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1TheMostCommonHabitsfrommorethan200EnglishPaperswrittenbyGraduateChineseEngineeringStudentsByFeliciaBrittmanThispaperpresentssomeofthemostcommonChinese-EnglishhabitsobservedfromovertwohundredEnglishtechnicalpapersbyChinesewriters.Thehabitsareexplainedandinmostcases,exampletextfromanactualpaperisgivenalongwithpreferredtext.Anattemptismadetoexplainhowtocorrectandpreventsuchmistakes.Insomecasesapossibleexplanationofwhythehabitoccursisalsogiven.ThispapercanserveasanindividualguidetoeditingtechnicalpapersespeciallywhenanativeEnglish-speakingeditorisunavailable.IntroductionMostChineseuniversitiesrequiretheirdoctoralandmastercandidatesintechnicalandscientificfieldstopublishatleastoneEnglishpaperinaninternationaljournalasadegreerequirement.However,manyfactorsmakethistaskdifficulttoaccomplish.First,previousEnglishstudiesmaynothavefocusedenoughonwriting,letalonetechnicalwriting.CurrentstudiesmaynotincludeEnglish,causingthewritersEnglishfluencyleveltodecline.Second,mostwritershaveneverlivedinanEnglish-speakingcountry.Third,duetothespecialaspectsoftechnicalwriting,evennativeEnglish-speakingengineeringstudentshaveatechnicalwritingcourseaspartoftheirstudy.Toooften,students’papersarereturnedunacceptedbecauseofpoorEnglish.Ifavailable,studentsmayhavetheirpaperseditedbyanativeEnglishspeaker.However,thiscangetexpensiveforadepartmentthathasmanystudentswitheachpapertypicallyneedingtobeeditedtwice.Hiringsomeonetoeditpapersisdifficult,costlyandonlyputsapatchovertheproblem.AnativeEnglishspeakercandoagoodjobatgettingridofmostofthegrammaticalmistakes.However,ifthispersondoesnothaveatechnicalbackground,particularlyintheareaofthepapersheisediting,heisunabletogetridofallofthemistakesandmakesurethatthemeaningisclear.Hecannotrecognizetheincorrecttranslationoftechnicaltermsforwhichthereisastandardword.Suchmistakeswillnotbepickedupbytheprocessor’sspellingandgrammarchecker.Inaddition,iftheyarenotfamiliarwiththetopicorfield,theymaynotgraspthemeaningoftheentirearticleandfailtomakecriticaledits.Hiringapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundsimilartothatofthepapersbeingeditedisabetteroption.Nevertheless,whileapersonwithatechnicalbackgroundmaybeabletoeditthepapersufficiently,hemaynotbeabletoexplaintothewriterhowtopreventsuchmistakesinthefuture.Besides,itisdifficultformostChineseuniversitiestohiresuchstaffsimplyforediting.Universitiesmayconsiderinvitingavisitingscholarwhowilleditpapersinadditiontodoingresearchorteachingaspartofanexchange.Althougheditingmaybethefastestwaytopublishpapers,itdoeslittleinthewayofteachingthewritershowtopreventcommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsthatpreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Writerswhohavealreadyobtainedan2impressingcommandoftheEnglishlanguagecanonlytrulybenefitiftheyaremadeawareoftheircommonmistakesandcolloquialhabitsandhowtopreventthem.PurposeThepurposeofthisreportistointroducethemostcommonhabitsinChinese-EnglishwritingasnotedfromtheovertwohundredpapersIhaveedited.Thehabitsincludegrammarmistakes,colloquialisms,andformattingproblemsandinmostcasespreventaclearunderstandingofthewriter’sideas.Afewofthehabits,suchaswritingextremelylongsentences,canbecorrectedwithcarefuluseoftheMSWord®grammarandstylechecker.However,mosthabits,suchasmissingarticles,gounnoticedbyautomaticgrammarcheckingdevices.Still,Chinese-Englishcolloquialhabitsarenotrecognizedbysuchsoftwaretools.StructureThecommonhabitsarepresentedintwosections.Thefirstsectionliststhehabitsthat,inmyopinion,needthemostattention.Thesehabitsinterrupttheflowofthepapermakingitdifficulttounderstandandoccurmostfrequently.Inthissection,thehabitsareexplained,examplesentencesfromactualpapersaregiventoshowthehabits,andthesentencesarerewrittentoshowthecorrectwaytowritethem.Inthecaseofmissingarticles,aflowchartisalsogiventoaidinchoosingthecorrectarticles.Inthesecondsection,anadditionallistofhabitsisgiven.Insomecases,examplesentencesaregiven.Inothercases,adviceisgiven.Thesecondsectionisveryusefulinbecomingfamiliarwithsmallnuances.NotallofthecommonhabitsIobservedarepresentedmainlybecausetheycanonlybedealtwithonanindividualbasis.Forexample,writershaddifficultytitlingtheirpapersandnamingnewtechnicalideastoexpresstheircontentsandfunctionsconcisely.Thisproblemfrequentlyoccurredbutitcanonlybeaddressedindividually.Oncewritersareawareoftheirhabits,theywouldbeabletowritebettertechnicalEnglisharticles.Section1“a,an,the”Thesinglemostcommonhabitistheomissionofarticlesa,an,andthe.ThisoccursbecauseMandarinhasnodirectequivalentofarticlesandtherulesforusingthemaresomewhatcomplicatedforanon-nativespeakers.Articlessignalthatanounwillfollowandthatanymodifiersbetweenthearticleandthenounrefertothatnoun(abigbluebicycle/thefirstaward).Aandanareindefinitearticles;theisadefinitearticle.Everytimeasingularnoncountnoun,acommonnounthatnamesonecountableitem,isusedthenounrequiressomekindofdeterminer.3Mistake:The,a,andanare1)omittedwheretheyarerequired,2)usedwheretheyarenotneededorcontributetowordiness3)usedwronglyinplaceofthecorrectarticle.Examplesofincorrectusages:IncorrectFigure2showsthedistributionofrelativ