Basic Scientific Writing in EnglishLecture 8.ppt

Basic Scientific Writing in EnglishLecture 8 Professor Ralph Kirby Faculty of Life Sciences Extension 7323 Room B322 Subject verb agreement and collective nouns The problem is that in English, there needs to be agreement between the noun count and the verb This is not complex for simple nouns It is more complex for collective nouns Is also more complex for lists Collective Nouns Most nouns in English take a singular or plural form Man Men Hand Hands However, collective nouns take only the singular (Usually!) Data (This does have a singular – datum) However, the meaning and use of the word has changed Datum and data. Singular and plural of information points Data. Collective nouns for group of results. Which is correct Which is correct The data was collected The data were corrected Both are but I prefer the former because of the change in meaning If you want to avoid the problem, use the word results Collective Nouns Which is correct A herd of 35 animals was examined A herd of 35 animals were examined Avoid problem Thirty five animals were examined Correct contextual use A pair of animals was housed in a cage A pair of animals were studied The number of persons studied was 35 A number of persons were studied Multiple subjects Neither the cats nor the dog was in the cage Correct but reads poorly Neither the dog nor the cats were in the cage Correct and reads well Neither the cats nor the dog were in the cage Wrong because with neither/nor the verb should take the number of the closest noun Conventions in papersWhen numbers should be given as numerals All numbers above 10 35 animals All numbers preceding a unit of measure 10 cm Decimals, fractions including a whole number 7.38 mm, 4 ? hours Statistical or mathematical functions 3.5 times, multiplied by 5, 2nd quartile Numbers that are exact quantities IQ of 125, $25 Numbers below ten group with numbers above ten 4 of 16 individuals Numbers that indicate part of a series Figure 6, Chapter 3 Conventions in papers When