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Colombo Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Should units be repeated in a list of figures?
I am writing a scientific paper (technical, formal English), and I must enumerate a list of figures taken from some measurements. I don't know whether I must specify the units after each of the figures, or only after the last one. That is,
The peaks appear at 27, 33, 42 and 77 mm
or
The peaks appear at 27 mm, 33 mm, 42 mm and 77 mm
Which one should I use? I thought it would be the first option, but I've been told that's too informal. And I wouldn't like it to be unnecessarily wordy, either. Thanks a lot in advance.
The peaks appear at 27, 33, 42 and 77 mm
or
The peaks appear at 27 mm, 33 mm, 42 mm and 77 mm
Which one should I use? I thought it would be the first option, but I've been told that's too informal. And I wouldn't like it to be unnecessarily wordy, either. Thanks a lot in advance.
Top answer
You can do it the first way, and it is certainly not 'informal', but for a technical paper the 2nd way makes it absolutely clear. I don't think wordiness is a problem here; it is a simple abbreviation.
- You can do it the first way, and it is certainly not 'informal', but for a technical paper the 2nd way makes it absolutely clear.
- I don't think wordiness is a problem here; it is a simple abbreviation.
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4 Answers
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You can do it the first way, and it is certainly not 'informal', but for a technical paper the 2nd way makes it absolutely clear. I don't think wordiness is a problem here; it is a simple abbreviation.
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Thanks a lot, Mister Micawber. Had I been the only author of the paper, I would have mentioned you in the "Acknowledgements" section, but my boss doesn't share my sense of humour, I'm afraid
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Technically, if this is some scientific data like voltage or pressure reading, I would say "measured" or "observed" rather than appeared. (notice that it is denoted in past tense). Since the data was on an ascending slope, the unit of measurement is understood as millimeter, as appeared in sample #1. Unless it is specified otherwise, the first one will do just fine from my experienc
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Thanks a lot for your points, which are really good. I think that I wrote the sentence like that because I was describing the process of measuring itself, in which only an almost flat baseline is seen at first in a screen, and as the measuring progresses, peaks do actually start to appear, with a higher intensity as time goes by, until they reach a stationary state in which their height increases
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