Michael Alley, Penn State
Writing as an Engineer or Scientist
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Avoiding the Most Egregious Errors of Grammar and Usage

Given below is an excerpt from The Craft of Scientific Writing​.


affect, effect

Affect is almost always a verb with the meaning to influence. Effect, on the other hand, is usually a noun and means a result (“greenhouse effect”). A cause for confusion is that effect can also be used as a verb meaning to bring about: “She effected the change of orders.” Adding even more confusion to the situation is that in the field of psychology, affect is used as a noun with the meaning of “emotional response.”
​      Should one of your authors have a problem differentiating between these two words, then you should recommend that he or she use affect solely as a verb meaning to influence and use effect solely as a noun meaning a result.

amount, number

In general, use amount for items that cannot be counted and number for items that can. For that reason, write “a huge amount of water,” “a paltry amount of grain,” and “a significant amount of fish left on the plate.” Likewise, write “a number of cells,” “a number of errors,” and “a number of fish in the stream.” Note that amount is used with sums of money, as in “a large amount of money.”

anxious, eager

In formal writing, the word anxious means awaiting something with apprehension, while eager means awaiting something with enthusiasm. Therefore, if an author were to write, “I anxiously await your reply,” it would suggest that he or she is expecting the worst. If the author awaits with positive expectations, he or she should write, “I eagerly await your reply.”


center around

The phrase center around makes no physical sense. You should use either center on or revolve around.

compare to, compare with

​When using criteria to compare things that belong to the same class, use compare with: “In his study, Barnhart compared drug treatments with radiation treatments.” When making an analogy to something of a different class, use compare to: “Freud compared the relationship of the ego and the id to a horse and its rider.”

compose, comprise

​The word comprise literally means to include. Most conservative sources such as Cook [1985] hold to that literal definition. For that reason, conservative sources insist on the whole comprising the parts, not the reverse. Moreover, conservative sources shun the phrase ​is comprised of because it makes no sense.

continual, continuous

The word continual means repeatedly: “For two weeks, the sperm whales continually dived to great depths in search of food.” The word continuous means without interruption: “The spectrum of light is continuous.” Given this distinction, the commonly used phrase “make continuous improvements” is an exaggeration unless the parties making the improvements do not sleep or break for meals.

criterion, criteria

Criterion is the singular form, and criteria is the plural form. Note that the Greek origin of this word accounts the unusual plural form. The same plural form occurs with phenomenon (phenomena).

fewer, less

​In general, use fewer for items that can be counted and less for items that cannot. For that reason, write “fewer cells,” “fewer errors,” and “fewer fish in the stream.” Likewise, write “less water,” “less air,” and “less foliage.” Note that you usually treat money and time as continuous quantities: “less than 1 million dollars” and “less than 100 years ago.”

hopefully, to mean "it is hoped that"

​Just as regretfully means “in a manner full of regret,” hopefully means “in a manner full of hope” :
          Correct:               We looked hopefully to the courts for a ruling on the contract dispute.
In formal writing, using hopefully to mean “it is hoped that” unsettles conservative readers:
          Mistake:               Hopefully, the antibodies will destroy the cancer cells.
          Correction:          It is hoped that the antibodies will destroy the cancer cells.
​While English has hopefully to be analogous with regretfully, English does not have a word that is analogous with regrettably, which means “it is regretted that.” For that reason, when you want to write “it is hoped that,” you should write “it is hoped that.”

irregardless

The construction irregardless is not standard English. Use regardless.

its, it's

The word its is the possessive form of the pronoun it and means “of it.” The word it’s is a contraction and means “it is.” A few hundred years ago, someone decided on these meanings. Accept them; learn them; write them.

lead, led

The present tense of the verb to lead is lead, and the past tense is led:
          Present tense:             Strong managers lead by example.
          Past tense:                   Who led last month’s meeting?

Although this rule is straightforward, many people mistakenly write lead for the past tense form. Confusing the issue for these wayward writers is the noun lead (Pb), which sounds like the past tense verb led, but is spelled like the verb’s present tense lead.

misplaced modifier

Have modifiers point to the words that they modify. Failure to follow this rule causes ambiguities. In the following example, the misplaced modifier is shown in italics.
          Mistake:         Shooting at speeds of 100 mph, the engineers tested the solar mirrors for hailstone damage.
Who or what was “shooting at 100 mph”?
          Correction:    To test for mirror damage, the engineers fired hail-stones at 100 mph onto the solar mirrors.

parallelism, faulty

In a list, present the items in a parallel fashion. In other words, if your first slice of pie is apple, then readers expect the remaining slices to be apple. In the following example, the nonparallel item appears in italics:
          Mistake:          The process involves three main steps: cooling, chopping, and pulverization.
          Correction:       The process involves three main steps: cooling, chopping, and pulverizing.

Parallelism is often lost in constructions involving either...or, neither...nor, and not only...but also. Such constructions require that what appears on the left side of the conjunction be parallel with what appears on the right.
          Mistake:          Our goal is either to predict or measure the speed.
          Correction:         Our goal is either to predict or to measure the speed.

phenomenon, phenomena

(see criterion, criteria)

piqued, peaked

In general, the word peaked means achieving a maximum or highest point, while the word piqued means to stimulate or arouse. In emails, a common idiom is "piqued my interest," meaning that something has stimulated the interest of the author.

plethora, to mean simply "large number"

​Often misused, plethora is a noun meaning an excess or overabundance. Many people do not realize the negative connotation associated with this abundance and mistakenly use plethora to indicate simply a large amount.

possessives

​For most singular nouns, you form the possessive by adding ’s: “a person’s fingerprints,” “someone else’s decision,” and “your boss’s authority.” Exceptions include a handful of people and places in which the possessive form does not add an s sound to the pronunciation (for instance, “Moses’ Law,” “Mount St. Helens’ eruption,” and “Archimedes’ principle”). For most plural nouns, you form the possessive by adding an apostrophe: “the wolves’ tracks in the snow.” Exceptions include irregular plurals (“the children’s flu shots”).

principal, principle

​The word principal can be either a noun or an adjective. As an adjective, principal means main or most important. The word principle appears only as a noun and means a law, as in “Archimedes’ principle.”

simplistic

Just as plethora means "too many," the word simplistic means "too simple." The denotation of this word is negative, and ​it is not a synonym for simple​.

stratum, strata

Stratum is the singular form, and strata is the plural form. Note that the Latin origin of this word accounts for the unusual plural form.

that, which

In choosing between that and which, use that for defining clauses (often called necessary clauses because the information is needed to understand the sentence) and which for nondefining clauses (often called unnecessary clauses because the information is additional):
          We will select the option that has the highest thermal efficiency. (the clause specifies which option)
          We will select Option A, which has the highest thermal efficiency. (the clause adds a fact about the known option)
Notice that you separate nondefining which clauses from the rest of the sentence with commas. In addition to having nondefining which clauses follow nouns, many authors also have nondefining which clauses refer back to the idea of the sentence:
          The curve flattened, which shows that the projectile reached a peak velocity.
An interesting situation in which you might choose which rather than that is when you have two that clauses in the same sentence. In such instances, some writers use which for stylistic variation:
          They selected the option that had an operating value in a range which posed no danger.
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Content Editor:

Michael Alley
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mpa13@psu.edu