31. Titles
* Don't use it generally
BAD: The Pope lives in Vatican.
BAD: How are the Kaiser and the Fuhrer different from the Queen.
* You should capitalize the title when you are referring to a specific person who holds it.
GOOD: "Come back tomorrow," Chief Quality-Assurance Specialist Suresh told the sales representative, "so that you can demo the system for President Henrion."
* You should capitalize names of companies, organizations, and government agencies
BAD: There have been several directors of the department of health, education, and welfare.
GOOD: The new Director of the National Institute for Science and Technology promised to trim lean meat.
32. Contractions (단축)
* Generally Don't use contractions
GOOD: They are indispensable
UGLY: They're indispensable
* Particularly avoid using contractions that include a negation
UGLY: You don't need a computer to write a book.
GOOD: You do not need a brain to write a book.
BUT 'Let's' is commonly used.
33. Per
BAD: I adore you 7 days a week.
GOOD: I respect you 7 days per week.
BAD: At least once a day, Lyn ~~
GOOD: At least once per day, Lyn ~~
34. Number Styles
* put 0.x on a decimal point
BAD: .1 kilometer
GOOD: 0.6 inch
* Don't use a comma in a four-digit number
UGLY: Malcolm write 3,876 words
GOOD: Alyssa giggled 3876 times
* In tables, you can use it
396,222
4,333
222 (right aligned)
* If a number digits are more than four, you can use comma.
GOOD: Lyn found 932,221,322 pennies
* If you spell out million, billion, and so on for numbers
BAD: 27,000,000,000 flowers
GOOD: 2.7 billion flowers.
* Use dollar sign
BAD: 1 dollar
GOOD: $1
* percent
UGLY??: only 2% if journals
GOOD: 20 percent of the printer's cost
* range
UGLY: 4-40 percent of doctors
GOOD: during 80 to 90 percent of the day
* math
UGLY: at p less than 0.1
GOOD: at p < 0.1
BAD: The y axis value is off the graph.
GOOD: The x-axis label is missing.
35. Quotations
[The New York Times, 4 May 1994, A17]
36. Fuzzy Words
* You should avoid writing some.
UGLY: You need some utilities to make this system useful.
GOOD: The addition of three utilities would make this system marketable.
* You should avoid writing thing
UGLY: I discussed several things in the last section
GOOD: In Section 15.4, I shall discuss how my research relates to work on dynamic interpersonal capitulation, and whether such relationships should be pursued.
* You should avoid writing very
UGLY: You look very impressive.
GOOD: You look exceptionally silly.
SPLENDID: You look remarkably ridiculous.
* a lot of
UGLY: You have to use a lot of scoring rules to evaluate a set of probability assessments.
GOOD: This book comprises myriad principles for lucid writing.
* actually, in fact, truly, really -> don't use when they fail to add meaning to your sentence.
UGLY: Actually, differential files in fact have advantage, such as that recovery after a program error is fast.
UGLY: In fact, what I really want to know truly is whether you actually told you client that he is a dunderhead.
GOOD: Trie hashing has benefits, such as that it preserves order, so sequential accessing is fast.
37. Parentheses
You should enclose in parentheses a remark that you want to downplay slightly. To emphasize a remark, you should enclose it in emdashes.
GOOD: Consider, for example, that (x,y,z) could easily be a term in mathematics.
GOOD: In 1993, (Goldstein et al.) reported that all authors experience episodes of acute, blatant psychosis as their books enter production.
BAD: Judy had 1) a bicycle accident, and 2) a skiing accident
GOOD: Steve brought home to Judy (1) chocolate-fudge ice cream, (2) chocolate cake, and (3) a bar of dark chocolate.
38. Split Infinitives: to be form of a verb
GOOD: Examples of infinitives are to giggle, to moan, to rate, to clobber, and to melt.
BAD: There are people who like to impulsively giggle, to continually moan, to insanely rave, to fiercely clobber, and to romantically melt.
BAD: To boldly go where no man has gone before.
GOOD: To go boldly where no one has gone before--and to return in one piece-- would be exhilarating.
39. Is Due To
The phrase is due to is subject to considerable disagreement.
1. to indicate just rewarded
GOOD: Three dollars in change is due to me.
2. to mean is caused by
GOOD: The tain is due to a chemical recation
3. to mean was written. (X)
UGLY: TEX is due to Knuth
40. Center On
The phrase center on is overused and abused so often in formal writing that it is ragged and tatty.
Substitute a term that indicates more precisely what you wish to convey.
* the meaning of center on is not particularly clear
UGLY: The staff meeting centered on who should clean up the kitchen.
GOOD: The group therapy emphasized insight into custom-tailored personal self-empowerment and inner-idiot actualization.
UGLY: We shall center on winning in this management class.
GOOD: We shall highlight breathing in this yoga class.
41. Quotation Marks
Quotation Marks(" ") for many purposes for which they were not intended is a common--and nasty--habit.
BAD: Dupre [1994, page 77] wrote scathingly, This string of foolishness is a poor excuse for a sentence.
