Language

  • Verb tenses

    In your methods write-up, you must describe actions you have already taken. Therefore, write about them using past tenses (past simple, past continuous and past perfect).

    Exemple adequatOnce the seeds had been planted, the temperature was lowered to 4°C.

    To state the purpose of an action, you should use the full infinitive.  

    Exemple adequatThe distributed representations are built to capture the statistical properties of the dataset.

    For more emphasis, precede the full infinitive with the words in order.  

    Exemple adequatThe distributed representations are built in order to capture the statistical properties of the dataset.

  • Passive voice

    The advantage of using the passive voice is that you need not state the agent that performs the action. This is desirable if the identity of the agent is not an important factor in the process described or if the agent’s identity is obvious and needs no mentioning. This will often be the case in the methods section. Generally, focus on the object of the study, not the person conducting it.

    Exemple no admissibleIt was first seen that there were vortex formations at 28 rev/s.

    I first saw vortex formations at 28 rev/s.

    Exemple adequatVortex formations were first seen at 28 rev/s.

    The first sentence in the first box above is unnecessarily long; and in the second sentence, the identity of the seer is superfluous information. The sentence in the second box, which uses the passive voice, is best.

    In the example above, there is no need to identify the subject. In other cases, however, if the lack of a subject in a passive sentence created ambiguity, it would probably be better to use the active voice.

  • Connectors

    Given what has been explained above, that you should describe your method in chronological order, it makes sense to words and phrases that clarify the sequence of the process, like next, then, once, after this, after that, following this, following that or subsequently.

    Exemple adequatEach of the shifted sequences is then used to form training samples.
    Once we had researched the state of the art in computer image recognition, reviewed the literature and selected libraries (OpenCV) and the most appropriate techniques (SIFT and SURF), the next step was to prove, by experiment, the following hypothesis.
Darrera actualització: 18-7-2022
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Recommended citation:
«Language» [en línia]. A: Llibre d’estil de la Universitat de Barcelona. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona. Serveis Lingüístics. <https://www.ub.edu/llibre-estil/criteri.php?id=3440> [consulta: 23 novembre 2024].
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