Seminar 8 : Ambiguity

TOP PROBEMS IN RESEARCH PAPERS

1  Long convoluted complex sentences 2  Redundancy 3  Words in the wrong order

4   Ambiguity and lack of clarity

These all affect READABILITY. They may cause your paper to be rejected. A few grammar mistakes will not cause your paper to be rejected.

Your paper will be rejected if there is a lack of clarity or ambiguity

Editor’s letter to author

The paper needs substantial revision in order to be considered further by reviewers. The quality of English needs to be improved, and broad portions of the text need to be rewritten for clarity. I find too much ambiguity in the way concepts are presented, and hypotheses or insights are stated.

Examples of lack of clarity or ambiguity: the author’s sentences are grammatically correct, but the

referee (in blue) doesn’t understand.

“The multi-correspondence analysis (MCA) shows no association between relevance and use of participative approach and attitudes and practices of knowledge co-production" is unclear. What exactly are you saying? Perhaps it is a grammatical thing, but what does "that transdisciplinary knowledge needs public arenas to be produced" mean?    I think I know what the authors are trying to say, but it is not stated well. The phrase "practices of urban environmental policy" needs defining. Do you mean practices of policy development, implementation, or both (or even something else entirely?)

What kind of words: concrete or abstract?

“The multi-correspondence analysis (MCA) shows no association between relevance and use of participative approach and attitudes and practices of knowledge co-production” "that transdisciplinary knowledge needs public arenas to be produced” "practices of urban environmental policy"

Which is more immediately understandable?

Concrete

Abstract

Moral of the story

Don’t fill your paper with abstract words and ideas. Don’t think you are super-smart by using complex terms. Write using the simplest most direct terminology.

Disambiguate these sentences

They delivered food to the elderly residents living locally in a large box. If you take your dog in the car don't let him hang out of a window while driving. Like Sandra, he had dark brown hair, with enormous black eyebrows, a moustache and a short beard.

They delivered food to the elderly residents living locally in a large box.

They delivered food in a large box to the elderly residents living locally. If you take your dog in the car don't let him hang out of a window while driving.

… don't let him hang out of a window while you are driving. Like Sandra, he had dark brown hair, with enormous black eyebrows, a moustache and a short beard.

He had enormous black eyebrows, a moustache and a short beard, and like Sandra he had dark brown hair. Like Sandra he had dark brown hair. His eyebrows were black and enormous, and he had a moustache and a short beard

Moral of the Story:

Put the elements in a sentence in the most logical order.

Make sure subjects are next to their verbs.

Definite Article

DO NOT USE the IN THESE CASES: When talking about general concepts. The Languages are useful. The User guides are often written too quickly. Before numbers. The Fig. 2. The Section 3. The Point 2. In The Step 2. The 42%. Before names of people, countries, languages The Smithson's article. The Italy is a beautiful country. The English is not an easy language. Avoid use with nouns in a gerund form. The determining of X is difficult. Determining X is difficult.

Use THE in these cases 1) For something you have already mentioned. This paper presents a new system for modeling 4D maps. The system is based on … 2) noun of noun (This ‘rule’ works in 95% of cases) the university of Pisa the history of Italy

Typical mistakes Aim of this paper is to … The aim of this paper is to … Results show that … The / Our results show that … As reviewed in literature … As reviewed in the literature … All the samples were cleaned in laboratory. All the samples were cleaned in the laboratory.

general (G) vs specific (S) Problems when learning English are very common. Which problems? We don't know. General problems

The problems we've been having with our English pronunciation are very serious. Which problems? The problems we've had. Specific problems

Differences in opinions on this subject are very common. G

The main differences are: X, Y and Z. S

Progress is both inevitable and desirable. G

The progress we have made so far has been very slow. S

Do Ex 23 and 24

The most difficult grammar exercises you

will ever do!

Where is the ambiguity?

A woman was carrying a 2 meter long steel tube for her house. She had had it for six months.

She wanted to go home by bus. But when she got on the bus with her mother, the driver told her that she couldn’t bring anything onto the bus that is longer than 1.5 m.

So they got off the bus and caught a taxi, she then bought something, and then she caught another one.

The driver said nothing when she got on. And she thought to herself: Finally I managed to get on the bus with it.

How did she get the latter on the bus?

A woman was carrying a 2 meter long steel tube for her house. She had had it for six months. She wanted to go home by bus. But when she got on the bus with her mother, the driver told her that she can’t bring anything onto the bus that is longer than 1.5 m.

So they got off the bus and caught a taxi, she then bought something, and then she caught another one.

The driver said nothing when she got on. And she thought to herself: Finally I managed to get on the bus with it.

How did she get the latter on the bus?

Moral of the Story: Avoid using :

it, they, this, that, one and the former/latter

Instead, repeat the word that

these pronouns refer to

Exercise 25

Message on golf course: Any persons (except players) caught collecting golf balls on this course will be prosecuted and have their balls removed.

Who vs That

1) My brother who lives in Paris is a researcher 2) My brother that lives in Paris is a researcher Which sentence above needs punctuating? In each sentence, how many brothers do I have?

1) My brother, who lives in Paris, is a researcher I only have one brother. The fact that he lives in Paris is just extra information. 2) My brother that lives in Paris is a researcher I have more than one brother. I use Paris to define which brother I am talking about

Which vs That

Correct the texts which contain grammatical mistakes.

Does the sentence in red mean: 1. Correct ALL the texts? 2. Correct ONLY those texts that

contain grammatical mistakes?

To make it clearer

All the sentences Correct the texts, which contain grammatical mistakes: Only those sentences with grammatical mistakes Correct the texts that contain grammatical mistakes:

To make it even clearer

Correct the texts, all of which contain grammatical mistakes: Correct only those sentences that contain grammatical mistakes:

Which vs That: more examples

1) The PC, which is in my bedroom, is a Mac (of course) 2) The PC that is in my bedroom is more expensive than the one that I use at work 3) I have two houses, one of which is in the country 4) I like beautiful things, which is why I use a Mac.

relative clauses (commas removed)

Look at the barrel that / which you can see in the photos below. Imagine that there are two barrels one of that / which is full and the other is empty. They have both been made in exactly the same way. However the one that / which is empty that / which also happens to be painted green weighs more than the one that / which is full. Explain.

relative clauses

Look at the barrel [that] / ,which you can see in the photo below. Imagine that there are two barrels, one of that / which is full and the other is empty. They have both been made in exactly the same way. However the one that / which is empty, that / which also happens to be painted green, weighs more than the one that / which is full. Explain. The full one is full of holes

Gerunds don’t have subjects so

they can be ambiguous

I found a bug using the software. [bug = defect]

While I was using the software I

found a bug.

Ambiguity with gerund

Inflation should go down reducing taxes. Does this mean inflation will go down : a)  before taxes are reduced

b)  after taxes have been reduced

c)  WTF?

Ambiguity with gerund

Inflation should go down reducing taxes. First taxes will be reduced and then inflation will go down. Inflation will go down by reducing taxes. Inflation will go down first and then taxes will go down. Inflation will go down, thus reducing taxes.

Ambiguity with gerund Inflation should go down, thus reducing taxes. THUS + gerund = and the consequence is Inflation should go down by reducing taxes. BY + gerund = this is how it will happen

Do Ex 26

Write down the five most important things you have learned from this course.

Contact me for revisions / translations: very fast, accurate, efficient and friendly service:

adrian.wallwork@gmail.com

Thank you!