【英語論文の書き方】第35回　略語を書き出すときによくある間違いとは？ 論文翻訳・英文校正　研究者専門の翻訳会社　ワールド翻訳サービス

(1)論文の参考文献で日本語論文を挙げるときの書き方
(2)地理的な固有名詞（山・川・湖など）をどう表記するか
(3)”respectively”の用法
を取り上げました。

今回の３つのテーマはこちらです！

(1) Avoiding words such as good and bad except in certain situations
”good” "bad" などの主観的な表現について。

(2) A common mistake when writing abbreviated terms out in full
略語を書き出すときによくある間違いとは？

(3) Beware of the word trouble.
”trouble”　という単語について。
日常的にはよく使う単語ですが、論文で使う時の注意点とは？

Welcome to another edition of Quarterly Review. This time, we look at words expressing personal judgments such as good and bad, which should be avoided in scientific writing except in certain situations. We then focus on a mistake often made by Japanese researchers when writing abbreviated terms out in full, and conclude with some advice about the word trouble.

Words such as good, bad, excellent, inferior, and so on are not used very often in scientific writing, except in certain limited situations such as “X showed good agreement with Y” or “X showed poor agreement with Y.” The reason is that these words generally represent a subjective judgment; that is, the personal opinion of the writer. Who has the power to decide whether something is “good” or “bad”? This can be a delicate issue in scientific circles.
 
To avoid the appearance of making a subjective judgment, it is usually best to use a more neutral expression. Let’s say, for example, that you have developed a new magnet that you believe has better magnetic properties than currently existing magnets. Rather than writing that the newly developed magnet has good coercivity or better coercivity than existing magnets, I would recommend using a more neutral-sounding expression such as high coercivity or higher coercivity than existing magnets.
 
To give another example, let’s imagine that you have developed a new algorithm that you believe will be an excellent tool for researchers in your field. Here, rather than referring to the new algorithm as good or excellent, I would recommend a more neutral term such as useful; that is, a useful algorithm. Of course, the word useful itself could also be considered to be a personal opinion (i.e., who decides whether something is “useful” or not?), but it has more of a rational, scientific nuance, and the usefulness of a technique, etc. is usually clearly shown by the results of the relevant study.
 

As you know, most abbreviations are formed from the initial letter of each word in the term concerned (for example, the term light-emitting diode is abbreviated LED). In some cases, however, this is not true.
 
As an example, the abbreviation EPMA stands for either electron probe microanalysis or electron probe microanalyzer (this is a case in which an abbreviation can stand for either of two closely related expressions). The key point here is that the words microanalysis and microanalyzer are each usually written as a single word. Even when we have an abbreviation in which each word or prefix is represented by a letter (e.g., MA = micro + analysis or micro + analyzer), the word is still written as a single word if that is its normal style; we don’t have to separate the words or use hyphens in order to match each letter of the abbreviation.
 
To give another example, the word multiplexer is often abbreviated as MP, but we don’t have to write multi-plexer to match the two letters in the abbreviation MP. As a further example, the expression superconducting magnet is often abbreviated as SCM. The word superconducting is normally not hyphenated; we don't have to write super-conducting magnet to match the letters S and C in the abbreviation SCM. That is to say, it’s perfectly OK to use the two-letter abbreviation SC to represent a single word, superconducting. There are many cases like this, especially when one element is a prefix such as micro, super, semi, etc.
 
Many Japanese researchers mistakenly add hyphens when spelling out terms in full to match the related abbreviations; such as writing electron probe micro-analysis to match the abbreviation EPMA. Please remember that there is no need to do that; even though the abbreviation MA seems to represent two words at first glance, in fact the correct term in this case is microanalysis (or microanalyzer); that is, a single word.
 