GOOD: According to Spingholterusfoo, "Energy that is directed inward will eventually stultfy the soul]" [45, page 284]
GOOD: "I don't have time," Max squeaked.
* Do not use it just to call attention
BAD: "EAT" here
Put marks for question is good
GOOD: Did Maria say "I had enough to eat"
GOOD: Maria asked, "Is that all there is to eat?"
42. Remarks Inserted After That
BAD: Max feared that if he did not relax he would die.
GOOD: Max thought that, if he was alone, he would relax.
GOOD: Max thought that Lyn was not precisely relaxing.
GOOD: Soren was delighted that, contrary to his expectations, cohabitation suited him just fine.
the second one is a good example because you can remove it without ruining your sentence.
THAT 다음에 콤마(,)로 묶어서 없어져도 무방한 문장 있으면 콤마로 묶을 것
43. Figure Captions
The principle for lucid writing here is that you should write figure captions that provide explanations, legends, and credit lines, and should set them consistently. Most important, make sure that each figure caption provides sufficient information that the figure plus the caption stand alone.
UGLY: A map of Silicon Valley.
GOOD: A map of silicon Valley showing the failure rate of companies started between 1982 and 1992.
44. DATA
* You should remember that data is a plural of datum
BAD: The scientist collected data, and put it in his hat.
GOOD: The engineer collected data, and put them in her secret database.
* You should write volumes or numbers of data, rather than amounts of data.
BAD: This useless spreadsheet program cannot deal with a large amount of data.
GOOD: You can run the program on any number of data.
GOOD: If you have large volumes of data, you may need to purchase extra memory.
SPLENDID: We have many data to back up our wild assertions.
SPLENDID: Max's data were voluminous.
* You should write fewer data, rather than less data.
BAD: Could you please collect less data next time?
GOOD: The fewer the data, the less reliable the results.
45. Ensure, Assure, Insure
You should distinguish among them.
* You should use ensure to mean to make sure of a state of affairs, or to guarantee that an event occurs.
BAD: Jim was careful to insure that the project went smoothly.
GOOD: Carol was careful to ensure that the party went smoothly.
BAD: Using this software will assure that you pay your taxes on time.
GOOD: Using this software will ensure that you pay your rent on time.
* You should use insure to mean take out insurance on.
BAD: I need to ensure my car before I drive it.
GOOD: I need to insure my car before I drive it.
* You should use assure to mean give assurance, or reassure: 확신!
BAD: I need to assure my care before I drive it.
GOOD: I need to assure my passengers before I drive my car.
GOOD: To assure Lyn that he would be home in time to greet the guests.
GOOD: Max assured Lyn that he would be home in time to greet the guests.
GOOD: Max insured Lyn, so that he would be rich (in one respect) if she died.
GOOD: Lyn ensured that Max would not die young.
SPLENDID: Rest assured that I have insured your home to ensure your peace of mind.
SPLENDID: Before I can insure your business, you must assure me that you can ensure that your programmers do careful quality assurance.
46. Foreword VS Forward
GOOD: When I get stuck in a rut, I just put forward.
GOOD: Lyn called Peter a dozen times that day to pester him about the foreword
forward와 foreward(서문)은 다르다
47. Blocks: Theorems, Proofs, Lemmas
GOOD: Definition 7: Arithmetic logic unit (ALU).
GOOD: Theorem 1.1: Lyn is in Love.
Proof: Lyn think ~~~ ~~~
Theorem 1: In a finite partition, the ~~
Definition 1: Hamster. Any of various old world rodents (~~) ~~.
48. Above and Below
* Use words such as previous, preceding, and earlier, rather than above.
UGLY: The above argument proves that ~~
GOOD: The preceding discussion indicates that ~~
GOOD: We described earlier how Carver could find his way in the woods ~~
* Use words such as following, next, and here, rather than below.
UGLY: The complicated, fancy-looking algorithm given below is useless nonsense.
GOOD: The following code will crash your coworkers' machines without giving you away.
GOOD: We provide the secret password here:
Red fur at sunset makes BB fly.
GOOD: The A is given next:
* Whenever possible, you should give explicit cross-references, rather than simply indicating preceding or following.
UGLY: This equation is easier to solve than was the earlier one.
GOOD: The preceding equation is simpler than was Eq. 4.5
49. En Dashes
-- En dash
* Indicate a range
BAD: Read pages 4-12.
GOOD: Read Chapters 4--12
SPLENDID: Skip Exercises 4 through 12.
BAD: The monkey weighted 40-70 pounds each.
GOOD: The wombats weighted 40--70 pounds each.
SPLENDID: The children weighted 40 to 70 pounds each.
* You should use the -- to indicate an equal-weighted pair that is currently serving as an adjective.
BAD: Did you check his acid-base balance?
GOOD: Have you heard of the work--play balance?
GOOD: The Dupre--Henrion relationship is remarkably, if not alarmingly, complex.
50. As to Whether
The term as to whether is cumbersome and unnecessary;
UGLY: Could you write a report explaining as to whether you will undertake the project.
GOOD: Can you explore whether the alternatives are viable options?
SAMPLE: I don't know whether they've found anybody yet.
