Selected English Skills Verbs Communicating Science 10 3

Selected English Skills Verbs Communicating Science: 10. 3. 1 Scientific Writing Course Edith Boxman © 2017

English Verbs: express action or being • Verb Form depends on tense, voice, and number. – Tense indicates when the action or condition occurs. – Voice indicates whether the subject is doing the action or whether the action is being done to the subject. – Number indicates how many subjects did the action (one or more than one). TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 2

Verb Tense • Tense expresses when action occurs or condition exists. – Literary English • Fine gradations of time • 20 tenses – Scientific English • Only ~5 tenses • But tense also conveys the writer’s attitude. TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 3

Verb Tense Present tense • Something is happening now – an action or a condition. • In scientific writing, also indicates a generally accepted fact. Past tense • A condition or action occurred in the past and is no longer occurring. • In scientific writing, also indicates results that may not necessarily be generally applicable. The past and present tense are by far the most commonly used tenses in scientific writing. TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 4

Verb Tense continued Future tense intent or expectation. Used mainly in: • Discussion and Conclusions in research reports (recommendation, implications) • Methodology and Work Plan in research proposals Scientific writing uses few of the many English tenses. TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 5

Verb Tense continued • Most common additional tenses: – Present perfect something happened and is or may be continuing to happen. • Example: Many surgeons have used amputation to treat gangrene in the extremities of diabetes patients. – Modal auxiliary potential, possibility or doubt. • Example: This may be explained by the less effective error identification routine required for reducing the overhead. TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 6

Verb Voice Shows relationship between action or state of being expressed by the verb, and the subject. • Active voice subject is “doer” of the action – considered more forceful but tends to emphasizes the researcher • Passive voice something acting on the subject – often preferred in scientific writing – emphasizes the research, (as it ought to be). TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 7

Verb Number • Subject and verb must agree in number. • Most plural nouns end in s or es. – Common exceptions: • Latin forms (e. g. datum/data, ovum/ovae) • internal vowels change (mouse/mice, goose/geese) • Regular verbs: singular and plural differ only in present tense, third person. Regular singular verbs end in an s. • Examples: – The oscillator generates a 5 V signal. [singular] The oscillators generate 5 volt signals. [plural] – Electron velocity increases with temperature. [singular] Electron velocity and electron pressure increase with temperature. [plural] TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 8

Subject-Verb Agreement • Noun phrase comprises – Central (head) noun – Modifiers • Noun phrases can become very complicated. – Subject-verb agreement - tricky for complex subject phrase – Verb must agree with the head noun – Example: The relationship [subject, singular] of voltage and temperature varies. [verb, singular] TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY 9