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This is not academic writing 學術文章不是這麼寫的
【寫作技巧】
並非所有與學術議題相關的文章，就能稱之為「學術文章」。本篇專欄將節錄不同學術議題的內容，分析常見的寫作錯誤，並分享潤修與寫作的技巧。
Not all articles written on academic topics are written in proper academic English. In this "This is not academic writing" column we examine short excerpts from academic texts to illustrate common writing errors and explain how to correct them.
Unacceptable 不被認可的文章
“The linguistic academic community revolves round the utter practicality of its work. Because language is central to life, the exploration and teaching of it is a life-enhancing activity. The breaking down of words, phrases, and entire texts into component parts is pretty much like the work of engineers, who take apart a machine to understand its workings before trying to improve it. In the same way do linguists systematically explore expression, linking together the hardware of language (words) with software (meaning) to produce an unparalleled communication media.”
This writing is marred by a few poor choices, but is not a generally poor example of scholarly writing. For example, the writer used the diminutive “round,” instead of “around” in the first sentence when the latter would have read more smoothly; the cadence of a sentence is important. Also, to say language is “central to life” overstates its importance. It is sufficient to characterize language as essential. In the third sentence, “parsing” would have been perfect usage instead of the descriptive but clunky “breaking down.” The most egregious failure was the errant use of the plural “media” instead of “medium.” What other weaknesses do you see?
這段文章有幾個失誤攪局，不過就學術寫作而言整體不算很差勁。首先，第一句中，作者以較短的 “round” 取代 “around”，但 “around” 唸起來會比較順口，別忘了句子的抑揚頓挫很重要。另外，形容語言 “central to life”（是生活中心）有點言過其實，只要說生活中少不了語言就足夠了。第三句以 “breaking down” 來形容太臃腫笨拙，用 “parsing”（解析）就好得多。最叫人目瞪口呆的錯誤是用錯了複數的 “media”，正確用法應該是 “medium”（媒介）。你還找出了那些缺點呢？
Acceptable 認可的文章
“The linguistic academic community revolves around the utter practicality of its work. Because language is an essence of life, the exploration and teaching of it is a life-enhancing activity. The parsing of words, phrases, and entire texts into component parts is akin to the work of engineers, who disassemble a machine to understand its workings before trying to improve it. In the same way do linguists systematically explore expression, deftly mating the hardware of language (words) with software (meaning) to produce an unparalleled communication medium.”
Not all articles written on academic topics are written in proper academic English. In this "This is not academic writing" column we examine short excerpts from academic texts to illustrate common writing errors and explain how to correct them.
Unacceptable 不被認可的文章
“The linguistic academic community revolves round the utter practicality of its work. Because language is central to life, the exploration and teaching of it is a life-enhancing activity. The breaking down of words, phrases, and entire texts into component parts is pretty much like the work of engineers, who take apart a machine to understand its workings before trying to improve it. In the same way do linguists systematically explore expression, linking together the hardware of language (words) with software (meaning) to produce an unparalleled communication media.”
This writing is marred by a few poor choices, but is not a generally poor example of scholarly writing. For example, the writer used the diminutive “round,” instead of “around” in the first sentence when the latter would have read more smoothly; the cadence of a sentence is important. Also, to say language is “central to life” overstates its importance. It is sufficient to characterize language as essential. In the third sentence, “parsing” would have been perfect usage instead of the descriptive but clunky “breaking down.” The most egregious failure was the errant use of the plural “media” instead of “medium.” What other weaknesses do you see?
這段文章有幾個失誤攪局，不過就學術寫作而言整體不算很差勁。首先，第一句中，作者以較短的 “round” 取代 “around”，但 “around” 唸起來會比較順口，別忘了句子的抑揚頓挫很重要。另外，形容語言 “central to life”（是生活中心）有點言過其實，只要說生活中少不了語言就足夠了。第三句以 “breaking down” 來形容太臃腫笨拙，用 “parsing”（解析）就好得多。最叫人目瞪口呆的錯誤是用錯了複數的 “media”，正確用法應該是 “medium”（媒介）。你還找出了那些缺點呢？
Acceptable 認可的文章
“The linguistic academic community revolves around the utter practicality of its work. Because language is an essence of life, the exploration and teaching of it is a life-enhancing activity. The parsing of words, phrases, and entire texts into component parts is akin to the work of engineers, who disassemble a machine to understand its workings before trying to improve it. In the same way do linguists systematically explore expression, deftly mating the hardware of language (words) with software (meaning) to produce an unparalleled communication medium.”