%0 Journal Article %1 legett14 %A Leggett, Anthony J. %D 2014 %J Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter %K advice english japanese writing %N 01 %P 39--53 %R 10.1142/S2251158X14000095 %T Notes on the Writing of Scientific English for Japanese Physicists %V 03 %X The main guiding principles I have used are the following. First, it is much more important that the English written by Japanese authors be clear and easily readable than that it be elegant. Therefore, in a situation where there is a choice between an elegant form of expression which, however, may easily lead to confusion if misused and a less elegant but practically "foolproof" one, I have never hesitated to recommend the latter. Secondly, the importance of avoiding a mistake is roughly proportional to the amount of misunderstanding it may entail and/or the amount of psychological "wear and tear" it may cause on the reader's nerves. Accordingly, I have spent a good deal of space on "macroscopic" points like sentence construction, and proportionately less on "microscopic" ones like the correct use of ä" and "the"; prepositions, which most Japanese writers seem to consider a major point of difficulty in writing English, I have scarcely mentioned, not only because this is the sort of point for which one can easily refer to dictionaries but because I believe the reader can usually correct any mistakes for himself with very little mental effort. Thirdly, the usefulness of a set of notes such as this is much reduced if the rules given become too complicated. Therefore, rather than give a complicated set of rules which would ensure correctness 100% of the time, I have often preferred to give a simple rule which will be right 95% of the time, provided that in the other 5% of cases, it is unlikely to lead to confusion. I do not claim that anyone who tries to follow the advice given here will write beautiful or even invariably correct English; but I hope that what he writes will be clear and readable and that any mistakes he does make will be minor ones.

@article{legett14, abstract = {The main guiding principles I have used are the following. First, it is much more important that the English written by Japanese authors be clear and easily readable than that it be elegant. Therefore, in a situation where there is a choice between an elegant form of expression which, however, may easily lead to confusion if misused and a less elegant but practically "foolproof" one, I have never hesitated to recommend the latter. Secondly, the importance of avoiding a mistake is roughly proportional to the amount of misunderstanding it may entail and/or the amount of psychological "wear and tear" it may cause on the reader's nerves. Accordingly, I have spent a good deal of space on "macroscopic" points like sentence construction, and proportionately less on "microscopic" ones like the correct use of "a" and "the"; prepositions, which most Japanese writers seem to consider a major point of difficulty in writing English, I have scarcely mentioned, not only because this is the sort of point for which one can easily refer to dictionaries but because I believe the reader can usually correct any mistakes for himself with very little mental effort. Thirdly, the usefulness of a set of notes such as this is much reduced if the rules given become too complicated. Therefore, rather than give a complicated set of rules which would ensure correctness 100% of the time, I have often preferred to give a simple rule which will be right 95% of the time, provided that in the other 5% of cases, it is unlikely to lead to confusion. I do not claim that anyone who tries to follow the advice given here will write beautiful or even invariably correct English; but I hope that what he writes will be clear and readable and that any mistakes he does make will be minor ones.}, added-at = {2015-10-26T11:12:26.000+0100}, author = {Leggett, Anthony J.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/23a249fc9837112feb42c30b71452a974/ytyoun}, doi = {10.1142/S2251158X14000095}, interhash = {135957efe7e34940a47dfdbc019bf4c3}, intrahash = {3a249fc9837112feb42c30b71452a974}, journal = {Asia Pacific Physics Newsletter}, keywords = {advice english japanese writing}, number = 01, pages = {39--53}, timestamp = {2016-10-19T04:32:00.000+0200}, title = {Notes on the Writing of Scientific {English} for {Japanese} Physicists}, volume = 03, year = 2014 }