English for Writing a Bachelor's Thesis: A Guide for BUT Students

© Martina Vránová © Brno University of Technology Graphic design © Martina Vránová This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoncommercialNoderivatives 4.0 International Deed ISBN 978-80-214-6307-3 Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................... 2 1 The bachelor’s thesis and its purpose ...................................................................................... 3 2 The writing process ................................................................................................................. 4 3 Features of formal written English ........................................................................................ 15 4 Text essentials ........................................................................................................................ 27 5 Structure of the bachelor’s thesis .......................................................................................... 33 5.1 Title .............................................................................................................................................. 33 5.2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 35 5.3 State of the art.............................................................................................................................. 40 5.4 Methods and materials ................................................................................................................. 43 5.5 Results and Discussion ................................................................................................................ 46 5.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 49 5.7 Abstract and keywords ................................................................................................................ 53 6 Academic language functions ................................................................................................ 57 6.1 Paraphrasing strategies ................................................................................................................ 57 6.2 Comparative strategies ................................................................................................................ 62 6.3 Numbers in technical writing ...................................................................................................... 64 6.4 The language of mathematics ...................................................................................................... 66 6.5 Visuals ......................................................................................................................................... 70 6.6 Punctuation .................................................................................................................................. 74 6.7 Frequent mistakes ........................................................................................................................ 80 6.8 Mistakes in referencing ............................................................................................................... 90 6.9 List of rhetorical functions .......................................................................................................... 92 Works cited and consulted ...................................................................................................... 104 2 Foreword Dear students! You are about to embark on a journey of hardship and those who have picked up this textbook are well aware of it. The bachelor’s thesis is most probably your first long piece of writing. It is no wonder that you feel at a loss. You may be asking questions such as where to start your research, how to express your ideas in written language, what language style to use, or how to structure your writing. Also, if you are well versed in English, you necessarily feel a need to advance your academic career by writing your bachelor’s thesis in this language of international communication. Writing an unfamiliar genre in a foreign language is exactly what the challenge will encompass. Nevertheless, such an endeavor is worthy of attempt and respect. This textbook is a product of such a respect. To prove to you that your decision to write your bachelor’s thesis in English is a smart one, I have decided to give you support in the form of detailed advice on how to do it. This textbook should thus aid you with the writing part of your bachelor’s thesis, not the specific technical research or finding relevant resources and compiling bibliography as there are other experts more skilled in these aspects. The contents of this textbook are composed of explanations of the genre specifics and the writing process, the features of academic English, the structure of the bachelor’s thesis, and finally the distinctions of functional language in technical fields. Yet, this text is not a simple how-to-do-it plan. I honestly think that knowing how to do it is as important as knowing why it is done. For this reason, I have also employed considerations and clarifications of the wider stylistic, linguistic, rhetorical, and cultural context. This textbook has been designed to fit the requirements imposed on bachelor’s theses by Brno University of Technology, particularly the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Information Technology. Out of the production of these two faculties also come the examples used. For this reason, a special thanks goes to all those students who were brave enough to write their theses in English and thus serve as paragons to follow. Even though their writing may not be flawless, I never had an intention to criticize them here. Rather, my analysis of their writing is meant to be an appreciation of their efforts. As perfection is a fleeting lover, I myself get kissed by it only now and then. Thus, if you miss anything in this textbook, please drop me a line at vra[email protected].cz. I will try to make up for it in the next edition. Martina Vránová 3 1 The bachelor’s thesis and its purpose You have come a long way in your education. In order to finish your bachelor’s studies, there are only a few steps remaining, one of them being the bachelor’s thesis. The bachelor’s thesis is a qualification work which you will have to defend as part of your final exams and prove you deserve the first academic degree, thus securing a chance to move on in the university studies. The bachelor’s thesis is the shortest out of all academic qualification works. Its length is typically about 40 pages of text. It is also the only academic qualification work that does not have to present new information, such as results of the author’s research activity. Its other characteristics are, however, common denominators of all academic texts: • The bachelor’s thesis is written in formal academic language. Moreover, in the hard sciences and technology, its language is primarily descriptive. • It presents facts precisely, explicitly, and objectively as its author assumes responsibility for the content. • It deals with the area of interest in a complex manner and complex language. • It is well-organized. • It does not plagiarize other authors’ ideas but acknowledges them in the form of references and bibliographical citations. • Its goal is to persuade the readers that the author is knowledgeable about his or her field of study, and thus qualified for independent work. The bachelor’s thesis may assume the form of a review of the literature or a state-of-the-art survey, depending on the preferred terminology and the amount of theory involved. This form does not present any new facts or results. The goal is to compile a well-organized survey of a specifically defined area of study, an issue, or an interesting and up-to-date problem and to identify gaps or under-researched areas in the current state of knowledge. Even though it does not present new facts as such, the author’s contribution is a meaningful reorganization of traditional categories and a novel rearrangement of knowledge. The other option is the state of the art supplemented by a practical task. In this case the state-ofthe-art section of your bachelor’s thesis is also substantial but the goal of such a survey is also to develop a theoretical framework upon which your practical task stands. The practical task is an application of the theory. If, by any chance, your practical task is also an innovation, the state-of-the art section narrows down to exactly that issue which is being innovated by your research. 4 2 The writing process Writing any text, from an email to your friend to a whole book, is a complicated process. Although it gets more complicated with the increasing length, even a simple electronic message to a friend involves most necessary steps that are present in writing a bachelor’s thesis. Let us say you are writing an email to George, a friend of yours. The first decision you make is how to start. Will you simply say “Hi!”, or will you address your friend by name “Hi, George!”? Would George get offended if you started right away with the message with no greeting? Now you are considering the receiver of your message, your audience. When you start the body of the email, it will look different whether you are already replying to a previous email from George (because here you can start simply by answering his questions) or whether you are the first person starting an email conversation (in this case you have to introduce George into the problem that you want to discuss, a girl that you have recently met, and you need to give him sufficient information to help you with it). Does George know the girl or do you have to describe her to him? When you are writing about a problem, you actually start thinking about the order in which it is best to present it to George, even though the order might be different than the sequence of actions in which it happened. So you start with the fact that you found a girlfriend, and only then you go back in time and narrate how it had happened. You might colorfully describe your girlfriend’s assets, or you might simply decide to attach her picture as a proof. When you finish writing and you see red wavy lines under some words, another decision is whether George is worth another few clicks to correct the spelling. Let us look at the writing process more theoretically. Experienced writers with a lot of practice proceed in a linear manner. Inexperienced ones will do much more bouncing back and forth, reassessing, rereading, rewriting, and revising. Yet, all writers will go through the following stages illustrated below. Writing process 5 According to Gardner (2005, p. 111), the individual stages include the following steps, which will be discussed in relation to a bachelor’s thesis further on. 1 Assessing the writing situation: considering the purpose, audience, formal requirements, and choosing the form of the bachelor’s thesis. 2 Exploring and planning: choosing the topic and narrowing it down to a research problem, discovering, refining, and finding support for ideas (research of the literature and practical research), organizing ideas and structuring writing. 3 Drafting: expressing and developing ideas in a rough form. 4 Revising: rewriting drafts to improve content and structure. 5 Editing and proofreading: checking for word choice, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, refining figures, giving the text a publishable format. Assessing the writing situation In the previous example situation, you take decisions about your writing nearly unconsciously because you have written thousands of emails to your friends. However, you have probably never written a bachelor’s thesis before. Thus, this new situation is worth taking a step back and thinking before actually delving into it. We must resolve what the purpose is, who the audience is, in what form and where the thesis will be published, and what the formal requirements are. Let us be quite frank and pragmatic. The primary purpose of your bachelor’s thesis is to get the degree. You will be judged and assessed based on your writing, and your course of life will change forever. This assessment aspect is a crucial one to bear in mind particularly in following all formal requirements. Even if you have brilliant ideas, if they are not presented in the proper genre of a bachelor’s thesis, you will not succeed. The other purpose is the same for all research writing. An academic text is the outcome of the author’s research activity. The text is rooted in already established knowledge and published texts so that it can yield the author’s own novel ideas. Thus, the other purpose of your bachelor thesis is to present the outcomes of your research which are new contributions to the state of knowledge in your field, to inform the academia and other experts about your novel ideas. This condition seems to be asking a lot from a student who has been studying a particular field for less than three years. Only a few at this low stage of academic studies are able to convey their own original research and report about it. Nevertheless, the novelty of your research might simply be your own approach to an issue where you rearrange the old knowledge in a new way. This is particularly true for bachelors’ theses which are limited to the state-of-the-art survey. This leads to a very important realization. Wherever possible, make a clear distinction between what is already known, what the established approaches to your topic are, and what is your own innovation, your own rearrangement. This will also help your professors to assess your originality. Just like there are two primary purposes of the bachelor’s thesis, there two main types of audiences. The first type of audience will assess your abilities: your supervisor and your reviewer, possibly other professors at the defense who are interested in your topic and read a part of your text. It is thus important to choose your supervisor wisely; it should be a person whose ideas predominantly align with yours and who you consider an authority, which means you will be willing to incorporate his or her advice into your writing. The issue of the reviewer and the defense committee cannot be easily settled so you have to abide by the rules of academic writing which all members of the academia should respect. The second type of audience is other 6 bachelor-degree candidates writing their own theses after you. They will study from your thesis, use it as a reference source, or at least consider it a model for their writing. Even though these two types of audience seem discrepant when it comes to the level and amount of information presented, they surprisingly collide. Since the assessment of your knowledge and skills is the primary reason why the professors read your thesis, you will have to show your knowledge of the subject and thus present, in a logical and orderly manner, more information, particularly in the state-of-the-art section, than is absolutely necessary so that you show them that you know your way around your subject of research. At the same time, your role as a writer takes on a slight pedagogical tint as well. When considering the younger students reading your thesis, you have to give them sufficient amount of information conveyed in an understandable way, appropriate to their level of knowledge. Thus, again you will present to them a little more than is absolutely necessary in a manner that assists understanding. Another part of assessing the writing situation is visualizing the end product. Your bachelor’s thesis will not only be presented to your professors but also stay publicly available in an online library archive. The public status means that the form of the thesis matters. Formal requirements for formatting, submitting, and publishing final theses are stated in several directives (“Směrnice: Úprava, odevzdávání a zveřejňování závěrečných prací”). The most general one, setting the minimum requirements, is the directive issued by the rector’s office. This can be modified by a directive issued by the dean’s office of a particular faculty. Both directives and their supplements (“dodatek ke směrnici”) can be found on the BUT website or your faculty website under the tab “For students.” These directives are, however, subject to frequent modification and supplementation, which makes it essential for you to find the latest ones. Sometimes even individual faculty institutes or departments set their own requirements. It is, for example, possible to raise the number of pages, thus modifying the minimum requirement set by the rector’s directive. If in doubt, your professors leading the bachelor’s thesis seminars will be able to help you. There are also templates that will help you format the bachelor’s thesis and keep the formal requirements. One thing you may be able to choose is the form of the bachelor’s thesis. Traditionally, bachelors’ theses had the form of the review of the literature or state-of-the-art survey. The purpose of such a subgenre is to prove that the bachelor-degree candidate is able to consider the selected topic as a complex whole and present its overview, to categorize and classify the target information according to criteria, to evaluate and analyze the research subject, find potential problems, and to suggest possible solutions to them. Nevertheless, with the ongoing accumulation of knowledge and introduction of AI into processing information, this form of the bachelor’s thesis has been receding. The more common practice now is to supplement the state-of-the-art part with a practical task which simulates research (or may even be original research). In this case, even though the state-of-the-art section will still form a substantial part of the bachelor’s thesis, it will be followed by a description of the practical task which copies a research text structure. The state-of-the-art section will form a basis for the identification and determination of a problem which is then processed and tested practically, and a solution to it is proposed. The goal of such a bachelor’s thesis is to carry out the practical research task and report on it, clearly express whether the practical task was successful or not, and evaluate one’s own contributions to the problem being tackled. This type of bachelor’s thesis is basically a small-scale research project, thus reporting on it follows the usual structure of research texts. 