Acknowledgement

2. Acknowledgement • Information contained in this presentation is based on material found in L.C. Perelman, J. Paradis, and E. Barrett, The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing, Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View, CA, 1998.

3. The Eight Parts of Speech • Nouns • Pronouns • Verbs • Adjectives (including Articles) • Adverbs • Conjunctions • Prepositions • Interjections

4. Nouns • A noun is a word that names a person, a place, or a thing.

5. Countable Nouns • Countable nouns typically are discrete units that can be counted: chip, electron, transistor • Countable nouns can be made plural: chips, electrons, transistors • Singular countable nouns require an article or some other determiner: a chip, an electron, the transistor • Plural countable nouns require an article only to restrict the interpretation of the noun: chips, the (specific) chips; electrons, the (specific) electrons, transistors, the (specific) transistors

6. Uncountable Nouns • Uncountable nouns refer to substances, concepts, or general terms for classes of items: • Oxygen (substance) • Education (concept) • Equipment (general term) • Uncountable nouns do not require an article when the noun is referred to in a general sense; use the only when the noun is referred to in a specific sense: • Education is important • The equipment in the room

7. Number in Nouns • Countable nouns can be either singular or plural. • Uncountable nouns usually are singular. • Collective nouns refer to a group acting as a unit: class, team, herd, litter, group • When replacing a noun with a pronoun, choose a pronoun that agrees with the noun in number.

8. Plural Nouns • A regular noun forms its plural by adding –s or –es to its singular form. • Some nouns have irregular plural forms: • Deer – deer • Foot – feet • Thesis – theses

9. Plural Acronyms and Numbers • An apostrophe is optional to form the plural of most acronyms and numbers: • 7’s 7s • PAL’s PALs • An apostrophe is required to form the plural of lower-case letters: • a’s b’s abc’s

10. Proper Nouns • Proper nouns have names: • Thomas Edison • Figure 4 • The first letter of each word in a proper noun is capitalized: • Professional Communication Skills • Georgia Institute of Technology • Jay Schlag

11. Common Nouns • Common nouns do not have specific names: • scientist • figure • Common nouns are not capitalized: • engineer • writer

12. Noun Forms • The nominative case is the standard form for nouns: • Singular: student man • Plural: students men • The possessive case is the form used to show possession: • Singular: student’s man’s • Plural: students’ men’s

13. Possessive Nouns • Add –’s to a singular noun NOT ending in –s: • Edison’s, child’s, city’s, deer’s, mouse’s • Add –’ or –’s to a singular noun ending in –s: • Thomas’ or Thomas’s • Add –’ to a plural noun ending in –s: • Students’, cities’, states’ • Add –’s to a plural noun NOT ending in –s: • Women’s, children’s, deer’s, mice’s

14. Types of Pronouns • Personal pronouns • Possessive pronouns • Demonstrative pronouns • Relative pronouns • Indefinite pronouns • Reciprocal pronouns • Reflexive/intensive pronouns • Interrogative pronouns

15. Personal Pronouns • Personal pronouns refer to people and things: • Nominative Case: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they • Objective Case: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, • Possessive Case: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

16. Nominative Pronouns • Nominative pronouns are used as subjects or predicate nominatives: • They are working on their literature reviews. • The winner is he. • It is I.

17. Objective Pronouns • Objective pronouns are used as direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of the preposition: • The results disappointed him (direct object). • June gave him (indirect object) the results. • June gave the results to him (object of the (preposition).

18. Them: an Objective Pronoun • Them is an objective pronoun. Do not use them as a demonstrative pronoun in place of these and those. • Unacceptable: • He liked them socks. • Use them only as the object by itself: • Acceptable: • He liked those socks. • He liked them.

19. Possessive Pronouns • Possessive pronouns show ownership and do not take an apostrophe: • Its cost • Her plan ~ The plan is hers. • Their project ~ The project is theirs.

20. Possessive Pronouns (2) • Use possessive pronouns before present participle (-ing) verb forms: • The crowd cheered his making a three-point basket. • The man was proud of his scoring 100 on his exam.

21. Personal Pronoun Cases

22. Who/Whom For formal writing, the cases are as follows:

23. Who/Whom • When who introduces a dependent clause after a preposition, use the nominative case of the pronoun: • Return the paper to who is in charge. • Give this book to whoever wants it. • Use whom for the objective case: • The project was awarded to an engineer whom I knew well. • I spoke to the engineer to whom the project was awarded.