As mentioned above, there are cases in which an abbreviation can stand for two closely related expressions. This is especially true for pairs of expressions in which one term represents a scientific technique and the other term represents the device used to implement that technique; for example:
 
*FM: frequency modulation or frequency modulator
*TEM: transmission electron microscopy or transmission electron microscope
*XPS: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy or X-ray photoelectron spectroscope
 
There are many other examples of such pairs of terms. In your scientific writing, feel free to use whichever term you believe is most appropriate in any given situation. For example, you could write “We used frequency modulation (FM). . . .” or “We used a frequency modulator (FM). . . .”; either of these expressions would be fine, depending on the context. 

The word trouble is rarely used in scientific writing (although it is often used in general contexts including technical manuals, etc., especially in the troubleshooting section). Rather than trouble, it is better to use another term in your papers such as problem, issue, malfunction, difficulty, etc. Here are some examples showing the use of such terms instead of trouble:
 
* “The slow reaction speed caused trouble → a problem in the process.”
* “The lack of a suitable technique is highly troublesome → a serious issue.”
* “Mechanical trouble → A mechanical malfunction occurred.”
* “We experienced trouble → difficulty in repairing the device.”
 
I hope that the above comments are helpful to you in your work.
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Bob Gavey
For World Translation Services, Inc.

第１回　if、in case、when の正しい使い分け：確実性の程度を英語で正しく表現する
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbunwriting-1/index.html
 
第2回 「装置」に対する英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-equipment/index.html
 
第3回　助動詞のニュアンスを正しく理解する：「～することが出来た」「～することが出来なかった」の表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun3/index.html
 
第4回　「～を用いて」の表現：by と with の違い
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-writing4/index.html
 
第5回　技術英文で使われる代名詞のitおよび指示代名詞thisとthatの違いとそれらの使用法
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-daimeishi/index.html
 
第6回　原因・結果を表す動詞の正しい使い方：その1 原因→結果
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun6-kekka/index.html
 
第7回　原因・結果を表す動詞の使い方：その2 結果→原因
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-kekka/index.html
 
第8回　受動態の多用と誤用に注意
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-writing8/index.html
 
第9回　top-heavyな英文を避ける
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigoronbun-topheavy/index.html
 
第10回　名詞の修飾語を前から修飾する場合の表現法
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun10/index.html
 
第11回　受動態による効果的表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun11/index.html
 
第12回　同格を表す接続詞thatの使い方
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun12/index.html
 
第13回 「技術」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun13/index.html
 
第14回　「特別に」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun14/index.html
 
第15回　所有を示すアポストロフィー + s ( ’s) の使い方
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun15/index.html
 
第16回　「つまり」「言い換えれば」を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun16/index.html
 
第17回　寸法や重量を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun17/index.html
 
第18回　前置詞 of の使い方: Part 1
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun18/index.html
 
第19回　前置詞 of の使い方: Part 2
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun19/index.html
 
第20回　物体や物質を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun20/index.html
 
第21回　句動詞表現より1語動詞での表現へ
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun21/index.html
 
第22回　不定詞と動名詞: Part 1
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun22/index.html
 
第23回　不定詞と動名詞の使い分け: Part 2
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun23/index.html

第24回　理由を表す表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun24/index.html

第25回　総称表現　（a, theの使い方を含む）
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun25/index.html
　
第26回　「研究開発」を表す英語表現
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun26/index.html

第27回　「0～１の数値は単数か複数か？」
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun27/index.html

第28回　「時制－現在形の動詞の使い方」
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun28/index.html

第29回 　then, however, therefore, for example など接続副詞の使い方
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun29/index.html

第30回　 まちがえやすいusing, based onの使い方－分詞構文
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun30/index.html

第31回　 比率や割合の表現（ratio, rate, proportion, percent, percentage）
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun31/index.html

第32回　英語論文の書き方　総集編
http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun32/index.html

第33回　Quality Review Issue No. 23　report, show の時制について
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun33/index.html

第34回　Quality Review Issue No. 24　参考文献で日本語論文をどう記載すべきか
​http://worldts.com/english-writing/eigo-ronbun34/index.html