7 Exploring and planning The first part of exploration is to decide what to explore, i.e., choose the topic of your bachelor’s thesis. Your choice should be guided by several criteria: • Interesting topic: Naturally, if you are interested in your topic, it is easier to learn and write about. However, interest is not enough. It must be educated interest, i.e., you have already studied the topic and know a considerable amount about it. • Theory or practice: This is a choice between a state-of-the-art review and an added practical task. In case of the practical task, is there a facility, a faculty laboratory, or a company workshop where you can carry it out? Is necessary equipment available? • Choosing from a list or coming up with your own topic: Lots of students simply choose a topic from a list published by the faculty’s institutes or departments on their websites. In this way you can be sure there is an expert on the topic who can supervise your thesis. If you come up with your own topic, you must start soon because you need to find the potential supervisor yourself and discuss your ideas with him or her. Then your supervisor has to submit your topic to the science counsel of the faculty (“vědecká rada”) for approval. This takes some time. • Supervisor: The expertise of your potential supervisor must be taken into account. Can he or she actually help you or are they only “strawmen” who agree to supervise a thesis because nobody else in the department wants to? In the latter case, can you manage on your own or can you find a real expert in, for example, the Academy of Science or at a factory/company which deals with your topic? Another question to consider is how busy the schedule of your supervisor is. Will he or she find the time to read your drafts? And finally, your supervisor’s personality matters too. You will not choose an expert who you know you do not get along with. • Availability of literature: Before settling down on a topic, do a quick library and online database search. Are there enough sources available? Can you easily get them in full-text or do you have to file a library loan? • Your own skills: Have a proper look into yourself. Does the topic seem too complicated or confusing? Can you deal with a great amount of literature to study? Can you read most sources in a foreign language? Your faculty’s institutes and departments offer possible bachelor’s thesis topics in various forms. You can find only the topic area in a few words (e.g., using AI in aircraft control), or a paragraph of description, or even a whole webpage not only describing the topic in more detail but also suggesting the possible directions of looking at the topic and outlining the possible goals of a bachelor’s thesis. No matter how detailed the description, you will always have to narrow the topic down to a manageable piece. If you only get a topic, you have to come up with your thesis direction and goals yourself; if you get a detailed description, you have to pick and choose as the particular supervisor definitely counts on having more than one student writing about the same topic but assuming a different approach. The McLaughlin Library at the University of Guelph offers an efficient guide to narrowing down the thesis topic. It consists of four questions you should consider: • When? Which time period will you deal with? How far back in history will your research of the literature go? Five or ten years may present a great difference in the amount of information to process. The time does not have to always mean a historical period. It 14 Writefull, 3 whose license has been acquired by BUT and can be downloaded by all students and employees. Apart from the basic spell-checking options, Writefull also offers suggestions on how to formulate key ideas used in introductions, commenting on figures, or on other rhetorical functions. References and bibliographic citations also need to be precise. BUT policy demands using the Czech norm ISO 690 for citing and referencing. This style of citations can be generated in CitacePRO quite precisely. Should you by any chance use a different citation style (e.g., IEEE), the CitacePRO is not the best choice of citation generator as in international styles it is quite erroneous. 4 In this case, you have to study the particular style’s citation guides yourself or use a different citation generator, e.g., Mendeley. Both CitacePRO and Mendeley can also be installed into your word processor in the form of an add-on. This function does not only generate the forms of references but also establishes a hyperlink between the in-text reference (short form) and the end reference (full form). This means you will not forget to include an in-text source in your end references as these two are linked. If there are still any unclear issues, it is advisable to consult Výklad normy ČSN ISO 690: 2022 (010197) rather than the actual norm itself, which may be due to its legal language difficult to navigate. More notes on the use of the norm in a text written in English can be found in section 6.8. What to remember • The purpose of the bachelor’s thesis is assessing your ability of presenting a problem in a meaningful and complete manner and to share your new ideas and approaches. • Find the latest directives on formal requirements and stick to them meticulously. • Wherever possible, emphasize your own rearrangement of ideas or novel approaches. • Fit your writing to your primary audience (i.e., your supervisor, reviewer, and younger students). • Choose the type of bachelor’s thesis. Only state of the art or also a practical part? • Choose your topic wisely and always narrow it down to a manageable piece. • Give yourself more time than you expect. • Develop a method for annotating sources and keeping notes. • If you do not know how to start writing, take a pencil or open a blank file and start typing all the ideas that come to your mind no matter the order or style. • Keep your topic, motivation, and goals where you can constantly see them. • While revising, pay attention to all text levels. • The structure of your text and the order in which you present your ideas must enhance your thesis statement. • While rereading your text, be patient. It will pay in the end. • Use a software assistant to check the correctness of your language. • Make the references and bibliographical citations as precise as possible. 3 https://www.vut.cz/uk/eiz/databaze/writefull 4 This is understandable as the CitacePRO generator is developed by a Czech company, which primarily concentrates on the Czech norm. 15 3 Features of formal written English Each situation in our lives requires a different type of language so that we sound natural and appropriate for this particular situation. This is what linguists call register. Delivering the same information in a different setting to a different person will require different register. Imagine that you are in a bar with another student who is a friend of yours and you are explaining your bachelor’s thesis to this person. Your language will sound like this: “Hey, man, this whole new thingy is made up of three pieces.” When you present your thesis to an assembly of professors at the defense, you will explain the same in a different register: “Professor Wagner, my innovation consists of three elements.” For the most part, we are concerned with the formality of language. On an imaginary continuum of language formality, at the utmost informal end there is argot and slang (including professional slang, i.e., jargon). At the other end, there is the archaic language of the Bible and also legal English. As laws have to be formulated very precisely so that misinterpretation is not possible, if a formula worked once, it is used over and over again. The result is an increased level of formality manifested through the use of archaic language. Academic English will occupy the space roughly from the neutral middle towards the higher degree of formality. 5 Language continuum Informal Formal argot slang and jargon colloquial language neutral language academic writing legalese archaic language “booty” or “loot” for stolen goods in thieves’ argot addressing a person “dude” “app” for application “ops” for operations “hard to swallow” “difficult to believe” “impossible to prove objectively” “I, the undersigned, hereby declare …” language of the Bible “Thou shall not sin.” Taking into consideration the fact that written expression tends to be more formal than the spoken one, what are the features of formal academic English? Technical vocabulary The language of your bachelor’s thesis will always contain three kinds of vocabulary: technical, academic, and general. Technical vocabulary is terminology specific to a particular field of study, e.g., lathe or selective laser melting in mechanical engineering, and hard drive or mobile game infrastructure in computer studies. Academic vocabulary means words used in the context of academic disciplines but any disciplines, e.g., analysis, research, element. General 5 Each situation asks for a different register. Even though here in this text I am using formal language, I am still aware of its primary motivation, which is to make you, students, read it and take my advice to heart. This goal is then aided by stepping down from the formality ladder by using you when addressing my readers and making my language slightly easier to understand. Thus, instead of saying that the same phrasing of legal contracts is used persistently, I opted for a much more comprehensible expression over and over again. Logically, in a pedagogical context, it is not a good idea to teach difficult language in similarly difficult language. 16 vocabulary is everyday vocabulary, e.g., have, field, many. Written academic language will always be a combination of all three; yet technical and academic vocabulary will prevail. Technical vocabulary is scientific terminology which is in English primarily based on words of Latin and Greek origin, e.g., resin, finite element analysis, algorithm. The only reliable way to acquire technical vocabulary is by reading academic publications in your discipline. Technology has the great advantage that most publications, including journal papers, are in English. This means that as you read literature for your bachelor’s thesis, you will also acquire terminology. It is advisable to compile a wordlist of terms so that you use them consistently in your writing. If there is terminological inconsistency, choose the most fitting term but mention this issue in your thesis with a note saying which term you will use and why. If there is still a need to translate terminology, some technical dictionaries do exist, but their number is very limited. Lingea has a technical Czech-English dictionary, 6 but it must be purchased. You can also use some online dictionaries, e.g., a technical dictionary at Portál profesionálů. 7 Nevertheless, caution is advised. If you look up a term in a dictionary, search for a picture online to make sure that the term is really the part, instrument, or concept that you have in mind. Another good strategy is browsing Wikipedia and switching languages for individual entries. Also, norms and standards in English dealing with the topic of your thesis can be consulted. Specific and not very common abbreviations must be accompanied by their explanations in brackets. While FEM is an abbreviation of a rather elementary technical research method and thus may be left unexplained, LLD (low-density lipoprotein) or SLM (selective laser melting) deserve an explanation the first time they are used in the text; from this point onwards only the abbreviation can be used. When in doubt whether the abbreviation is well-known or not, explain it. After all, you will do it only once. What must also be avoided is the use of technical and professional jargon. Even though, especially in the field of computer studies, professionals, and also increasingly the general public, are used to talking about bugs, apps, and scratching alternatives, in formal writing these expressions must be exchanged for their terminologically neutral forms, i.e., coding errors, applications, and eliminating alternatives. Academic vocabulary Allow me a digression. Judging by dictionary entries, English has the largest vocabulary out of all languages in the world. “It has more than 200,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary, including 171,476 words in use and 47,156 obsolete words” (Monteil, 2020, n.p.). The reasons are historical and have very little to do with the nowadays use of English as a global lingua franca or with the spread and influence of the British Empire in the past. The historical reason is much older, starting in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of Britain. When the Normans settled as the new rulers of the country, a socio-linguistic change occurred. The ruling class, the Norman nobility, spoke Norman French. Their subjects, both the defeated Anglo-Saxon nobility and the commoners, spoke English. This change had such a profound impact that even though 6 https://www.lingea.cz/lexicon7-anglicky-technickyslovnik.html#:~:text=Aktu%C3%A1ln%C3%AD%20technick%C3%BD%20slovn%C3%ADk%20Lingea%20L exicon,obor%C5%AF%20sou%C4%8Dasn%C3%A9%20v%C4%9Bdy%20a%20techniky. 7 https://www.strojirenstvi.cz/slovniky 17 in their own time the originally Norman noblemen learned to speak English, they imported their own French words into it. 8 Since this historical era, we can, without exaggeration, say that for most things or mental concepts English has had two words – one coming from Anglo-Saxon and the other coming from Latin processed though French. Deducing from this historical and social situation, the words of Anglo-Saxon origin will form the neutral-to-informal part of the continuum of language formality whereas the French/Latin words will be considered more formal. What consequence does this historical survey have for your bachelor’s thesis? You will be using lots of French and Latin without actually speaking these languages. The best example of this language formality split is the phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs are of Anglo-Saxon origin; thus, they will be primarily used in contexts which ask for everyday language. In my example above, I used made up of when my protagonist was speaking to a friend in a bar. However, I rephrased the same sentence with consists of when I switched the situation to the bachelor’s thesis defense. Below are examples of phrasal verbs and their more formal Latin-based one-word equivalents. A water turbine is affected by bubbles bursting out. A water turbine is affected by bubbles cavitating. The experiment was made up of several phases. The experiment consisted of / was composed of several phases. It turned out that the modified equation was more precise. The modified equation appeared/proved to be more precise. Similarly, other words of Anglo-Saxon origin have a tendency to be situated on the neutral-to-informal part of the language continuum. This is not to say that, for example, the verb show cannot be used. Naturally, it can as it is neutral. Yet, it can also be at some point of the text exchanged for other Latin-based verbs, e.g., demonstrate or illustrate, that shift the whole text up on the level of formality. Conversely, colloquial expressions, e.g., pretty much or a must, have no place in academic writing. Below you can see examples of neutral, informal, and colloquial expressions and their formal equivalents. Increased workload and stress show themselves in a whole range of symptoms. Increased workload and stress are manifested / are demonstrated / are revealed in a variety / an array of symptoms. The initial guess of the modified Chaboche parameters was done according to Helm et al. [6]. The initial estimation of the modified Chaboche parameters was accomplished according to Helm et al. [6]. 8 The political, cultural, and linguistic exchange between Great Britain and France did not stop with the Normans but extended for many centuries. It is very probably still going on. An interesting and entertaining portrayal of the interwoven histories of these two countries is delivered by Stephen Clarke in his 1000 Years of Annoying the French. 18 The monotonic isotropic hardening is pretty much given. The monotonic isotropic hardening is essentially given / basically preset / virtually predetermined. The evolution of backstress parameters is a must in the modified Chaboche model. The evolution of backstress parameters is fundamental/imperative/compulsory in the modified Chaboche model. How to acquire the proper formal Latin-based vocabulary suitable for your bachelor thesis? You can look it up in Academic Word List (AWL) created by Averil Coxhead (2000) at https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist. AWL is a list of the most frequently used academic vocabulary disregarding terminology of specific fields. It was compiled out of a corpus of 3.5 million written academic texts, is composed of 570 word families, and is arranged into ten sublists from the most common words (sublist 1) to the least common (sublist 10). On the website, you can download all the sublists and get redirected to language exercises and other useful websites. This project has been so successful that textbooks of academic English are based on it, and there have been many follow-ups. For example, there is the New Academic Word List developed by Charles Browne, Brent Culligan, and Joseph Phillips in 2013. 9 Without being an etymologist, how can you assess that your writing is formal and academic enough? On the website of the EAP Foundation, where you can find lots of other useful features to study academic English, there is an AWL Highlighter. 10 You can copy and paste a piece of your text, click on Submit, and you will see how many words featuring in AWL your writing contains. Example text (Sloup, 2022, p. 25) analyzed by AWL Highlighter 9 https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academic/nawl/ 10 https://www.eapfoundation.com/vocab/academic/highlighter/ 19 The same text with highlighted technical vocabulary The figures above show the AWL highlighted words (grey and yellow). At first sight, there are not too many. What also needs to be accounted for is the technical vocabulary, which is highlighted in blue. None of these highlighted words needs improvement. Inspecting the text, however, some words or phrases which deserve more formal expression could be identified: identification is made, to give us the best result. To find more formal equivalents to these expressions, we need a thesaurus. There are numerous websites to use. A search at thesaurus.com immediately proposes several meanings in the tabs. I selected “enact, execute” and identified possible more formal alternatives: identification is conducted/established/performed/executed. 