noun or pronoun and its complements (“Some fuel is usually left unburned in the tank”). However, a subject can also be a phrase (“Unfortunately, estimating the exact amount of fuel left in the tank is impossible”) or even a clause (“What fuel was left in the tank must have caused the explosion”).
subordinating conjunction
Words such as because, although, and if that introduce dependent (or subordinating) clauses. Because such a clause is dependent, it cannot stand alone as a sentence. Rather, the author should couple the dependent clause with an independent clause to form a complete sentence.
verb
A word that indicates an action or a state of being within a sentence: “The shock shattered the volcano’s summit and was responsible for the collapse of the mountain’s north side.” Finite verbs are capable of making assertions (“fuel burns”), while nonfinite verbs (such as participles and infinitives) are not (“fuel burning” or “fuel to burn”).