Formal English

The English that you should use when writing a paper or thesis should be formal (like a legal document) but also clear (unlike a legal document). There are certain things that can be done in spoken English or in written English in newspapers, magazines, or lecture notes (or web pages like this) which are not appropriate for formal writing.

Don't start a sentence with `And', `Also', `But', `So', `Or', `Even so'. Instead use `In addition', `However', `Hence', `Consequently', `Alternatively', `Nevertheless'. Don't start a sentence with `Therefore'. Instead write, for example, `We therefore...'. Don't start a sentence with `Then' or `Now' unless it is a command. Don't use `don't', or any other shortened negative such as `isn't', `hasn't', `wasn't', etc. Use `does not', `is not', etc. instead. Generally try to avoid `'s'. E.g. Instead of `the wavefront's curvature' use either `the curvature of the wavefront' or `the wavefront curvature'. There are exceptions to this. There are some cases where they are always used such as Laws e.g. `Bedford's Law', or where the alternative seems clumsy e.g. `today's stock market prices' is better than `the stock market prices of today'. Don't use `!' or `&' or `/'. It is also very unusual to see `?' in a paper. Don't put questions in a paper unless you really know what you are doing. Don't use e.g. or i.e. or etc. When referring to the number of countable objects, use words rather than figures when the amount is less than twenty. E.g. Don't write ``we used 3 methods'' - instead write ``we used three methods''. Don't use `OK'. Use `acceptably', `permissible', `satisfactory', etc instead. Don't use `got'. Instead use `obtained'. If you can, try to use the passive voice for some of the time when describing your results. Using `we' in every sentence is a bit boring. List things properly using `and' between the last two items. E.g. Don't do `we used three methods A, B, C.' Instead you should write either `we used three methods: A, B, and C.' or `we used three methods, namely, A, B, and C.' Use small letters for disciplines or theorems, e.g. mean-value theorem, `Unlike quantum mechanics and relativity, nonlinear science covers systems of every scale' and not `Unlike Quantum Mechanics...'. You cannot have a paragraph that is just one sentence.

Out of date English

There are some words which are now not really used much any more and sound strange (to me, at least).

`Moreover, ...' - if you must use it, at least make sure you understand when you can use it. Consider using `Furthermore, ...' instead. `Thus ...' - use e.g. `We therefore ...' or `Hence ...' instead. `Firstly' - use `First' instead.

Grammar

English is a difficult language. There are very few rules in it that apply all the time. So remember that some of the rules you learnt in your English course can occasionally be broken. The best way to learn English is by looking at lots of examples and seeing when the rules apply and when they don't.

Check that the endings of verbs agree with their subjects and with the tense. Make sure you know the difference between adjectives and adverbs. Is the adjective/adverb you are using modifying a noun or a verb? Most, but not all, nouns need to be preceded by an article. Make sure you understand the difference between `a' and `the'. People's names followed by 's are never preceded by an article. `The Zipf's Law states that...' is wrong. It should be `Zipf's Law states that...'. Be suspicious of sentences that contain verbs in different tenses. Should they be in the same tense? `as follow' is wrong. It should be `as follows'. `in term of' is wrong. It should be `in terms of'. Some nouns (like water and rice) don't have a plural. E.g. information, research, work - there is no such word as `informations'. These can also never be preceded by `a' or `an'. Be careful not to use adjectives instead of nouns. `parametric values' is wrong. It should be `parameter values'. Don't use the phrase `there exists' except inside a mathematical theorem. Instead write `A ... exists ...'. All sentences must have a verb, but remember that a phrase containing a verb might not be a sentence. E.g. `Although the test results were positive.' is not a sentence. It is a subordinate clause that must be preceded or followed by a main clause. Verbs without a subject must be in the present continuous (-ing form) except for commands. E.g. `Referring to Fig. 4, ...'; `A method has been developed for solving ...'; `Integrating (3.2) gives ...'. Adjectives must (nearly always) be associated with a noun. E.g. `Similar to ...' is wrong. You must write something like `In a similar way to ...'. [Adjectives can sometimes be used as nouns, but this is not commonly seen in scientific writing.] Be careful about when to use the past and present tense. If the thing is still true, you should be using the present. Hence, analytical derivations should be described using the present tense. Experimental procedures that you carried out should be described using the past tense. Make sure you know when to use `many' and `much'. They are for discrete and continuous things, respectively. `A lot of' can be used for either. ``that defines, which refines''. This is a more subtle point which even native speakers often get wrong. If you are in doubt about whether a phrase is correct, you could search for the whole phrase on the web using an advanced search engine such as http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en. If most of the sites found are in non-English speaking countries, your phrase is likely to be wrong.

Punctuation
If you don't follow these rules your text will look ugly.

Punctuation symbols: , . ! ? : ;

There is always a space after a punctuation symbol. There is never a space before a punctuation symbol. There is always a space before (. There is a space after ) except when followed by a punctuation symbol. There is no space after ( or before ). Don't use ; in the text. The only time you might use : is for something like `...following equation:' which is then followed by the equation. Hoever, both : and ; can be used in captions for figures.

Spelling

Learn to use a spell checking program that allows you to add to its dictionary. On Linux/Unix use the program `ispell'. If you are submitting to a journal published in the US, you should use US spelling e.g. write color instead of colour.

Some common phrases

`...is illustrated in Fig. ...'; `...as shown in Fig. ...'; `... as can be seen in Fig. ...' `Substituting (1.23) into (1.24) gives...'