20 The same procedure may be repeated with the word give. Yet in this case, it might also be important to consider a relevant collocation with the word result. A collocation is a customary usage of two or more words next to one another. Collocations are not fixed expressions, such as idioms, but their correct use makes language sound natural. If native speakers understand what you say to them, but they tell you that it does not sound like good English, you are not using correct collocations. You can say that you have experienced a huge deal of trouble writing your thesis conveying the idea of “many.” However, the correct combination of words is a great deal of or a good deal of. Such customary combinations can be found by corpus analysis software, e.g., in Sketch Engine for Language Learning (SKELL) at https://skell.sketchengine.eu/. In the tabs below the search bar, you can switch between example sentences, similar words (thesaurus feature), and “word sketch,” which is a term this software uses for the most frequent combinations of words. By inspecting the most frequent verbs used with result as an object, we can conclude that fingerprints of good quality can yield/produce/deliver the best results. 21 Impersonal verbal constructions and passive voice A scientific text presents objective data that are to be relied on. For this reason, any construction shaded with subjectivism sounds suspicious or at least cautious. 11 To relay the objective truth, impersonal constructions are preferred. A useful construction is it is/was/will be + adjective + to infinitive as in the examples below. It was necessary to implement these elements into the primary design of the experiment. It may be more advantageous to use a modified method in the future. It is useful to complete the report with additional information. Passive constructions are frequently used if the agent of the action that the sentence describes – most often the human subject – is “obvious, very general, unimportant, or unknown” (Paterson and Wedge, 2013, p. 83). Consider this example from a Methods section of a bachelor’s thesis; one text is rewritten in the active voice and the other remains in the original passive. Revised in active voice In the first step, the author averaged the data from TH channels (TH 2; 3; 4; 6; 7) so that they yielded a single figure for an average temperature at the surface of HCP for every given time frame. The author did the same with the TC channels. Another value of interest was the difference between the CCP temperature and the temperature in the TVCH, which the author measured by a thermocouple in a Heat Flux (HF) sensor. The author obtained a difference in the absolute value. In the third step, the author had to calculate HF. Original passive voice In the first step, the data from TH channels (TH 2; 3; 4; 6; 7) were averaged to yield a single figure for an average temperature at the surface of HCP for every given time frame. The same was done with the TC channels. Another value of interest was the difference between the CCP temperature and the temperature in the TVCH, which was measured by a thermocouple in a Heat Flux (HF) sensor. A difference in the absolute value was obtained. In the third step, HF had to be calculated. (adapted from Čapka, 2022, p. 38) When describing a scientific procedure, your readers are primarily interested in how it was done, i.e., the step-by-step procedure itself. Moreover, it is naturally understood that it was you, the author, who conducted the procedure. Thus, the agent of the action, the author, is redundant to mention. The so far provided reasons for using impersonal and passive constructions could be applied to most languages. However, you could have noticed that the occurrence of passive voice is significantly more frequent in English than it is in Czech. No matter what level of formality we 11 Subjective constructions may be used when predicting future results, suggesting future applications, or identifying directions of further research. Yet even here, less direct language is used to “make your views more measured and cautious” (Patterson and Wedge, 2013, p. 124). If you say that your calculations may be used in a particular application, you “distance yourself to some extent from the claim,” thus reducing the subjectivism (Patterson and Wedge, 2013, p. 124). 22 assume, passive constructions will always be an essential part of utterances in English, whereas they will remain rather scarce in Czech. English makes an extensive use of passive constructions in order to convey information from the author to the reader in a certain manner. A governing principle thus is that different languages use different means to achieve the same effect. Another logical proposition is that the easiest way to be understood is to start from a point which is well-known both to the writer and the reader and finish with a new piece of information – to start at a common ground which prepares the receiver of the message for something new. As Steven Pinker, a world-known cognitive psychologists, puts it, people “don’t like it when a fact is hurled at them from out of the blue and they have to keep it levitating in short-term memory until they find a relevant background to embed it in a few moments later” (2015, p. 131). This leads to a realization that the two most important places in a sentence are the beginning (the topic, which is known) and the ending (the comment, which is the new information): “Topic-then-comment and the given-then-new orderings are major contributors to coherence” (Pinker 2015, p. 131). Below are Czech and English examples of sentences constructed in such a way that the first and the last elements are the same so that the information is ordered in the same way. Profesor Hošek zaslal zprávu grantové agentuře. Professor Hošek sent the report to the grant agency. Zprávu zaslal (profesor Hošek) grantové agentuře. The report was sent to the grant agency. Zprávu grantové angentuře zaslal profesor Hošek. The report was sent to the grant agency by professor Hošek. Grantové agentuře zaslal (professor Hošek) zprávu. The grant agency was sent the report. A Czech writer simply makes use of a moveable word order and switches the positions of words. Because of word endings (particularly case markers), it is always clear who the agent is (professor Hošek), which word is the manipulated object (zprávu), and which word is the receiver of the object (grantové agentuře). An English-speaking writer, however, must observe the subject-verb-object fixed word order not to confuse the reader. Thus, the only possible way of ordering information in the same way is using the passive voice. The simplest, even though not the only, pattern of ordering information in a text is to start with what is known (marked green in the following example) and proceed to a new piece of information (marked red), which in turn becomes the known information starting the next sentence and proceeding to another new piece of information. The example bellow illustrates this easy, yet effective, flow of information which is helped by the use of passive voice in the third sentence (These can be put …). 23 Existing games commonly use additional reward to boost player engagement. Widespread rewards in gamification are badges. These can be put in a game to be on permanent display in a locked or otherwise incomplete state which teases players to collect and complete them. (adapted from Hubík, 2022, p. 6) Existing games → reward to boost Widespread rewards → badges These → permanent display which → collect and complete them What will happen if the third sentence is transcribed into the active voice? First, a subject – game producers – must be introduced to keep the subject-verb-object word order. This subject is, however, unnecessary for the message the author wants to covey and, what is more important, emerges unexpectedly, surprises the readers, and thus interrupts the smooth process of reading. There is no connection between the badges as rewards for gaming and the game producers in the example below. Existing games commonly use additional reward to boost player engagement. Widespread rewards in gamification are badges. Game producers put these in a game so that they are on permanent display in a locked or otherwise incomplete state which teases players to collect and complete them. Existing games → reward to boost Widespread rewards → badges Game producers → these they → permanent display which → collect and complete them One more side effect of this unfortunate transformation is making this passage much longer, which is against the brevity of expression preferred in academic writing. Use of I What has been explained above necessarily leads to the conclusion that the passive voice is the main expression used in academic writing, omitting the author and diminishing his or her role. What can never be done in English, but is frequently used in Czech academic writing, is the use of plural we to achieve objectivity. The Czech language uses we because of its limits in the passive voice. English, on the other hand, has hardly any limits in this regard, which is why the passive voice must be used whenever possible as in the example below. 12 12 The only exception is purely mathematical writing (see section 6.4). Mathematics uses formulaic language like “we denote” or “let us define” as standard expressions for introducing equations and inferring proofs. 30 example of the number of regional radio stations. Finally, the concluding sentence stresses the ability of getting news quickly and focusing on events which otherwise would not be of nationwide interest. In the example of a fragmented paragraph below, the author starts with a topic sentence which tells the readers that the paragraph will give them information on the evaluation of data already discussed above, this time applied to the specific case of aerodynamic loads. Such a topic sentence is quite satisfactory. However, the whole text is a description of one process, meaning that it represents one idea. Thus, setting off every step in the process into its own paragraph with the length of one or two sentences hinders understanding. The fragmentation is further unwittingly emphasized by a combination of two graphical devices – indentation and larger space. Fragmented paragraph Corrected paragraph When it comes to the final evaluation of aerodynamic loads data, the approach is the same for all cases. The only difference is in the number of measured points – different velocities measured. As was mentioned above, the measuring process consists of: (a) zero values before wind tunnel is turned on, (b) measured data for a given speed, and (c) zero values after wind tunnel was turned off. Here, only the general process is shown. More detailed information can be found in appendix C.2. The first step of the evaluation is averaging the measured values over the entire measuring period. The next step is to subtract the average zero values from values at different velocities. After that, these values are multiplied by the balance’s calibration matrix. This step yields moment values at points of strain gauge brides. These moments are multiplied again by a transformation matrix that transforms moments at strain gauge bridges into loads acting at the model attachment point. At this point, loads acting separately on a balance are subtracted. Then the calculated values are components of aerodynamic load When it comes to the final evaluation of aerodynamic loads data, the approach is the same for all cases. The only difference is in the number of measured points – different velocities measured. As was mentioned above, the measuring process consists of: (a) zero values before wind tunnel is turned on, (b) measured data for a given speed, and (c) zero values after wind tunnel was turned off (for detailed information see appendix C.2.). The first step of the evaluation is averaging the measured values over the entire measuring period. The next step is to subtract the average zero values from values at different velocities. After that, these values are multiplied by the balance’s calibration matrix. This step yields moment values at points of strain gauge brides. These moments are multiplied again by a transformation matrix that transforms moments at strain gauge bridges into loads acting at the model attachment point. At this point, loads acting separately on a balance are subtracted. Then the calculated values are components of aerodynamic load acting at the model attachment point. This has to be transformed into loads acting at the origin of the coordinate system 31 acting at the model attachment point. This has to be transformed into loads acting at the origin of the coordinate system defined in section 7.1. Last but not least, dimensionless coefficients as defined in section 7.1.2 can be calculated. Again, for detailed description of the evaluation see appendix C.2. (Fryšták, 2016, p. 104–05) defined in section 7.1. Lastly, dimensionless coefficients as defined in section 7.1.2 can be calculated. My correction of this text is very straightforward. I joined the sentences into one paragraph and kept only the initial paragraph indentation. For the sake of style, I also replaced the not too formal expression “last but not least” with “lastly” and shortened the sentence-long references to an appendix into a phrase in brackets. Conclusion A conclusion is much more than only a summary. The main function of a conclusion is to provide a critical evaluation of the inspected issue. Even though your writing up to now might be strictly descriptive, your conclusion must synthesize, assess, or categorize the discussed facts or issues in such a way that the readers can easily reproduce the main idea and its supporting proofs. Also, the readers must have the impression that the text was worth reading because after reading it, they now understand the issue at hand. Conclusions also have three elements, the sequence of which is logically reversed than it is in the introduction. We start with the most specific point and open up to generalizations: 1 Restating the thesis statement: After reading a long piece of text full of details, the readers must be reminded of what exactly the text was trying to prove. Thus, the first sentence in a conclusion typically restates the thesis statement. Where the introduction finished, the conclusion begins. 2 Summary of the main points: The middle part continues the thesis restatement and presents the main points (typically results of your research) together with the assessment of their validity (including limitations). This part typically features evaluative adjectives, such as essential, significant, or invaluable. 3 Opening up: The last part of a conclusion presents a larger, more general, and usually future-oriented outlook. This may be a summarizing opinion, a suggestion for future practice, a recommendation for improvement, implications for other areas of interest, or predictions for the future. What must never occur in a conclusion is a lengthy description of background like in the introduction, motivation for writing the text (too late), and completely new facts. 1By targeting very specific audiences, having a program adaptable to particular regions of a country, and being cheap, the radio has proven to be an essential means of communication 1 Thesis restatement 32 irreplaceable by the nation-wide television or global internet. 2Radio stations with their focus on very particular areas of interest can reach very particular audiences, by providing traffic broadcast, specific music choices, or even a religious focus. Radio can very quickly provide information relevant to a specific region, or even a city, which would not be of any interest to nation-wide broadcast. Finally, not only is setting up a radio station a much cheaper endeavor than a TV station, but nowadays people have a built-in radio receiver in their mobile phones, making everybody a potential audience without the need to invest in additional expensive equipment. 3For all these reasons, radio broadcast is unlikely to disappear in the near future. 2 Summary of main points 3 Future prediction The example above presents a possible conclusion to the essay discussing the benefits of radio. First, exactly the same three point as in the thesis statement in the introduction are repeated, even though in slightly different words. Second, the more particular points, which provide a support for the thesis statement, are summarized. Finally, a prediction for the future is offered. Note also the use of evaluative expressions: essential, relevant, cheaper, expensive, and unlikely. What to remember • Each text is governed by number 3. o Text: introduction, body, conclusion. o Introduction: hook, connecting information, thesis statement. o Body paragraph: topic sentence, supporting sentences, concluding sentence. o Conclusion: restating the thesis statement, summary of main points, opening up. • Introduction starts form general information about the topic and finishes with the most specific information, i.e., the thesis statement. • Conclusion starts with the specific thesis statement and opens up to more general evaluation or future prediction. 33 5 Structure of the bachelor’s thesis 5.1 Title Generating a good title is a skill that that takes some time to acquire. A good title cannot be too generic. It must be informative enough so that the readers know what exactly they will be reading about. This is exactly the problem with many university settings (not exclusively BUT) where students are required to make their selected topic of the bachelor’s thesis also its title. Topic must be generic enough so that several students can write about the same issue from different perspectives or focusing on different parts of the same topic. The guidelines that follow are thus applicable to the situation when you can invent your own title. Ask your supervisor if it is possible. If not, I do not recommend transgressing the rules. A good title has several functions (Hairston and Keene, 2003, p. 73; Wallwork, 2011, p. 163): • It predicts the content of the text. • It catches the attention of the right type of readers and is immediately comprehensible to them. • It reflects the tone of the piece of writing (i.e., seriously academic and scientific in this case). • It contains keywords that make it accessible by a computer search. To set your title apart from the general topic, you can follow the usual scientific practice and say what you exactly do with the topic. Are you analyzing it, providing a survey, or evaluating it? Thus, words like analysis, survey, or evaluation can start a title. Booksharing: A mobile application for sharing books (adapted from Baláž, 2023) is an insufficient title because the reader does not know what was actually done with the application. Did the author create it or added some features to it? Booksharing: A development of a mobile application for sharing books would be a more revealing title. However, there are two problems. First, such titles usually need an indefinite article when used in the singular unless they are uncountable. The uncountable ones are, for example, research, lack, feedback, equipment. Second, these nouns are not always followed by of as most students assume. Titles starting with countable nouns An analysis of computation demands on self-correcting codes16 A classification of domain names generated by DGA A proposal for a tool/method/instrument for processing sports videos An inquiry/investigation into long-distance belt transport A mathematical solution to a network designing problem An examination of waste heat storage systems A survey of precision forging technologies 16 Lots of nouns, like analysis, may be both countable and uncountable. When they refer to the process (of analyzing), they are uncountable. However, when they refer to the result of the process, they are countable. As your bachelor’s thesis presents the final result of your work, these nouns should be used as countable in the title. 