24. Demonstrative Pronouns • Demonstrative pronouns refer to things: • This, that, these, those • This propagation delay line is longer than that one.

25. Relative Pronouns • Relative pronouns show the relationship of a dependent clause to a noun in a sentence: • That, which, who, whom, what • A dependent clause beginning with that contains essential information. Such a clause is not separated from the independent clause by punctuation: • The circuit that contains an XOR chip is broken. • A dependent clause beginning with which contains non-essential information. Such a clause must be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas: • This circuit, which is not working, has not been debugged.

26. Indefinite Pronouns • Indefinite pronouns make indefinite references to nouns: • Anyone/anybody someone/somebody everyone/everybody everything/nothing • Indefinite pronouns are usually singular and require a singular verb: • Everyone is going to the basketball game. • Anyone in the class is capable of writing a technical paper. • Some (people) are more conscientious than others.

27. Indefinite Pronouns (2) • Indefinite pronouns, such as both, few and many, require a plural verb: • Many (students) use XOR chips in circuits. • Few (students) remain in the lab after the class. • Indefinite pronouns, such as all, any, more, most, none, and some, may be either singular or plural depending on the meaning of the sentence: • Singular:Someof my homework is finished. • Plural:Some of these disks are chipped. • Singular:All of the coffee is brewed. • Plural:All of the students are happy.

28. Reciprocal Pronouns • Reciprocal pronouns refer to individual parts of plural terms: • Each other, one another • The two students helped one another on the project. • Without help from each other, completing the project would have taken much longer.

29. Reflexive/Intensive Pronouns • Reflexive/intensive pronouns end in -self or -selves and intensify the nouns to which they refer: • Myself, yourself, itself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves • I, myself, have not started on the project. • You, yourself, know that you have made much more progress on the project than I have.

30. Interrogative Pronouns • Interrogative pronouns are used in questions: • Who, whose, whom, which, what • Who is Thomas Edison? • Whose circuit board is on the table? • Which project is more expensive? • What caused the computer to crash?

31. Verbs • Verbs describe actions: • What has happened • What is happening • What will or might happen • Verbs describe a condition • Verbs must agree in number with their subjects

32. Verbs (2) • Verbs, with the addition of auxiliary verbs, sometimes express: • Tense • Mood • Voice • Verbs can be modified (described) by adverbs • Benjamin properly debugged the circuit.

33. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs • Verbs can be divided into two categories: transitive and intransitive: • Transitive verbs are followed by direct objects • Intransitive verbs do not have a direct object

34. Transitive and Intransitive Verb Usage • Unacceptable: • When presenting their proposals, many students raise to the occasion. • In the Malthusian model of unrestrained growth, the linear growth function rises the population growth upward. • Acceptable: • When presenting their proposals, many students rise to the occasion. • In the Malthusian model of unrestrained growth, the linear growth function rises. • If something is unclear, the student should raise his/her hand.

35. Present Tense Verbs • Use the simple present tense to express facts, states of being, or actions that are occurring or that occur regularly: • As the object approaches the speed of light, its mass increases. • We communicate frequently via e-mails. • Use the simple present tense to express future actions that are scheduled to occur: • The spring 2006 term begins in January of next year.

36. Past Tense Verbs • Use the simple past tense to express actions completed at a specific time in the past. To form the past tense add the ending –ed to the base form of the verb. • As the object approached the speed of light, its mass increased. • In the Los Angeles basin during December 1982, acid fog reached a level of acidity comparable to that of vinegar.

37. Future Tense Verbs • Use the future tense to indicate action that will occur at some point after the present. • Express the future tense in one of the following ways: • Using a verb in the simple present with a future adverb: • As the object approaches the speed of light, its mass eventually increases. • Using the auxiliary verb shall or will: • As the object approaches the speed of light, its mass will increase. • When the object approaches, we shall calculate its speed. • Using the expression is going to or are going to followed by a verb: • As the object approaches the speed of light, its mass is going to increase.

38. Present Perfect Tense Verbs • Use the present perfect tense to express states or actions that occurred at an unspecified time in the past, were repeated in the past, or begun at an unknown or arbitrary time in the past and continue into the present. • Form the present perfect tense by using the present tense form of the auxiliary have and the past participle of the main verb. • In the past ten years, optical networking has emerged as one of the cutting-edge technologies. • For more than a century, researchers have known that direct eye contact with most laser beams causes severe eye injury.

