Hanyang CTL English Writing Lab

Actually is only used to correct a previous fact or opinion. It is not used in engineering writing at the beginning of a sentence.

This word does not mean “in summary” or “in conclusion” in English. It is not used in engineering English. It is used to add an additional reason like the word “Besides,” at the beginning of a sentence.

Note that there are some differences between American and British punctuation, grammar, and spelling. For example, center vs. centre or recognize vs. recognise. If a European journal or conference requires British English in the author guidelines, you can change the settings of your spell check in MS WORD.

See http://esl.about.com/library/writing/blwrite_spelldiff.htm

You can also change the settings of your spell and grammar check to British or other varieties of English as follows.

In MS WORD select Tools ( 도구 ) ® OPTIONS ( 옵션 ). On the pop-up window for OPTIONS ( 옵션 ), click Spelling and Grammar ( 맞춤법 및 문법검사 ) → Custom Dictionaries ( 사용자 지정 사전 ). Select the language.

The words “such as” include the idea of a few examples, but not the total set of possible choices. Therefore, don’t use “such as” with “and so on” or etc. in the same sentence. It is redundant.

The words “and so on” are generally seen as being casual or spoken language, but not appropriate for research writing. Also, don’t use “like” to give examples. The term “etc.” always has a period and is the abbreviation of etcetera . You may occasionally find it in published papers, but it is not recommended.

Phrases with “the following” usually introduce a list and have a colon, “such as/including/includes/ the following:”

EXAMPLE

Their observations include the following: (1) Generally, austenitic stainless steel weld metal

solidifies by primary separation of austenite or ferrite from the melt…

E J, Rao et al./Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics 27 (1997) p.145

A sentence should not begin with “So,” in research writing. Most academic styleguides do not recommend starting sentences with “But,” either. The word “And” is only rarely used to begin a sentence in engineering writing. In contrast, the use of “but” or “and” is commonly used to start sentences in journalism while “So,” is commonly used in written dialogue. Use “therefore” or “however” instead to start or connect sentences in English.

Anyway, ...

This is a casual conversational word not used in research writing.

This does not have the same simple meaning as “Finally,” or “In conclusion,”. It is used to emphasize that something has finally happened after a long wait in general English.

Don’t use “Besides,” at the beginning of the sentence as a transition. It can be acceptable as part of a phrase, however.

X: The method was not efficient enough. Besides, it was also expensive.

O: Besides the benefit of lower cost, the proposed method increases the processing speed.

Other word choices may be "In addition" "Furthermore" or other words. See

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/besides

Use "However" or other words instead of "But, ..." at the beginning of a sentence in research writing. Other types of writing like newspaper writing has different standards. Also avoid using "So, ..." at the beginning of a sentence. Only rarely use "And, ..." at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis.

See http://hanyangowl.org/course/view.php?id=22 for materials on how to connect sentences.

The word CAN puts more emphasis on something that is possible or that was difficult to achieve before but is now possible, perhaps due to the results of the paper.

COULD is less certain and is often used for possibilities that we can't confirm or have not tried yet.