34 An evaluation/assessment of heat sources for a family house A design of a mulcher for the aggregation with a tractor A review of uncertainty quantification in Deep Learning Titles starting with uncountable nouns Research in/on/into thermal control systems of microsatellites Quantification of calorimetric data Optimization of the cold-spray method by heat treatment Visualization of neuroevolution in neural network learning What is to be, however, avoided in titles are either too many of structures or long strings of nouns. Both are difficult to comprehend. Both shortcomings can be fixed by including -ing structures. Not only do gerunds make the title more comprehensible, but they also make it more dynamic and eye-catching. Gerunds are verbal forms and verbs express actions which involve the reader. Original versions An implementation of algorithms for the compensation of the effect of linear acceleration An implementation of linear acceleration effect compensation algorithms Revised version Implementing algorithms for compensating the effect of linear acceleration You can also capitalize your title by putting each initial letter in the upper case. The only words which are not capitalized are articles, prepositions, and conjunctions (and, or). However, if you choose to capitalize the title of your bachelor’s thesis, you must be consistent and capitalize titles and subtitles of all your chapters throughout the whole text. Uncapitalized title A mathematical solution to a network designing problem Capitalized title A Mathematical Solution to a Network Designing Problem What to remember • Follow the guidelines of your faculty. • If you can create your own title, try to specify the performed activity by a noun phrase or an -ing construction. 35 5.2 Introduction There is much more to an introduction than introducing the topic of your writing. An introduction to a bachelor’s thesis, or any other academic text, has several purposes. Bailey lists these (2006, p. 52): • to define some of the most important terms (usually included in the title), • to give your opinion on the topic, • to show that you have read research on the topic, • to show that the topic is important to write about, • to explain which parts of the topic you will deal with and which not and also why, • to get the reader’s attention • to show how you intend to organize your text. I will add three more purposes which are the Achilles heel of many Czech students: • to briefly and succinctly formulate the problem of your bachelor’s thesis, • to suggest a solution to this problem, • to precisely express the aims of your research. What was said about introductions in the Text essentials section is still true. An introduction to your bachelor’s thesis has three parts – hook, connecting sentences, and thesis statement. However, what exactly should be included in each, especially in the connecting sentences, and how to phase each part will be discussed here. Hook The hook is the first sentence in the introduction whose function is to get your readers’ attention. Making readers interested in what you have to say means appealing to them and trying to persuade them. It all goes back to good old Aristotle who identified three modes of persuasion: ethos derived from presenting the character of the author in favorable light, pathos awakening emotional response in the audience, and logos employing the logic and appealing to the rational capacities of the audience (Kennedy, 1991, p. 119). All texts feature all three appeals, yet each to a different degree. Ethos is typical for political speeches where the audience must believe that the speaker really means what he or she promises. In science, experienced researchers build up their ethos by doing reliable research and truthfully reporting on it in peer-reviewed journals. Yet, as an undergraduate student you have not done any research yet, so you cannot possibly refer to it at the beginning of your thesis. Pathos is the least represented appeal in scientific writing; emotions do not play a role. Pathos, on the contrary, is suitable for festive occasions. At your graduation ceremony, when the vice-dean gives a short speech celebrating all the efforts you have exerted in order to finish your studies, which will make your parents proud and paint your future bright, he or she will be employing pathos. Finally, logos is the best choice for science readers. Your primary readers, the supervisor and the reviewer, will above all be interested in the content of your work and how you have processed it. This means that the best strategy to start your introduction is to employ keywords and put them as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible. This will ensure that your readers will immediately know what they read about, and it will fulfill their expectations. 36 This is a typical pattern of introductory sentences in scientific writing (Bailey, 2015, p. 76): Time phrase Topic of your thesis expressed in keywords Development Since 2008, electric cars have become a serious commercial proposition. Currently, electric car ownership dominates only in Norway out of all EU countries. Such sentences say that the topic of your bachelor thesis is important in nowadays situation. The first time phrase is thus connected to the present: currently, recently, at present, nowadays, since 2008, in the last 15 years. The time phrase is followed by the topic (being one of your keywords), and the development foreshadows a problem. Lots of theses or even scientific publications start with phrases like: This thesis deals with …, In this paper we will examine …, The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is …. While the main function of the first sentence is preserved, i.e., announcing the topic of writing, the most important piece of information that gets the reader’s attention, the keywords, is delayed until the end of the sentence. Moreover, such beginnings are so common that “you are not differentiating yourself from the others” (Wallwork, 2011, p. 184). This is not to say that you cannot employ a bit of pathos. With caution, pathos enticing a surprise or humor in the readers can serve as a very effective hook. Consider these three examples: Tesla is not the most frequently sold electric vehicle, contrary to what most Europeans or Americans think. This hook may be surprising for most western-world readers as Tesla is the eponymous electric car maker. After this, the author may go on and state that the most frequently sold electric vehicle in the world is the Chinese make BYD and possibly continue to a comparative study of various features of electromobility. The future is not set. (Kůdela 2014, p. 8) Since the author deals with stochastic optimization, which an iterative method in computational mathematics where even the slightest measure of randomness can change the final result immensely, he opted for a famous quote from The Terminator, which is the first sentence of the film’s prologue. Recognizing the quote will definitely raise a feeling of pleasure and fun in the reader. 37 The quantum field theory has become a battlefield among current scientists.17 Another text dealing with theoretical physics plays upon the word pun of field – battlefield, which is not only amusing but also states a fact about the innumerable disputes in this area of science. Truth is that the less practical and the more theoretical the topic of a text is, the easier it is to employ pathos and make the opening statement interesting. Regardless of this, all three hooks effectively appeal to the readers logos as the first words are their keywords drawing attention to their subject matter. Connecting sentences The connecting introduction sentences typically include this information: • context, background of the problem, narrowing down the topic towards the researched issue, • review of the current state of the art or available literature on the problem, which leads to the identification of a gap in the current research that needs to be focused on and that becomes the topic for the particular text, • the importance of this research. If we adapt the structure to the bachelor’s thesis, we have to bear in mind one thing – the practical task that substitutes the actual research may not be completely original, which is why you will not be probably searching for a gap in the current research. Nevertheless, you still need to emphasize how important the area of study is, what industrial or technical potential it has and that by the practical task you are contributing to the current state of the art. Also, as most of your bachelor’s thesis is the state-of-the-art survey, it is relevant to point out the most prominent trends, concepts, developments, or theoretical patterns, and also which of these your practical task follows. The adapted structure of the middle part of the introduction may look like this: • context, background of the problem, narrowing down the topic towards the researched issue, • brief identification of the most prominent trends, concepts, developments, or theoretical patterns and saying which ones are relevant for your practical task, • the importance of your area of study. Thesis statement The thesis statement is the final and the most important part of the introduction as most readers of academic literature simply read the last few sentences of the introduction to find out what the aims of the paper are, what approach towards the research problem the author adopted, and in which order the induvial aims are presented. For this reason, frequently the aims of the bachelor’s or master’s theses are set apart from the preceding parts of introduction as a separate 17 I have to admit that this hook has been invented by one of my doctoral students. However, I have not been able to find his master’s thesis where this ingenious sentence allegedly appears. 38 chapter. Even if you do not make a separate chapter, the thesis statement will be set apart as the last paragraph of your introduction. Let us inspect an example of two thesis statements in which students are to express whether they agree or disagree with the following quotation, to what extent, and support their opinions (Chazal and McCarter, 2012, p. 62): “Some traditional subjects, for example history, are becoming less important in today’s technology and business oriented world. Universities should therefore focus on subjects such as engineering which will have the maximum economic impact.” Firstly, the social and economic reasons why it is important to keep traditional subjects at universities are examined. This is followed by an analysis of why sufficient breadth in the university continuum cannot be provided by a narrow focus on subjects such as engineering. This thesis statement clearly expresses a contradictory opinion towards the quote above. It uses sequencers (firstly, this is followed) to point out the order of discussed points and also verbs typical for thesis statements (examine, provide). The phrasing uses present simple (are examined, is followed, cannot be provided), which is one of the typical verb tenses for introductions. This report will focus on the importance of science, medicine, and technology in today’s globalized economy and discuss the extent to which universities are expected to reflect the reality before suggesting some long-term expectations. This thesis statement links the progressive subjects with globalization, which speaks for their importance. It does not make use of sequencers but simply arranges the individual points in the same order as they will appear in the text. Once again it uses typical verbs for thesis statements (focus, reflect, suggest)18 and future simple (will focus), which is a completely acceptable tense as the reader is only about to read the body of the text. As the above examples were taken from the realm of humanities, here is another example. This is an introduction to a bachelor’s thesis dealing with deep learning for image stitching. 1A panorama is a broad perspective of a physical area, typically represented by a photograph or painting. 2Taking panoramic pictures is well known to almost every smartphone user. Such pictures can be challenging due to various struggles. Obscurities, like the proper movement of the camera, unsteady hands, shallow depth of field, and lens distortion, are very common. All of these problems can create noticeable seams or distorted pictures. 3Yet even with amateur skills, outcomes are usually sufficient as the process of 1 The hook is a definition, which is a good strategy. It may not be surprising but it definitely starts with the most important concept expressed in a keyword. 2 The background downscales to a problem. 18 Verbs typically used in thesis statements and other phrases for expressing cognitive concepts (e.g., comparisons or compositions) can be found in section 6.9. 39 image-stitching is running in the background of the device. One can create a seamless image with the assistance of real-time stitching. Several images with overlapped fields need to be aligned as part of the image-stitching process. This process and its various approaches will be the focus of this bachelor’s thesis. 4Image stitching plays an important role not just in photography but in many other professions as well. It has applications in virtual reality, gaming, surveying, security, and surveillance. In the medical industry, stitching is also essential when it comes to tasks like taking X-ray images. It is also essential for the procedure that generates microscopic images of the highest quality. The precision of panoramic image-making needed in such professions relies on training neural networks to stitch the images seamlessly. 5The main goal of this thesis is to use the power of SuperPoint and SuperGlue neural networks to create a grid matching pipeline for microscopic images. SuperPoint and SuperGlue will be evaluated and compared to handcrafted approaches, such as SIFT. During the process of getting familiar with image stitching and neural networks, various experiments were conducted and evaluated. The experiments consisted in training the neural networks on various tasks, such as keypoint detection and homography estimation. (adapted from Držíková, 2023, p. 2) 3The solution is emphasized to be worthwhile investigating and perfecting. 4 The importance of the solution is supported by a variety of applications. 5 The thesis statement clearly states that the work’s aim is a comparison of two types panorama software. “Getting familiar” was the first step, i.e., a review of currently available products, and training neural networks in some particular tasks was the second step. What to remember • Typical structure of a bachelor’s thesis introduction: hook, background downscaling to a problem, practical solution and its importance, thesis statement. • Place your keywords as close to the beginning of the first sentence as possible. • In the connecting sentences, identify the leading trends and developments in your area of interest and point out which are the ones that your practical task is based on. • The thesis statement, the most important part on introduction, is the last few sentences, preferably set apart as a separate paragraph or even a chapter. Here you state the aims of your thesis and in which order you will deal with them. 46 5.5 Results and Discussion When it comes to reporting results, hardly anybody doubts what this part is about. Nevertheless, results must be accompanied by their discussion, which is a stumbling block in the way to a successful thesis. When presenting results, you choose those results which are representative, decide on the sequence in which you will present them and whether they are significant enough to be also presented in a visual manner (graphs, tables, photographs, etc.). Each factual statement of results is, however, to be discussed, i.e., evaluated, assessed, or compared. What are thus the main questions for you to consider and answer in the discussion? • Do your results fulfill the aims of your bachelor’s thesis? Or did you possibly diverge from the set tasks? • Do your results confirm your expectations before you started the practical part? • How do your results compare with those of other researchers? Refer back to the state-of-the-art section and say which results are in agreement with the current developments and which are not and possibly why. • What do your results mean? Always comment on them in a qualitative manner, interpret them. • When doing the practical part, were there any unexpected hinderances? How did you deal with them? Did you manage to overcome them, or did they have an impact on your results? • How can the encountered limitations be eliminated in the future? • Were there any negative results? What were they caused by and how can they be amended? • Does your practical task have any implications for the industrial production? Language of Results You did the practical task and obtained results before you started writing the thesis, which is why this part is written in the past verb tense, typically past simple, in a combination of passive and active voices. In the text below, the author uses past simple and continuous, active and passive, to report results, and then he states the so-far-in-the-literature-undiscussed technical errors, which is exactly the discussion part. He also identifies where exactly and why those errors happened, which is another typical feature of discussions. The WordChain application was distributed to a testing group of eight users by an access link to limited public testing on Google Play app store6. Each user was running the app on his or her own Android smartphone. The testing primarily focused on the online game itself, but feedback was also collected about the user interface and accompanying features. […] User testing revealed previously undiscovered technical issues, predominantly with user interface on devices with different display ratios and system configurations (such as different Android versions and text size settings) and several errors related to real-time communication implementation. (adapted from Hubík, 2022, p. 43) 47 Commenting on figures The rule of thumb is that the text and visuals accompanying it (figures, tables, graphs, photographs, etc.) are complementary, which means that both combined together make up a whole unit of meaning. This rule has several implications: • All visuals must be referred to in your text. You cannot include a figure without commenting on it. • A figure should be placed as close to its commentary as possible. Even though, for example in the discussion, it might be necessary to refer back to an earlier figure, its primary commentary, the text where you refer it for the first time, is right above or below it. • What you say in the text is information which cannot be easily read just by looking at the figure. If your text says basically the same thing as the legend below the figure, it is redundant. • Your textual description of a figure must be its interpretation, evaluation, and discussion. If, after reading the appropriate commentary on the figure, your reader still has to inspect it closely and make intellectual effort to derive its meaning, you have failed. Below are two paragraphs of figure commentary from a master’s thesis on a design of a software application which, installed in a smart phone with a camera, helps body builders exercise correctly. The paragraph above the figure is made up of only two sentences. Not only is this hardly sufficient information, but the text only announces what can immediately be read in the figure’s labels and caption. Actually, the caption provides more information than the paragraph text, which is not correct. The main focus should always be shifted to the thesis text rather than additional information in the figure caption. Moreover, the author does not comment on the reason why he included graphs for both the absolute and smoothed deviation. Is the information about the absolute deviation really necessary? If so, it must be stated why. In Figure 7.10 we can see the results of the velocity calculated on multiple devices along with the measurement of Qualisys and the absolute deviation from the measurement of Qualisys. Details about used devices are described in Appendix D. Figure 7.10. Results for comparison experiments with Qualisys motion capture system. The recordings were recorded with the main back camera in present modes and computed from three repetitions of deadlift exercise. The black dashed line indicates the Qualisys measurement, which is assumed to be ground truth. 