Equations and mathematical symbols

Remember to italicize symbols where appropriate. E.g. you should write a roman letter symbol as p not p. Use bold font and not arrows or underlining to indicate vectors. E.g. use B not . Try to choose sensible symbols for variables and parameters. Don't just go through the alphabet and label the first parameter a, the second one b, and so on. You need to make it easy for the reader to remember their meaning. If your work follows on from another paper that you refer to, use the same symbols as they do (provided that they use sensible symbols!). Remember that and are different ways of writing the same Greek letter called `phi'. If possible, you should avoid using both these symbols in the same paper. The same goes for and . Only give an equation a number if you refer to it later. When referring to equations, follow the convention of the journal you are submitting to. Don't start a sentence with an equation number.

General points

Look at how papers (in good international journals) are constructed, and try to imitate their style. In particular, look at papers which have at least one native English speaking author and which are published in an English speaking country. Their English is likely to be the most correct.

The best way to learn how to write well is to look at well written papers and see how it is done. Observe carefully how information is conveyed to the reader. Make a note of some little phrases that you think you might use for your own work. Be suspicious of any phrase you use that you have never seen anyone else use in a publication. Be careful when using a dictionary. Check both Thai to English and English to Thai. Try to find an example of the word in a sentence so that you know how it is used. Be sure to be clear which is your work and which is someone else's. Give references if it is not your work. In a theoretical background section of a thesis, where you have already made it clear that you are talking about results that are not your own, it is OK to use `we'. In other cases, only use `we' when talking about your own results. If you write a paper or thesis and you are the only author, you may still use `we' when describing what you have done. Using `I' is permissible, but sounds a bit strange to me. Do not use the future tense to refer to something that will be described later in the article. E.g. do not write 'In Section 3 we will derive...' - instead write 'In Section 3 we derive...'. Be concise, but clear. In other words, don't write too much, but don't write too little. It is impossible for a paper published in a good journal to be too long. If you submit a paper with unnecessary material, the editors and referees will say so, and you will have to revise it. Journal pages are expensive - everyone is under pressure to make the article as short as possible while making sure it is still readable. If a paper appears long, it is because it contains a lot of results. Never think that a thesis needs to be larger than a certain number of pages. Think of a thesis in the same way as a paper. Make it no larger than it needs to be. There have been maths PhD theses of less than 40 pages. Remember that a thesis is not a textbook. Only review what is relevant to your own work. Do not include large numbers of figures that all look similar. If they are showing measurements of exactly the same thing, plot a single graph showing the average of the results and show the standard deviation with error bars. If the graphs are of different quantities but the axes are the same, put all the curves on the same graph, and code them using different styles of lines or points. Think carefully about whether it is really necessary to include large tables of experimental data. Wouldn't a graph show the information more clearly? Never think that just because you spent long hours collecting data, all the data should appear in the thesis. Leave the data in your lab book or hard drive, where it belongs. Don't put too many steps in when showing mathematical derivations. Just put enough so that anyone with reasonable mathematical skills can follow what you have done. A thin thesis indicates that it is likely to be well written, and people interested in that subject will want to read it. A thick thesis full of unnecessary information is a waste of paper and shelf space, and no one will want to read it. A thesis with endless pages of similar looking figures and/or tables of data indicates that the thesis is probably useless and lacked adequate supervision. If you are not very experienced at writing English, use the KISS principle. KISS = Keep It Simple, Silly! It is much better to write things in a simple way, than to try (unsuccessfully) to use complicated English which no one can then understand. Only use an acronym if it is commonly used by others or if you are going to use it a lot (i.e. more than three times). Always say what the acronym means, even if it is a well-

known one. E.g. `Problems in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) are notoriously difficult.' It is not worth using acronyms for short groups of words e.g. Don't use `BH' for `black hole'. Don't use adjectives with similar meanings to describe one noun. For instance, compare `it is a large and difficult problem' with `it is a difficult problem'. Are difficult problems ever small? No. So using the adjective `large' is unnecessary in this case. Often the problem is not with the English - even if the sentence were written in Thai, a Thai person would not understand it. Make sure you explain things carefully. This is particularly important when describing how you obtained your results. A sentence should never appear more than once in a thesis or paper. If you want to say the same thing, for example, in the conclusions, then write it another way. Learn from your mistakes! If someone corrects your work, try to see where you went wrong.

Layout

Don't itemize things. Only equations should appear in between lines of text. Figures and tables should have captions and `float' - that is, they should not be attached to a particular place in the text. Never put any words in bold font or italics. If you want to stress a point then write something like ``It is important to...''. Place references in sensible places in a sentence. Normally they go at the end of a clause. In the case of lists, they immediately follow each item in the list. Be aware of the difference between an abstract and the introduction. The abstract is like a mini version of the complete paper/thesis - it should contain an introduction, the method, and main results and conclusions. Never call a section or chapter `Literature Survey'. You have automatically mentioned any relevant literature in the introductory part of your paper or thesis. Try to give chapters appropriate names that describe the content. Try to avoid calling a chapter `Results' or `Methods'. On the other hand, don't make the name of the chapter too long. Put complicated algebra or long proofs in an appendix. Only things you have done, such as calculations or program listings can be put in an appendix. If there is someone else's work which you feel is unsuitable to include in the main part of the text, give a reference to it instead. Only number equations that you are going to refer to later.