Basic Scientific Writing in English Lecture 11 Professor Ralph Kirby Faculty of Life Sciences Extension 7323 Room B322

Phases and Clauses Including gerunds, infinitives and participles

Prepositional Phrases These are phrases that consist of a preposition, its object and any words modifying the object Prepositions are: –for, to, on, of, etc. The object is a noun or a verb The modifiers are adjectives The phrase acts one of the following –Adjective or adverb The phase can modify one of the following –Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective or adverb

Preprepositional phrases are not a particular problem except: The choice of the prepreposition. –This can be a difficult choice for a an English 2 nd language speaker. There are no real rules and experience is the only real way to learn why certain ones do not work –For/At/In/To dinner, he went for/at/in/to the most expensive restaurant For dinner, he went to the most expensive restaurant In dinner, he went for the steak At dinner, he waited at the till for the bill

That the phrase should be a close to the object, noun or verb, as possible to avoid confusion. –This is simple to understand, but sometimes if you do not read what you have written, even I will not see the problem A large mass of literature has not yet accumulated on SARS A large mass of literature on SARS has not yet accumulated The cells were spun down in a special microfuge because of possible infection Because if possible infection, the cells were spun down in a special centrufuge

Any prepositional phrase at the start of a sentence should be separated by a comma to avoid confusion. –For the first time scientists have been able to use PCR to detect SARS –For the first time, scientists have been able to use PCR to detect SARS –Because of high mutability RNA is not a suitable information molecular for organisms other than viruses –Because of high mutability, RNA is not a suitable information molecular for organisms other than viruses

Infinitive phrases This consists of “to” plus a verb and any object and/or modifiers –To pass any course, the student should be willing to study diligently But should you split the infinitive –willing to diligently study? This is a question of ”flow” and former feels better to me But –To go boldly where man * /no-one # has gone before –To boldly go where man * /no-one # has gone before * Star-trek # Star-trek New Generation/Voyager

If you fail to split an infinitive, you can completely jumble the meaning I failed to completely understand questions –This means that you did not understand some part of the questions I failed completely to understand questions –This means that you did not understand any of the questions I failed to understand completely questions –This suggests that you do not understand the reason for questions I failed to understand questions completely –This definitely says that you do not understand why there are questions The rule against splitting infinitives is out-of-date

Gerund Phrases A gerund is a verb with “ing” used as a noun They can stand alone –Writing is my favorite hobby –I like to write because it is my favorite hobby Or they can act as objects –Writing the paper was easy –It was easy to write the paper Or they can be given an object and form a phrase –I enjoyed writing the paper –To write a paper is fun But as you can see from above, they can be quite hard to avoid and keep the same meaning Only a possessive form of a noun or pronoun should precede a gerund –His centrifuging can be noisy –That centrifuging is noisy

Gerunds get confused with participles This is because present participle also end in “ing” –You can only telling difference by their use The resulting precipitate was centrifuged Precipitating is a process that occurs before centrifugation The past participle ends in: –-ed, -t, -en, -n, or –d SARS’s known morality is between 5% and 10% –Something that is completed The perfect participle is formed with the help verb “have” plus a part participle Having measured the mortality of SARS, we published. –The perfect participle places the verb only slightly in the past but with a completed action

For a closing thought on English and how history repeats itself with respect to SARS A Nursery rhyme for England in the 14 th Century –Ring a-round the roses, (The first symptoms is Bacillus pestis infection) –A pocket full of posies, (A bunch of flowers held over the nose to protect from infection) –A-tishoo! A-tishoo! (The symptoms of pneumonic plague) –We all fall down! (What happens after you get pneumonic plague)