48 During experiments with multiple devices (Figure 7.10), deviation from ground truth was found. After the examination of the devices, a possible correlation was discovered between the focal length of the camera and the magnitude of the deviation. […] After various evaluations of OHP exercises from several sessions, it was obvious that the camera’s focal length does not impact the deviation, or at least it is not the major issue. Field experiments showed completely different results. Theoretical computations in the GeoGebra tool8 can be found in Appendix H. We found out that the main problem is probably the different angle and perspective changes. (adapted from Klem, 2024, p.73)19 The paragraph below the figure, however, gives more valuable information about a possible cause of deviation which cannot be seen only from the figure. Thus, it is important to state it; otherwise, the readers could make their own assumptions which could be absolutely wrong. This type of commentary is truly essential for understanding the role of the figure. There is one more stylistic shortcoming. Both paragraphs include very long references to the figure (In Figure 7.10 we can see…) and appendix information (Theoretical computations in the GeoGebra tool8 can be found in Appendix H.). In the first case, the long sentence beginning poses a delay from reading the important information rather than emphasizes it. In the second case, the whole inserted sentence interrupts the process of reading and distracts the reader’s attention. In the results and discussion section, you only very rarely dedicate a whole paragraph to the description of one figure. You follow the line of thought which best suits the presentation of results and wherever necessary you refer to visual material illustrating the point in question. For this reason, it is often very distracting introducing references to figures by whole clauses, such as As can be seen in Fig. xx, In Fig. xx we can see, or Fig. xx shows. The key is to be as succinct as possible in referencing and rather focus on the content of the figure. This strategy was nicely adapted by the author at the beginning of the second paragraph where the figure is referred to only in brackets. References to appendix could go either to the end of the paragraph or, more appropriately, to footnotes. What to remember • Choose only representative results and decide on the best order to present them. • Only truly significant results are presented in a visual manner. • Each piece of information in the results must also be evaluated, assessed, or compared. • The commentary on a figure must be as close to the figure as possible. • The figure and its commentary present complementary information. Figures present factual information, commentary their interpretation. • Make your textual references to figures as brief as possible. 19 Figures reproduced with author’s permission. 49 5.6 Conclusion A conclusion is much more than a summary. If the goal of the extended literature research is to critically assess the state of the art, in the conclusion you must present a synthesis and evaluation of the current knowledge and highlight which theories, trends, or methods were used as a basis for your practical task. Also, the results of your practical task must be evaluated against the aims of your bachelor thesis. Did you really fulfil them all or to what extend? Once again, the key to saying whether your conclusion is well written is to view it from the reader’s point of view. Imagine that the reviewer of your bachelor’s thesis will first read the introduction and conclusion before inspecting the remaining text, as it usually happens. Will he or she find all the essential information and its critical evaluation in these two parts? A typical conclusion follows a reverse logic to that of the introduction. It starts with the most specific point and opens up to more general items. The structure of a typical conclusion is the following one: 1 a revisit of the thesis statement or a reminder of the goal, 2 a brief summary of the most important points, both theoretical and practical, 3 an evaluation of the importance of the findings, 4 limitations of the study and suggestions for improvement, 5 an identification of the future direction of research, possible practical applications, or recommendations. A conclusion never features a general topic and background description as in the introduction, motivation for writing, or completely new data. Language for conclusions In the conclusion, you typically refer back to (a) the research activities you did before you started writing your thesis and (b) what you have just written and your reader has just read. This distinction is also mirrored in grammar by the use of verb tenses. When you present the summary of your findings, you use past simple as in the results section. However, the first sentence of a conclusion usually states what has just been written or read, thus using present perfect. Consider the following example: The thesis has presented an algorithmic solution to evaluating the quality of dactyloscopy traces based on statistical and contextual values of an image. The proposed algorithm had sub-algorithms which evaluated fingerprint features based on various factors and grades and classified them accordingly. […] The solution also consisted of all necessary steps needed before the rating of the fingerprint can start. (adapted from Sloup, 2022, p. 50) Not only does the first sentence of the conclusion refer to the thesis which has just been read and the following sentences report on the research which was done before writing, the passage also follows the logic of announcing past news or events. The first sentence in news reports states the happening of something in present perfect because the focus is on the overall action: There has been an accident on D1. What follows is sentences focusing on detailed information of who, where, when, or how: At 8 o’clock a truck backtailed a car causing a chain reaction. 50 The reader’s attention must be maintained even in the conclusion. First, phrases like This thesis has presented … are so common in academic writing that they have become a cliché and should be avoided. Just like the first sentences in the abstract and the introduction, the first sentence in the conclusion should start immediately with the topic of the thesis expressed in keywords. Original version The thesis has presented an algorithmic solution to evaluating the quality of dactyloscopy traces based on statistical and contextual values of an image. (adapted from Sloup, 2022, p. 50) Revised version An algorithmic solution to evaluating the quality of dactyloscopy traces based on statistical and contextual values of an image has been presented. Considering the fact that most reviewers read the abstract, introduction, and conclusion first before looking into more particular details in the other parts of the thesis, the conclusion thus must present the information on your results. Do not say what you did, i.e., comment on the form, but rather say how and why. Let us consider this example: In the practical part of the thesis the configuration of a proposed test of MLI’s performance is described. In the first part the used devices are named and after that the process of tests is explained. Following are the results and their interpretation. (adapted from Čapka, 2022, p. 51) The fact that the performance of multiple layer insulation is described, its parts are named, and the process is explained does not say anything about the content at all. The conclusion asks for clear judgment of the success of what you did and for detailed information. The author should have said whether his particular design of the MLI met the requirements that had been set at the beginning of the project, under which conditions it performed well and under which not so well. If the actual types or brands of devices used are important to know, they should have been actually named here, and the process of selection out of an array of devices stressed. Also, the actual type of tests should clearly have been identified. The worst mistake, however, is stating that the author arrived at results and their interpretations but never saying what they were. Do not state the obvious – of course, you must arrive at results – but say what they were and, even more importantly, what they mean. Below is an example of a skillfully constructed conclusion, justifying the author’s choices, evaluating the success, and providing interpretation of results. Original version The main goal of this thesis was to propose, design, implement and test a mobile game for practicing English, based on the rules of word chain, with the purpose of helping Structure and commentary 1 Revisit of the thesis statement The author correctly starts with reminding the readers of the goal of the thesis. Nevertheless, the opening sentence could be made more emphatic by directly starting with the keywords 51 users with expanding and practicing their vocabulary. and using the present perfect to stress that the goal has just been achieved: A mobile game for practicing English, based on the rules of word chain, with the purpose of helping users with expanding and practicing their vocabulary has been proposed, designed, and implemented. First, a game-based learning and mobile-assisted learning evaluation was conducted, which concluded that a well-designed mobile game can combine educational aspects with entertainment and increased engagement. This knowledge was complemented by the assessment of currently existing solutions, a number of which turned out to be based on very similar ideas. The new design could then build on their obvious strengths while avoiding possible shortcomings. […] 2 Summary of the most important points The author does not only say what was done (“a game-based learning and mobile-assisted learning evaluation was conducted”) but also stresses the outcomes (“which concluded that a well-designed mobile game can combine educational aspects with entertainment and increased engagement”). He also justifies the logic of his decisions: “The new design could then build on their obvious strengths while avoiding possible shortcomings.” Based on results and user feedback gathered from this testing, fixes and minor modifications were implemented. Users confirmed that they were able to learn new English words and appreciated the Word History feature. 3 Evaluation of the importance of findings The author does not only state that feedback was gathered and implemented but also points out the pluses of feedback implementation. Improvement suggestions included a forfeit and invite-to-play features, which could be addressed in further development. 4 Limitations and their improvement The author confirms his own balanced self-evaluation and builds up credit as a conscientious researcher by pointing out the weaknesses and how they should be fixed. The product of this thesis is a mobile application containing a one-on-one online game accompanied with additional functionalities that may serve as a basis for future expansion. (adapted from Hubík, 2022, p. 45) 5 Future research, applications, or recommendations The fact that the product serves as a basis to be built upon proves its usefulness in the future. 52 What to remember • The conclusion starts with the most specific item, i.e., a reminder of your thesis statement. Then it presents a summary of the main points together with their evaluation and interpretation, identifies limitations, and offers suggestions for improvement. Finally, it opens up to more general applications, recommendations, or future research directions. • Make a distinction between referring back to activities before writing the thesis (past simple) and referring to your writing (present perfect). • Do not state the obvious. • Do not only say what you did, but always say why. 53 5.7 Abstract and keywords Writing a good abstract is one of the most difficult skills to develop, yet one of the most important ones. The difficulty resides in the skill of being brief, yet complete. A concise abstract says everything essential about your work in only a few hundred words. The abstract is the first thing any academic reader reads. When your reviewer has read your abstract, he or she should be content to know your work in its completeness and complexity. Only then will they start reading the whole work, which now assumes the role of an extension of your abstract. An abstract is thus a briefly, concisely, precisely, and comprehensively formulated summary of your thesis. It must be complete as it functions as a whole set aside from your text. We read abstracts first and only then do we decide to read the text itself, sometimes much later. This means that an abstract must contain all essential information, including your results, conclusions, and critical evaluations. Nothing important can remain a mystery to be read later in the text. An abstract enables the reader to quickly navigate in the text itself. This implies two things. First, an abstract contains keywords pointing to the content of the work. Second, an abstract describes the parts of the text in the same order they are presented in the work itself. Bachelor’s thesis abstracts A quick search of abstracts on the Internet will show you that there are many types of abstracts. Based on the approach to the content, there are informative, descriptive, critical, and highlight abstracts. Based on the form, there are unstructured, structured, extended, and conference abstracts. 20 For the purpose of a bachelor’s thesis in English, you will have to write three abstracts. Two abstracts are unstructured informative, one in English and the other in Czech. The third abstract is an extended informative abstract in Czech, yet its form is fitted to the purpose of a bachelor’s thesis, which means it will be slightly different then an extended abstract of a research paper. No matter which of those two abstracts you write, their structure is the same: • introducing the topic, stating the problem and its background, • purpose of the thesis, motivation, and aims, • summary of individual chapters including your critical standpoints or conclusions, • future outlook, recommendations, applications in practice, next steps in research. An unstructured informative abstract involves no more than one sentence for each of the points above, resulting in a paragraph of 120–200 words. An extended informative abstract 21 will keep the structure, yet will be more detailed, and will thus result in one or two pages of text. Let us now inspect two of bachelor’s thesis abstracts and analyze them. The first one is from a thesis called Semantic Segmentation of Images from Off-road Environment (Spilková, 2024). 20 Some information can be found, for example, here: https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/summary-text/abstract/. 21 Typical research paper extended abstracts look like minipapers. They have all parts papers do, including title, introduction, conclusion, and references. Some of these abstracts also have their own one-paragraph abstract. The reason is that these are sent to journal reviewers or conference organizers before the actual paper is written. As this is not your situation, your extended abstract will not include a title or references. 54 Original version The main focus of the bachelor’s thesis is to explore different semantic segmentation methods of off-road terrain images. Structure and commentary 1 Topic and problem Only the topic is mentioned but no problem to base the thesis on. Also, the beginning is a typical cliché phrase (The main focus of the bachelor’s thesis is to), delaying the keywords by eight words. 2 Purpose and motivation As the author does not state any problem, the thesis also lacks any kind of motivation to mend or remedy such a problem. In the theoretical survey are described the basic principles of semantic segmentation, multiple approaches to the problem, the methods of semantic segmentation and different datasets. The process of evaluating and training multiple models with various parameters and the creation of a new evaluating dataset are described next. The attained results are compared to the results from the theoretical survey and the next steps for improving the accuracy of the models are proposed. 