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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Engineering thesis grammar - figures

Hello,

I have been advised by my supervisor that my thesis contains poor grammar, example nitpicking (!):

"Figure xxx shows the results of... this is bad grammar because a figure is an inanimate object and therefore cannot show/demonstrate anything"

Is this correct? I have now looked at lots of papers and text books and the style of saying "fig x shows" is very common.

Thanks
  

Top answer

I think your version is acceptable. However, your supervisor doesn't, and if s/he objects, then you'd be wise to write as s/he suggests.

— Fivejedjon

  • I think your version is acceptable.
  • However, your supervisor doesn't, and if s/he objects, then you'd be wise to write as s/he suggests.
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10 Answers
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I think your version is acceptable. However, your supervisor doesn't, and if s/he objects, then you'd be wise to write as s/he suggests.
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I wonder what verb they would suggest.
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They probably want something like 'As can be seen in figure x, ....'
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Gotta love "acadmic" writing. Why use one word when five would do?

I suppose "the authors of the study used figure X to descrbe the distribution of the results of their study" is also preferable to "figure x describes the study results"?
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Grammar GeekGotta love "acadmic" writing. Why use one word when five would do?
After careful consideration of the the thoughts expressed in the words of the post submitted immediately before this subsequent post, the writer of this subsequent post is inclined to express tentative agreement with the implied message conveyed by the words of the aforementioned p
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It is sad that you can do that so easily. Amusing, too, though!
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Thanks to all who replied.

But is the central issue is - is it corrct reasoning to say a figure is an 'inanimate object' and therefore cannot 'show/demonstrate' anything?

Academic writing is supposed to be concise and as short as possible, but my supers method makes my thesis sound waffley (imho that is).

Cheers
P
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Academic writing at its worst is rather dry and artificial and can appear to be waffly. If you want your writing to be accepted by the academic community which is judging it, then you are going to have to accept their judgement. They are not insisting on incorrect English, merely on a rather fussy style. (They would probably reject my use of 'they' and 'their' when referring to a community.)
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As with any writing, you have an audience. Sadly, your audience is not the general public, who would appreciate a straight-forward style, but your advisor. Write for that auidience, even if it's an audience of one.

Even out in the real world (non-academic settings), you have to adjust your style. I like to use "you" a lot in my writing. There is one magazine we try to targer for our artic
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AnonymousBut is the central issue is - is it corrct reasoning to say a figure is an 'inanimate object' and therefore cannot 'show/demonstrate' anything?
No.

I had a professor who insisted that "because" had to take a comma every time. When I wrote for him, I used the comma. It didn't hurt very much, and I got an "A".
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