39. Present Perfect Tense Verbs (2) • The present perfect tense is commonly used with the following adverbs: • Already, always, ever, just, lately, never, recently, since, still, and yet • The circuit has already been debugged. • Lately, we have encountered a number of problems with our laser pointer.

40. Past Perfect Tense Verbs • Use the past perfect tense to express states or actions that began and came to an end before a specified point in the past. • Use the past tense form of the auxiliary have and the past participle of the main verb to form the past perfect tense. • By 2000, scientists determined that the results of the experiment they hadconducted in 1990 were inconclusive.

41. Future Perfect Tense Verbs • Use the future perfect tense to express states or actions that will have come to an end before a specific point in the future. • Form the future perfect tense by using the auxiliaries will have and the past participle of the main verb. • By the end of the semester, the technical interest group will havecompleted its report.

42. The Progressive Form of Verbs • Use the progressive form in conjunction with any verb (present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, future perfect) to express an action that is ongoing with respect to a point in time or another action. • Construct the progressive form by using a form of the auxiliary verb be and the present participle of the main verb. • The Internet is revolutionizing the way we communicate. • Among the younger generation,, letter writing was disappearing even before the Internet. • Letter writing will be disappearing even more rapidly in the next ten years.

43. The Progressive Form of Verbs (2) • States or facts do not use the progressive form of verbs; the simple present tense or simple past tense is used instead. • Verbs that commonly describe states are the following: • Appear, appreciate, be, believe, belong, care, want, compromise, consider, contain, cost, desire, dislike, doubt, fear, forget, have, hear, love, look, resemble, think • When we compare our students’ standardized test scores with those of graduate students from other institutions, it appears that our students score higher.

44. Adjectives • Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. • Although adjectives usually precede the words they modify, they may follow them and be separated by a form of the verb be or a substitute verb such as seems or feels. • The beautiful rose • The rose is beautiful • The rose looks beautiful

45. Types of Adjectives • Determiners: These are special adjectives that identify the noun being described or that specify the quantity of the noun. Determiners include: • Demonstrative adjectives • Possessive adjectives • Quantifiers • Articles

46. Demonstrative Adjectives • Demonstrative adjectives are special adjectives or determiners used to identify or express the relative position of a noun in time or space. A demonstrative adjective comes before all other adjectives in the noun phrase. • Common demonstrative adjectives are this, that, these, those • This and that are used with singular nouns • These and those are used with plural nouns

47. Demonstrative Adjectives (2) • Examples of demonstrative adjectives: • The results of research done with broadband antennas indicate a need for these antennas in certain applications. • Furthermore, this research revealed that these antennas have unlimited potential for use in future telecommunication systems. • Demonstrative adjectives are sometimes called demonstrative pronouns when they are followed by a noun: • This research is tedious. [demonstrative adjective] • This is tedious. [demonstrative pronoun]

48. Possessive Adjectives • Possessive adjectives are special adjectives or determiners used to express possession of a noun; they precede all other elements in a noun phrase. If you use possessive adjectives, you do not need articles. • My testbed has a problem. • The testbed has a problem. • Choose a possessive adjective that agrees in person, number, and gender with the possessor noun, not the noun being possessed. • Austin Palmer, son of Gail Palmer, was born on September 11, 1971, in Ohio. His mother is from Virginia. • The possessive adjective his agrees with the gender of the possessor, Austin Palmer.

49. Quantifiers • Quantifiers are determiners that are used to express the quantity of the noun being described. Like possessive adjectives, quantifiers usually precede all other elements in a noun phrase. • All the undergraduate students in electrical engineering are required to use computers. • Articles and demonstrative adjectives can be used before the quantifiers few and little, but articles are not usually used with a quantifier. • A few problems in optics can only be solved numerically. • Thislittle mistake in measuring the current can have devastating results.

50. Participial Adjectives • A participial adjective is formed by adding to the base form of the verb either the present participial ending –ing or, unless the verb is irregular, the past participial ending –ed. • In quantum electronics, a tunneling electron is one that overcomes a potential energy barrier. • When two electrons come close to each other, the resulting electrical force causes them to repel. • Passive participial adjectives are formed from the past participles of verbs. They describe nouns that are receiving the effects of an action. • The information theory being unknown to them, electrical engineers in the mid-twentieth century were astonished by Shannon’s research.