3 Summary of chapters The mistake the author makes is that she states what she did, but never how, why, or with what result. Disregarding the Czech word order (In the theoretical survey are described the basic principles – adverbial-verbsubject), the author should have said what the basic principles are and what approaches and methods there are. Instead of saying that models are evaluated, she should have presented how they were evaluated, based on what criteria, and why a new dataset was needed. Finally, comparing the results of a practical task with a theoretical survey is a necessary demand that does not need to be stated. Rather, the author should have assessed how her practical task performed in comparison to the theory. (Spilková, 2024, n.p.) 4 Future outlook and recommendations Missing completely. Even though my analysis of the previous example featured a lot of criticism, it must be said that this is a typical case among bachelor’s thesis abstracts. The following one, from a thesis called Waste Heat Recovery from an Industrial Laundry Dryer (Kyzlinková, 2023), corresponds to the ideal abstract structure much better. 55 Original version On a daily basis we listen to issues associated with energy prices constantly increasing, nonrenewable resources running out and challenges to utilize every joule of energy possible. These issues can be addressed by waste heat recovery which has become the main topic of this thesis. Structure and commentary 1 Topic Even though the author does not start the first sentence with keywords, she avoids the usual clichés, which makes the hook sound fresh. She proceeds to naming the topic, i.e., waste heat recovery. The ideal situation would be to recover all the heat that industrial processes release without use. The thesis focuses on laundry industry and especially waste heat recovery from industrial laundry dryers. The heat in the flue gas from dryers is not used in laundries mainly because it contains small textile particles from laundry and there is a risk of fouling of the waste heat recovery system. The thesis assesses the potential benefit of using this waste heat. 2 Problem and motivation Quite smartly, the author links the problem to the motivation for writing the thesis. Waste heat from industrial laundry dryers is not recovered because it contains textile particles. The question now is what measures should be taken to make it work. The main focus was on calculation of waste heat from multiple laundry dryers located in an industrial laundry facility as well as its economic evaluation. It was found that the recovery of this waste heat can bring up to 89 kW of heat output in this case study. Recuperated heat can be utilized for water heating, and thereby reduce the operating costs of the process. A shell and tube heat exchanger was proposed as the best solution if cleaned daily to minimize presence of the textile residues. 3 Summary of chapters Notice that the author does not waste time and space by referring to the chapters, e.g., The first chapter deals with … Rather she directly points the reader’s attention to the content, i.e., the calculation of waste heat, particularly its economic aspect. She then states the results of her calculations and proposes a solution. The result of the thesis can find application in a number of laundry facilities. (adapted from Kyzlinková, 2023, n.p.) 4 Application Even though the application is only one sentence, it is sufficient and, based on the above text, well founded. 62 6.2 Comparative strategies Whenever there is a need to compare items in writing, there are two strategies available, no matter how long the text. A block structure takes each item to be compared and enumerates all its features (points). It then moves to the next item to be compared and once again enumerates all points concerning this item. Thus blocks (e.g., paragraphs) of points about each item are created. A point-by-point structure reverses the order. It takes each point or feature related to the central research question and traces it in each of the items to be compared. Block structure • Paragraph 1: Item 1 featuring o point A o point B o point C • Paragraph 2: Item 2 featuring o point A o point B o point C Point-by-point structure • Paragraph 1: Point A as a feature of o item A o item B • Paragraph 2: Point B as a feature of o item A o item B • Paragraph 3: Point C as a feature of o item A o item B Below are two examples of each of the structures above. The first is a comparison of two models of neural networks for image stitching – keypoint detection and homography estimation. The points of comparison for each item are training, elements, and architecture. The second is a point-by-point structure. Two types of natural gas storage tanks – spherical and membrane – are compared by the points of transport effectiveness, space occupation, and visibility. Block structure As keypoint detection is one of the most crucial steps in image stitching, an appropriate detector is needed. The purpose of this model is to get familiar with feature detection. This neural network was trained unsupervised with no labels. The architecture of the neural network consists of an encoder and a decoder with a sigmoid on the output layer. The model is simple; the encoder contains three convolutional layers and the decoder three transpose convolutional layers. […] The second model that was proposed is a neural network for homography matrix estimation. This model was trained to compute the homography Point-by-point structure LNG storage tanks can be compared based on several aspects. The first one taken into consideration is their transport effectiveness. This aspect is significantly influenced by the BOR (boil-off rate – evaporation of the volume per day), which is specified as max. 0.15% at the sea water temperature of 32°C and ambient temperature of 45°C. Both most frequently used construction models, spherical and membrane, easily satisfy this condition. […] How much space is occupied by a tank plays a great role. While spherical tanks provide better safety 63 matrix between two images The authors of SuperGlue and SuperPoint proposed an architecture for homography estimation [5]. This model consists of convolutional layers and produces a 4-point parameterization of the homography. The architecture of this model will be adapted with a change in an output layer. The proposed model will be producing a classic 3 × 3 matrix. (adapted from Držíková, 2023, pp. 30–31) and thus use only one barrier, their shape does not fit the ship hull and, in contrast membrane storage tanks, provide inappropriate space occupation. LNG storage tanks can also be compared by the visibility from the ship bridge. This aspect is a major disadvantage of spherical tanks because their upper half is above the board (Fig. 7). This creates a “blind spot” in the view, which is the reason why ships with spherical storage tanks have the first tank in the shape of an ideal sphere, not blocking the view [13]. (translated from Přibyl, 2017, p. 23) 64 6.3 Numbers in technical writing The first step is to realize a distinction between numbers used for quantities and numbers used for values. In the phrase four samples each 4 mm long, the number of samples denotes their quantity, and their length is a value. Quantities Even though rules differ, quantities up to ten are always written as words. Quantities at the beginning of sentences are also always written as words. The three zeros for thousands are separated by a space, and millions and billions are usually a combination of a numeral and a word denoting the particular large quantity. Incorrect Set 1 consists of 4 billets with the dimensions of 14 mm in width, 4 mm in height and 66 mm in length. Nitrogen has 7-times higher molecular weight than helium. 35 experimental runs were made. 35 thousand $1.3 000 000 000 Correct Set 1 consists of four billets with the dimensions of 14 mm in width, 4 mm in height and 66 mm in length. Nitrogen is seven times heavier than helium. Thirty-five experimental runs were made. 35 000 $1.3 billion When you refer to parts of printed materials, however, the phrase has no article, capital letter of the part, and the appropriate numeral: Chapter 5, Section 2, Figure 6 or Fig. 6, Table 9 or Tab. 9. Incorrect The Fig. 7 shows … The exact values can be found in the Table 11. Correct Fig. 7 shows … The exact values can be found in Table 11. Values All values that have been measured or calculated are expressed by numerals even if they are lower than 10. If the numeral is followed by a unit of measure, there is a space between them, with the exception of % for percentages, k for thousands in monetary values, and ° for degrees. It is best to insert non-breaking spaces to ensure the expression is not cut in half and moved to the next line. Do not abbreviate a unit that follows an approximate value. If you express dimensions, use a sign for dimensions, not letter x. 65 830 MHZ 9 µg 200 Å 52% $100k 56° 15°C tens of kilohertz, thousands of volts, several millimeters a metal sample with the dimensions 3 cm × 5 cm × 6 cm If you want to make a noun phrase with a numerical expression, you must hyphenate it. Only percentages or too long, complicated expressions are not hyphenated. If an indefinite article precedes such an expression, it is governed by the rules for pronunciation, i.e., a before consonants and an before vowels. a 5-mm-long thread, an 8.5-t weight set a 52% increase, a 25 wt.% solution Spans use dashes, not hyphens. Also, do not combine a dashed expression with prepositions from or between. Incorrect with temperatures 5-25°C from 2008-2013 between 11-17 Correct with temperatures of 5–25°C from 2008 to 2013 between 11 and 13 Symbols (Greek or Latin letters) for physical quantities and mathematical concepts are italicized in text. However, a problem with articles arises. Either there is no article before the name of the physical entity and its symbol because the quantity is then defined by the symbol, or there is a definite article before the name of the physical quantity and its symbol is any added within commas; thus it is an additional element which can be left out. Incorrect The force f varied between 15 pN and 17 pN. The electric potential φ is 12 V. Since the vectors Gi are orthogonal … an operator with the domain H2 Correct Force f varied between 15 pN and 17 pN. The force, f, varied between 15 pN and 17 pN. Electric potential φ is 12 V. The electric potential, φ, is 12 V. Since vectors Gi are orthogonal … an operator with domain H2 For more detailed information on quantities and units, consult the International Standards ISO 80000-1:2022 and ISO 80000-2:2019. 66 6.4 The language of mathematics Writing mathematics or even the whole thesis on a mathematical topic is usually considered a special kind of text or a genre. Yet, lots of things already stated in previous chapters are applicable. Mathematical writing must primarily be well-organized. It is not only a list of calculations. The text between the calculations gives them logic and structure. Calculations without context or explanations demonstrate that you have spent time doing mathematics, but it does not mean that you will be understood. Without the accompanying text, you do not communicate your ideas. For this reason, do not underestimate the value of text around your equations and formulas. The text gives your mathematical effort meaning. Good academic writing presents a question and offers an answer. Such is also the structure of writing in mathematics, primarily expressed in the introduction. As you might remember, a good introduction states a topic, gives its background, presents a problem and its significance, and offers a solution. Such is also the essential structure of mathematical papers. Their introductions may be much shorter than in other fields but good mathematicians do not assume that their readers know everything they do; thus, they give some background to the issue they study. After describing the problem, they also state its significance. This is very important for you as students of applied mathematics. You must be aware of the larger picture. How will your calculations be used and what will they help to accomplish in real-life conditions? Some mathematical texts then state how the solution will be achieved and end here. Others also preview the actual end result. This is a choice mathematicians are entitled to. If the end result is the most important element, you may wish to place it to the end of the introduction in order to entice the reader. In other instances, however, the method of arriving at a result is the more important part. In this case, the introduction should briefly preview the method, but you can leave the result to the end. The crucial question is mathematics is how much to write. The key to this question is, once again, thinking about the readers. On the one hand, you should not assume that the readers are familiar with the problem you are solving. Unlike younger students, your professor might but they also want you to show that you know what you write about. On the other hand, your writing must remain relevant to the problem at hand. Decide which details you need to include and which is too trivial to be omitted. In my experience, students writing on mathematics tend to overuse the present simple verb tense. It is true that mathematical language is very formulaic, i.e., uses fixed expressions. Calculation are, indeed, introduced by sentences in present simple and reasoning proceeds in the same verb tense. However, when you make a distinction between solutions which were previously proposed and your solution which you propose now or will propose further on in the thesis, you must use appropriate verb tenses, past simple and present or future simple respectively. The same applies to the distinction between procedures which are typically undertaken (present simple) to solve a problem and those which you undertook (past simple). Another linguistic feature that writers in mathematics notoriously overuse is we. Once again, due to fixed formulaic expressions, mathematics does indeed use we and us very often, e.g., let us consider, we denote. Such expressions have a didactic charge as if you as the writer take the reader by the hand and together you investigate the problem step by step. However, when you 67 use we outside of presenting your mathematical reasoning, you run the risk of sounding too archaic. For example, an announcement of your aim in the introduction we will analyze the population by numerical methods can easily be exchanged for the population will be analyzed by numerical methods. In English, the passive always wins. Here are examples of expressions typically used in mathematical writing. Definition • Set S is dense if … • Set S is called / is said to be dense if … • We call a set dense if … • We call m the product measure. • Let f be given/defined by f = … • We define T to be AB + CD. • Let E = Lf, where f is … • Let us define E as … Notation • We will denote by Z the set … • Let us denote by Z the set … • Let Z denote the set … • The closure of A will be denoted by … • The notation aRb means that … • Here and subsequently, K denotes … • Throughout the proof, K stands for … • Let us introduce temporary notation Ff for Gg. Property • The/An element such that … • The/An element with the property that … • The/An element satisfying LF = … • The/An element all of whose subsets are … • The/An element described by equations … • Both X and Y are finite. • Neither X nor Y is finite. • None of the functions, Fi, is finite. • Set X is not finite; nor/neither is Y. • We conclude that X is empty; so is Y. • Hence X belongs to Y, but Z does not. 68 Assumption, condition, convention • We will make the following assumptions: … • The following assumption will be needed throughout the paper: … • Unless otherwise stated / Until further notice, we assume that … • In the remainder of this section, we assume g to be … • …, where g is subject to / satisfies the condition that Lg = 0. • Now, eq. (4) holds under the condition that … / under some further restrictions on … • It is understood that r ≠ 1. Theorem formulation • Let M be … Then …, provided that m ≠ 1. • Suppose that … Then …, unless m = 1. • Assume that … Then …, with g satisfying … • Furthermore/Moreover, … • Accordingly/Thus, … • Let assumptions 1–5 hold. Then … • Let us mention two important consequences of the theorem. Arguments • By the definition of … • By assumption, … • By a similar argument, … • Theorem 4 shows/yields/implies that f = … • Since/As f is compact, it follows that … • It is compact, and consequently M = N. • We can conclude from eq. (5) that …, hence that …, and finally that … • The same reasoning applies to … • The proof is strongly dependent on the assumption that … Good writing always observes the rules of grammar, and mathematics is no exception. Even mathematics is written in proper sentences and paragraphs. Mathematical symbols correspond to words (parts of speech in a sentence). Let us consider the following expression. 1 + 1 = 2. One plus one equals two. This is a whole sentence where = stands for the verb equals. As such, it is followed by a full stop. Another expression may be this one, 5x2 – 10y, which is pronounced as five x to the power of two minus ten y. There is no verb in this expression, which is the reason why it is treated as a noun and in the preceding sentence it is 69 separated by commas. Thus, it is important to read formulas and equations out loud and transcribe your reading with the rules of grammar to a written form. Mathematical expressions, for the same reason of clear orientation in the text, are presented on a new line in the middle of the page. 23 This, however, does not mean that paragraphs are not observed. On the contrary! Below is a formatting omission, which is quite common in student’s works. Incorrect Let V be an n-dimensional vector space over ground field K, and let Q be the quadratic form of V. By the Clifford algebra, it is understood as T (V) / I (Q) = T (V) / (v ⊗ v – Q (v) 1) (2.6) Where T (V) is a tensor algebra of vector space V, I (Q) is a two-sided ideal generated by the quadratic form Q and 1 is the multiplicative identity in V. Correct Let V be an n-dimensional vector space over ground field K, and let Q be the quadratic form of V. By the Clifford algebra, it is understood as T (V) / I (Q) = T (V) / (v ⊗ v – Q (v) 1), (2.6) where T (V) is a tensor algebra of vector space V, I (Q) is a two-sided ideal generated by the quadratic form Q and 1 is the multiplicative identity in V. (adapted from Michálek, 2023, p. 17) There are three mistakes in the incorrect version. First, the equation must be followed by a comma which separates it from the explanation, which in grammatical terms is a non-defining relative clause. The other two mistakes concern the relative pronoun where. As the sentence continues, where cannot be spelled with a capital letter or be set off as a new paragraph. For more detailed information on mathematics in type consult the International Standards ISO 80000-1:2022 and ISO 80000-2:2019. 23 If you are in the field of mathematics, you probably know that you can use LaTeX or other similar software to help you with formatting and symbols. 70 6.5 Visuals For convenience, what is understood as a visual here is any element that stands out and is set apart from the surrounding continuous text. Visuals include the following categories. 1 Figures (illustrations, photographs, schemes, charts, graphs, maps) 2 Tables (including matrices) 3 Code/Source/Program listings 4 Algorithms 5 Mathematical expressions Visuals should be placed as close to the accompanying text as possible. In the text, do not only refer to a visual by such phrases as in the figure below but use numbering, e.g., in Fig. 4. 24 Also, referring to visuals by numbers helps you to refer back in your writing (e.g., in the discussion). Each category of visuals is numbered separately. In the text, both abbreviated and whole words may be used; just be consistent. 1 figure 12 or fig. 12, Figure 12 or Fig. 12 (You can use the capital letter if you consider the reference the name of the visual as used in the caption.) 2 table 6 or tab. 6, Table 6 or Tab. 6 3 listing 9 or Listing 9 4 algorithm 8 or Algorithm 8 5 equation (5) or eq. (5) (Capital letters are not usual in referring to mathematical expressions.) If you decide to include an appendix in your thesis, figures in it should be numbered A.1, A.2, etc. Figures must be clearly visible. The usual recommended minimum resolution is 300 DPI. Caution is advised when adopting a figure from the literature and displaying it in your own text. For most illustrations, photographs, or even graphs, it is not enough to cite the source. Such visual material is subject to copyright, which means that you must have the author’s permission to use it in your work. If referring to another author’s figure which is absolutely necessary, consider doing it only in the text. Saying Klem illustrates his application architecture by a scheme where a strength sports client or coach takes a photograph of the trainee’s body pose and sends it to a server, getting back information about the correctness of the pose (2024, p. 42) may be quite sufficient. Alternatively, you can consider producing your own version of the visual and citing the original source as an inspiration. Visuals (primarily figures and tables) are accompanied by captions. A caption is an explanatory text appearing outside the visual. Captions for figures are usually below, but for other visuals they appear above them. A caption may consist of a word, a phrase, an incomplete or complete sentence, several sentences, or a combination. No punctuation is necessary when the caption is not a complete sentence. If there is one complete sentence or more, include closing punctuation at the end. A table should be simple so that even a reader unfamiliar with your text should be able to make general sense of it. Tables are used for presenting a large amount of similar data so that it can be set side by side and compared. To make a clear table, it is recommended to limit the number 24 The visual material in this publication has not been numbered because it is not the genre of a research report but a textbook where visuals are not numbered. 71 of rules (horizontal and vertical lines separating cells) as in the example below where the author omitted the vertical rules. Table titles, unlike figure captions, are placed above the table and should be in a noun form (phrases not sentences). Table 11. A summary of devices used in experiments and evaluation sessions (adapted from Klem, 2024, p. 86)25 When you include code listings in your thesis text, you must ensure readability, clarity, and proper formatting. The following tips will be connected to the example below. (Klem, 2024, p. 33)26 • In order to distinguish the code from the surrounding text, use monospaced (fixed-width) font. In the example above, the author used Courier. • Optionally, you can also number the code lines to ensure better orientation. • Avoid including long code listings. Include only that part which is necessary for understanding. If you consider the full listing relevant for the thesis, move it to the appendix. 25 Reproduced with author’s permission. 26 Reproduced with author’s permission. 78 There is a risk of water levels falling again, in which case the local authorities will have to consider rationing. That No matter whether used as a relative pronoun in a defining relative clause or a conjunction in an object clause, that is never preceded by a comma. Coltan is a dull black metallic ore that contains the elements niobium and tantalum. This means that the interfacial bond is strong. Colons Colons are primarily used for giving explanations, presenting lists, and introducing quotations. Northrop presents a general definition of waste heat: “energy generated during industrial processes as a byproduct, released into the atmosphere or into the sewer without any use” (2003, p. 35). The following methods were suggested to be combined: FEA, gait analysis, and reverse engineering techniques. Dashes Dashes can be used for separating additional information (usually with spaces around them). Also, they are used in spans (without spaces). The most important thing is not to confuse the character with that of a hyphen. Hyphens are short -. Dashes are long –. Hideo Suzuki – one of Japan’s leasing entrepreneurs – was Senco’s main financial backer. 5–20 cm pp. 125–36 Full stops (periods) Apart from indicating the end of a sentence, full stops are used for Latin abbreviations and as a decimal point. i.e. e.g. p. 56 pp. 125–36 0.56 mm 89.6% Hyphens Hyphens are used for compound adjectives, particularly before nouns, for prefixes, and for noun phrases containing a unit (e.g., year, millimeter, gram). high-tech designs, lower-limb prosthesis, single-use medicine vials pre-heated furnace, counter-clockwise movement, co-author a 25-year-old patient, 60-gram samples, a 20-meter-long platform 79 Quotation marks (inverted commas) Quotation marks are typically used to mark direct speech. Technical texts do not feature direct quotations very often which is why the rules presented here are rather general and governed by American English (in science journals the most often used variety). Upper double quotation marks are considered standard. Also, use the type curled inside, not outside like in Czech. All punctuation always stays inside the quotation marks. As Higson (2009, p. 56) states, “the risk of injury can be reduced by the use of a safety harness.” As Higson (2009, p. 56) states: “The risk of injury can be reduced by the use of a safety harness.” The term “passive resistance,” often open to misinterpretation, is used by … Quotation marks are sometimes used to mark phrases with a connotation. These can be ironical words or not yet well-established terms. The danger here is overemphasizing such phrases by combining the quotation marks with so-called. Choose only one. Incorrect the so-called “Internet generation” Correct the “Internet generation” the so-called Internet generation Semicolons Sometimes in Czech we connect two independent sentences by a comma. This practice is considered stylistically incorrect in English. You must either separate the sentences into two independent ones or make their relationship explicit by including a conjunction. If you want to keep the relationship hidden, only implied, you must use a semicolon. Incorrect In the first experiment the samples were pre-heated, in the subsequent experiments they were not. Correct In the first experiment the samples were pre-heated. In the subsequent experiments they were not. In the first experiment the samples were pre-heated, but in the subsequent experiments they were not. In the first experiment the samples were pre-heated; in the subsequent experiments they were not. 80 6.7 Frequent mistakes Allow Verbs allow, enable, and permit always need to be followed a grammatical object, either a thing or a person, and a full infinitive. Incorrect The python-based application allows analyzing particular sequences … These data analysis methods enable to incorporate the whole spectral structure. It is, therefore, necessary to develop an approach that permits to estimate the current situation. Correct The python-based application allows us to analyze particular sequences … These data analysis methods enable an incorporation of the whole spectral structure. It is, therefore, necessary to develop an approach that permits the current situation to be estimated. Apply Verb apply in the sense of practically using something for a purpose only collocates with preposition to. Incorrect The concept of Rated Energy Consumption is applied on a natural gas dehydration unit. Correct The concept of Rated Energy Consumption is applied to a natural gas dehydration unit. Automatization Automatization is a Czenglish hybrid. The verb is to automate; the noun is automation. Several other words similar in form to their Czech counterparts can pose such problems. Incorrect authorizate automatization determinate occupate optimalize Correct authorize → authorization automate → automation determine → determination occupy → occupation optimize → optimization Consider Consider is not followed by as, unlike its synonym regard. Incorrect Other WtE facilities can be considered as competing facilities. Correct Other WtE facilities can be considered competing facilities. 81 Other WtE facilities can be regarded as competing facilities. Count Counting refers to only simple algebra, such as counting on your fingers or counting how many trees there are in a garden. Complicated mathematical operations are calculated. Incorrect The length sequence could be counted directly in the script. Correct The length sequence could be calculated directly in the script. Countability First, lots of words related to the academic environment are uncountable: research, data, software, equipment, information. None of these can be preceded by an indefinite article. If you want make them plural, you must add another noun to make a noun phrase, e.g., research projects. Second, number is a modifier for countables, and amount for uncountables. Third, word craft, meaning vehicle, is countable, but its singular and plural are the same. Incorrect an expensive equipment an excessive amount of necessary samples a great number of informations These complex software are not limited to simulating ... Many spacecrafts use multi-layer insulation. Correct expensive equipment an excessive number of necessary samples a great amount of information These complex software packages/applications are not limited to simulating ... Many spacecraft use multi-layer insulation. Different Different can only be used if the described items are completely dissimilar: The tested items were different in size and weight. If you want to say that there are many items, use various. Incorrect Such software allows simulation of robots by different manufacturers. The presented method was applied to cavitation bubbles of different radii (from 5 µm to 100 µm). Correct Such software allows simulation of robots by various manufacturers. The presented method was applied to cavitation bubbles of various radii (from 5 µm to 100 µm). 82 Effectivity Word effectivity does not exist in English. The correct form for describing the production of a desired result is effectiveness. However, there is also efficiency, which is the production of a desired result without wasting materials, time, or energy. Incorrect the effectivity of the proposed solution the effectivity of the turbocharger Correct the effectiveness of a proposed solution the efficiency of the turbocharger Focus Verb focus is followed by preposition on and used in the active voice when describing the topic of text. Incorrect This bachelor’s thesis is focused to the optimization of … Correct This bachelor’s thesis focuses on the optimization of … For comparison This expression is a translation from Czech that does not work in English. It must be substituted by other expressions. Incorrect For comparison, four models were calibrated. Correct For the purpose of comparison / For comparison purposes / To compare / To make a comparison, four models were calibrated. For example + etc. If you list several items to illustrate your point, do not combine expressions for example and etc., as you thus double the signposting phrase. Use either one or the other. Incorrect The test conditions are constantly changing, for example, the weather, the road surface temperature, the driver’s behavior, etc. Correct The test conditions are constantly changing, for example, the weather, the road surface temperature, or the driver’s behavior. The test conditions, the weather, the road surface temperature, the driver’s behavior, etc., are constantly changing. 83 However However (also nevertheless and nonetheless) is an adverbial signaling contrast. It is not a conjunction, which means it cannot be used in place of but. It can be put anywhere in a sentence where the emphasis is needed and must always be separated by commas. Incorrect Differences in water balance are the only distinct inconsistency, however this was caused by inaccurate design. Correct Differences in water balance are the only distinct inconsistency. However, this was caused by inaccurate design. Differences in water balance are the only distinct inconsistency. This was, however, caused by inaccurate design. Increasing of Nouns derived from verbs pertaining to a change in values have the same form as their verbs: an increase, a decrease, a rise, a fall, a drop, a decline. The only one having a different form than its verb is a growth. Also, these nouns are followed by preposition in indicating the area of change. Incorrect The greatest increasing of amplitudes occurred between 36 and 42 seconds. Correct The greatest increase in amplitudes occurred between 36 and 42 seconds. Irregular plurals Lots of words in scientific English come from Greek or Latin. Many of them still keep their original plural form. Singular analysis axis crisis thesis hypothesis criterion phenomenon echo modulus radius focus nucleus stimulus bacterium medium maximum minimum spectrum Plural analyses axes crises theses hypotheses criteria phenomena echoes moduli radii foci nuclei stimuli bacteria media maxima minima spectra 84 appendix index helix matrix vortex series species appendices indices helices matrices vortices series species Look like The phrasal verb describing appearance collocates with what, not how. Incorrect The photograph in Fig. 3 shows how the testing platform looks like. Correct The photograph in Fig. 3 shows what the testing platform looks like. Normal Normal is only an adjective in English. The noun is norm. Incorrect The strain increment directions differ from the normal. Correct The strain increment directions differ from the norm. Praxis Praxis is the original Greek word which refers to the practice of an art, science, or skill. In this form, as the practical application of theory, however, it is used in abstract, humanistic, or philosophical contexts, such as democratic praxis or revolutionary praxis. In the meaning of actual, hands-on application in the industry, the English equivalent, practice, is used. You can also come up with other expressions Incorrect The prototype was tested in praxis. Correct The prototype was tested in practice. The prototype was practically tested. The prototype was tested in real-life conditions. The prototype was tested in field conditions. 85 Problematics There is no such word as problematics in English. It is a problem or an issue. Also, very often these are redundant words which can simply be left out. Incorrect This review deals with the problematics of computational techniques used for … Correct This review deals with the issue of computational techniques used for … Realize Realize mostly means to become fully aware of something. The meaning of causing something to happen is limited to only a few expressions in English. For this reason, rather use verbs to create, to deploy, to implement, or to put something into practice. Incorrect The square ice model was successfully realized by a vertical separation of two sublattices. The described approach of waste composition will be realized on a case study at a micro-regional level. Correct The square ice model was successfully created by a vertical separation of two sublattices.… The described approach of waste composition will be implemented into a case study at a micro-regional level. The described approach of waste composition will be deployed as a case study at a micro-regional level. Respectively Respectively does not refer to an alternative. This meaning is conveyed by or, or rather, in other words, or more precisely. Respectively is used to connect two separate sets of items and say that the latter set refers to the former in the same order of the items given. Holmes and Watson, the detective and the doctor, respectively means that Holmes is the detective and Watson the doctor, never the reverse. Also, respectively is always separated by commas. Incorrect Computation detection of the adsorbate’s position requires three, respectively two, resonant frequencies. Both direct and indirect CO2 emissions could be reduced by 25% and 15%, respectively while maintaining product quality. Correct Computation detection of the adsorbate’s position requires three, or at least two, resonant frequencies. Both direct and indirect CO2 emissions could be reduced by 25% and 15%, respectively, while maintaining product quality. 86 Shortcut A route geographically shorter than the original one is a shortcut. Initials used instead of a long phase are an abbreviation. Incorrect SLM is a shortcut for Selective Laser Melting, which is an increasingly used method of additive manufacturing. Correct SLM is an abbreviation for Selective Laser Melting, which is an increasingly used method of additive manufacturing. Solve Czech native speakers have a tendency to overuse the verb solve. The most frequent collocations in English are to solve a problem, a puzzle, a mystery, an equation, a crime, a crisis, an issue, a riddle, a murder, a case. In other instances, try to come up with a paraphrase, such as to deal with, to perform, to carry out, to address, to investigate, or just to do. Also, the noun solution is followed by to, not of. Incorrect The CDF analysis was solved in the OpenFoam-dev software. Various numerical schemes have been proposed to obtain numerical solutions of some specific cases of cavitation. Correct The CDF analysis was carried out / was performed in the OpenFoam-dev software. Various numerical schemes have been proposed to obtain numerical solutions to some specific cases of cavitation. Suggest, propose, recommend These verbs, when referring to giving an incentive for consideration, can be followed by several constructions. The safest ones are an -ing form or a clause with should. Never are they followed by an infinitive. Incorrect I suggest to approach this issue from a different direction. It is recommended to adopt several measures. Correct I suggest approaching this issue from a different direction. It is recommended that several measures should be adopted. Adopting several measures is recommended. Theoretical concepts Names of theoretical concepts follow two patterns in English. They can either be formed with possessives, e.g., Newton’s laws of motion, or there is a definite article, the name of the person, and the concept, e.g., the Euler equations. Which of these two patterns is customary in a particular case cannot easily be determined. However, the editors of Wikipedia do a great job 87 of checking these concepts and even adding variants if there are any. If two or more variants are possible, choose one and use it consistently. The key is to never make a hybrid: the Euler’s equations. Here are some typical examples. Possessive Euler’s formula Euler’s theorem Keller’s reagent Lagrange’s theorem Lagrange’s resolvent Hooke’s law Pontryagin's maximum principle Rodrigues’ rotation formula Young’s modulus The + name the Denavit-Hartenberg parameters the Euler equations the Euler-Lagrange equation the Lagrange resolvent the Lagrange interpolating polynomial the Newton-Cotes method of numerical integration a Klein geometry (Indefinite article sis used because more such pairs are possible.) The only exception where you can combine a definite article and possession is when you write about a special kind of the concept. Then there can be, for example, the apparent Young's modulus, the calculated Young's modulus, the experimentally determined Young's modulus. The adjective referring to the continuing tradition based on a particular principle is then formed by -ian, e.g., Newtonian physics, Lagrangian mechanics, Eulerian approach. That When you use that is academic writing, it always refers to something very distant. It can be distant historically, or it can be an opinion with which you do not agree. If you simply follow the idea from a previous sentence without implying any contradiction, use this. Incorrect Such uncertainties result in a non-linear constraint, i.e., two variables. That can lead to a challenging optimization problem. Correct Such uncertainties result in a non-linear constraint, i.e., two variables. This can lead to a challenging optimization problem. Usage Usage is a noun with limited use. It refers to a customary or firmly established practice, especially the customary manner in which words are used in a language. When you simply refer to an act of using or to a purpose for which something is utilized, use is the correct choice. Incorrect In the following conditions, the usage of resin is limited. These materials have many possible usages. Correct In the following conditions, the use of resin is rather limited. These materials have many possible uses. 94 o At the same time, … / Simultaneously, … o next/then/subsequently o in the next/following stage/phase/step o later / following this o when / as soon as / after o Eventually, … / Finally, … / Lastly, … Classifying • Groups: o types o kinds o parts o classes o components o features o categories o sorts o varieties • Verbal structures: o X consists / is composed of ... o X comprises ... o X can be divided/classified/categorized into Xi, Xii ... o Xi may be classified/categorized as ... o Xi belongs to a group of ... o X is distinct from Y in ... o X may be differentiated from Y by ... o X includes A, B, and C. o A, B, and C fall under the heading of X. o A, B, and C fall into the same group. • Principle of classification: o according to o on the basis of o depending on o based on a criterion of Examples • X is shown/exemplified/illustrated/demonstrated by Y. • Y shows/exemplifies/illustrates/demonstrates X. • Smith gives/presents an example of ... • For example/instance, ... • ... , such as / for example / e.g., X and Y, ... 95 Purpose • for the purpose(s) of ... • subordinate clause of purpose: o (in order / so as) to + infinitive We use to, in order to and so as to + infinitive when the subject of both clauses is the same. Benton has defined quality control standards in order to meet minimum product specifications. Energy is generated from different fuels so as to avoid reliance on one source. o so that / in order that followed by a verb We use so that or in order that where the subject of the clauses is different. These clauses usually include modal verbs can (for present) or could (for past). Electricity producers are able to exchange power so that one utility can assist another. We sample and monitor all processes so that customer needs are exceeded. o for + noun followed by an infinitive + to For zero defects to be achieved, we will have to introduce tighter prevention controls. (= So that zero defects can be achieved, we ...) Describing visual information (graphs, tables, figures) • The graph in Fig. 1 shows / illustrates / indicates / demonstrates / reflects / gives information about ... / gives a breakdown of X into ... / presents / describes ... • The value of X is/stands at 68. • Describing trends (past trends in past simple, present trends in present continuous): o X increased / grew / rose / went up by 25% (25 %). o X decreased / fell /declined / went down from 200 to 155. o There was an increase/growth/rise in X. o There was a decrease/fall/decline by 25%. • Adjectives and adverbs modifying “increase” and “decrease”: o slight/slightly o steady/steadily o gradual/gradually o dramatic/dramatically o significant/significantly o radical/radically o sharp/sharply o steep/steeply 96 Cause → effect • X causes Y. • X accounts for Y. • X leads to Y. • X results in Y. • X brings about Y. • X gives rise to Y. • X is responsible for Y. • consequently • therefore • this/which is why • thus • cause/origin of • reason for Effect ← cause • Y results from X. • Y arises from X. • Y is attributable to X. • Y stems from X. • as a consequence of • as a result of • because • For/Since/As (at the beginning of a sentence) • because of/on account of/owing to/due to • thanks to Comparison • Introductory adverbials: o In comparison, ... (separated by a comma) o In contrast, ... o Similarly, ... • Comparative phrases: o in comparison to/with o in contrast to/with o X is similar to Y. o X is the same as Y. o X is different from Y. o X is like/unlike Y. o X behaves in the same way as Y. o on the one hand ... on the other hand • Sentence structures: o adjective -er (+ than) + phrase / clause In general, these products need to be cheaper than revolutionary ones. 97 o more/less adjective + than Regular users are less adventurous than innovators. o not as + adjective + as + phrase / clause The risks for these products are not as high as for the revolutionary products. o too + adjective + toclause This product is too expensive to succeed among regular customers. o adjective + enough + toclause A product needs to be different enough from its competitors to be interesting to consumers. • Conjunctions: o but, while, whereas, not only ... but also Establishing the importance of the topic • X is the main/leading/primary/ major cause of … • Xs are among the most widely used / commonly discussed / well-known / well-documented / widespread / commonly investigated types of … • X is increasingly becoming / is set to become a vital factor in … • Xs are undergoing a revolution / are generating considerable interest in terms of … • X has many uses/roles/applications in the field of … • A striking/useful/remarkable feature of … Outlining the history of X • Initial / Preliminary / The first studies of X considered it to be … • Until now / For many years / Since 1993 X has been seen as … • X has received much attention in the last decade due to … • In the past five years / Since 2015, there has been a rapid rise in the use of Xs. • The past decade has seen a renewed importance in X … • Recent developments in findings regarding X have led to … Outlining the future • The next decade is likely to see/witness a considerable rise in X. • ln the next few years X will become … • By 2025 / Within the next ten years, X will have become an important component in … • X will soon/shortly/rapidly/inevitably be an issue that … 98 Indicating the gap in research and possible limitations • Previous works have only focused on / have been limited to … • A challenging / An intriguing / An important / A neglected area in the field of … • Current solutions to X are inconsistent/inadequate/incorrect/ ineffective/inefficient/over-simplistic/unsatisfactory … • The characteristics of X are not well/fully investigated. • Techniques to solve X are computationally demanding / subject to high overheads / time consuming / impractical / frequently unfeasible. • In spite of / Despite its shortcomings, this method has been widely applied to … However, there is still a need for … • To date / Until now this methodology has only been applied to … Stating the aim • This work/thesis outlines/proposes/describes/presents a new approach to … • This work/thesis examines / focuses on / discusses / investigates how to solve … • The present thesis aims to validate / call into question findings regarding … • X is described/analyzed/computed/introduced … in order to … Explaining terminology • The term X is generally understood to mean … • X usually refers to … • Molotov [3] uses the term X to denominate/determine … • Vitous [15] provides / puts forward / proposes a new definition of X in which … • In broad/general terms, X can be defined as a way to … Giving the structure of the thesis • This thesis is organized as follows: … • This thesis is divided into five sections. • The first section / Section 1 gives a brief overview of … • The second section examines/analyses … • In the third section a case study is presented. • This chapter begins by examining … 99 Providing the state of the art • There is a considerable/vast amount of literature on … • What is known about X is largely based on … • Very little is known about… • Various approaches have been proposed / put forward to solve this issue. • In their seminal/groundbreaking/cutting-edge paper … • The first investigations into / studies on X found that … • Experiments on X were conducted/carried out/performed on X in 2009 by a group of researchers [54]. • Since 2011, much more information on X has become available. • Many attempts have been made [9; 10; 11] in order to / with the purpose of / aimed at … Reporting on specific authors/studies • The work by Perry et al. indicates/demonstrates/reveals/shows that ... • In their study, Bradley et al. found that ... • As Hollister points out / states / reports / indicates / notes, ... • Parker drew attention to the fact that ... • Fletcher makes clear that ... • According to Karlson, ... • In an article by Schumann, ... • Research by Merger et al. suggests that ... • Halley expressed a similar view. • Gardner states/observes/concludes/argues that ... • Yves comes to the conclusion / reaches the conclusion that … • Burgess, an authority on X, notes/mentions/highlights/ states/affirms that … • This research team make/draw a distinction between … • Their theory/solution/proposal/method/approach is based on X. • They draw attention to / focus on X. Describing the purpose of testing / methods used • In order to identify/understand/investigate/study/analyze X, a Y method was employed. • This method enables/allow us to … • To see/determine/check/verify whether … • So that we could do X, … • ln an attempt / effort to do X, … • X was done in order to … 100 Describing equipment and materials • The instrument used/utilized/adopted/employed was … • The apparatus consists of / is composed of … • The device was designed / developed / set up in order to … • Materials were obtained from / supplied by Y Company Inc. • The software application/program/package used to analyze the data … • The data were obtained/collected using X. • We used commercially available software X. • Measurements were taken using purpose-built/custom-built/ customized equipment… • Samples were prepared in accordance with / in compliance with / as required by … Indicating a time frame in a process • ln the first step / During the first phase / ln the initial stage of the process … • Once / As soon as / After X has been carried out, we can proceed to the next step. • With the completion of these steps / When these steps have been completed, we are now ready to … • This condition cannot be reached until / unless X has been … • By reducing the amount of X, Y can then be done. • Subsequently, … Explaining how you got your results • To assess X / evaluate X / distinguish between X and Y, Z was used. • X analysis was used to test/predict/confirm Y. • Changes in X were identified/calculated/compared using … • The correlation/difference between X and Y was tested. • The first set of analyses investigated/examined/confirmed/ highlighted the impact of … Stating what you found • These tests revealed/showed/highlighted that … • Strong/Some/No evidence of X was found … • Interestingly/Surprisingly/Unexpectedly, high values of X were found … • On average / Generally speaking / Broadly speaking, we found values for X … • No significant difference/correlation was found/identified/ revealed/detected/observed/highlighted between … • None of these differences were statistically significant. 101 • The most striking/remarkable/conspicuous result to emerge from the data is that … • It is interesting/critical/crucial/important/fundamental to note that … • This underlines/stresses/proves/demonstrates just how important X is. Admitting limitations • As was / might have been expected, our findings were often contradictory. • Contrary to expectations, we found … • Our results were disappointing/inadequate/unsatisfactory/ below expectations. However, … • This study was unsuccessful in proving that … • We are aware that our research may have limitations. The first is … The second is … These limitations reveal / underline / are evidence of the difficulty of collecting data on … • It is plausible that a number of limitations may/might/could have influenced the results obtained. • Another possible source of error is … • A major source of unreliability/inaccuracy/contamination is in the method used. • One downside / disadvantage / negative factor regarding our methodology is that … Summarizing results in the conclusion • In conclusion / In summary / In sum / To sum up, this work … • The results from this study suggest / imply / point towards … • We have managed to do / succeeded in doing / been able to do X. • We have found an innovative / a new / a novel / a cutting-edge solution to … • We have obtained accurate/satisfactory/comprehensive results proving / demonstrating / showing that … • We have devised a method/procedure which … • The strength / strong point / value / impact / benefit / usefulness / significance / importance of this work lies in … Suggesting applications and future research • This method/technique/approach/procedure could be applied to … • One possible/potential/promising application of our technique would be … • This could eventually/conceivably/potentially/hypothetically lead to … • Future work will concentrate on / focus on / explore / investigate / look into … • Future studies should concentrate on enhancing the quality of X. 102 • Future research should target / aim at / examine / deal with / address X. Referring to other parts of work • Table 1 compares/lists/details/summarizes the data on X. • Table 2 shows/demonstrates/illustrates that X is … • If we now turn to / Turning now to … • As far as X is concerned, … • As regards / Regarding / Regarding the use of / As for X … • As was mentioned/stated/noted/discussed/reported in the Methods, … • As reported above/previously/earlier/before … • These factors will be discussed below/later. Signaling transition • Previewing sections of text: o The section below describes … o In the following pages, I will present … o The following is a brief description of … o The following part of this paper moves on to describe in greater detail the … o A summary of the main findings, together with …, is provided in the next chapter. o The next chapter describes the procedures and methods used in this investigation … • Introducing a new topic: o Regarding X, … o As regards X, … o In terms of X, … o In the case of X, … o With regard to X, … o With respect to X, … o As far as X is concerned, … • Reintroducing a topic: o As discussed/explained/stated above/earlier, … o As previously stated, … o As mentioned in the previous chapter, … • Moving from one section to the next: o Turning now to the experimental evidence on … o Before proceeding to examine X, it is important to … o So far this paper has focused on X. The following section will discuss … o Having discussed how to construct X, the final section of this paper addresses ways of … • Indicating addition or contrast: o Another significant aspect of X is … o In addition, it is important to ask … 103 o Unlike Smith, Jones (2014) states … o Despite this, little progress has been made in the … o However, this system also has a number of serious drawbacks. • Summarizing a section: o Thus far, the thesis has dealt with … o The previous section has shown that … o To conclude this section, the literature identifies … o This section has reviewed the three key aspects of … o In summary, it has been shown from this review that … o This chapter has described the methods used in this investigation... o This section has attempted to provide a brief summary of the literature relating to … Scholarly abbreviations • abbr. • app. • cf. • ed. • e.g. • eq. • et al. • etc. • ex. • fig./Fig. • i.e. • incl. • no. (plural nos.) • p., pp. • supp. • vol. abbreviated, abbreviation appendix compare editor, edition for example equation and others (for more than three authors) and so on example figure that is including number page, pages supplement volume Acknowledgements • I am indebted / particularly grateful to Dr. X for … • We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Y for her help / valuable suggestions. • The authors wish to thank Prof. X, who gave us much valuable advice in the early stages of this work.