Friday, September 25, 2009

Three short lines: the hyphen, the en dash, and the em dash

As a researcher, you notice details relevant to your subject of interest that others never see. What to most people was simply a dish of glass was to Alexander Fleming an indication of the power of Penicillium to stop the growth of bacteria.
Similarly, what to most casual readers are simply dashes are to careful readers distinct punctuation marks, each with its separate function. The shortest dash is the hyphen, which is also the most common. It joins two or more words to represent them as a single unit, for example, a test-tube, 4-aminobenzensulphonic acid, fail-safe, or state-of-the-art facilities. Use a hyphen – but only with non-SI units – to combine a value (number) with a noun, as in a 15-inch rod or a 2-month vacation. Note that in most such cases with only one hyphen, the part before the hyphen modifies the part after the hyphen.
Intermediate in length is the en dash; use it to indicate a range, as in 6–10 kg or 6–10 mm. In references, separate the first and last page numbers with the en dash, as in Information Design Journal 17: 153–154. In such cases, the en dash simply replaces the preposition to. The second use of the en dash is to join two words that are equal in status as it were. In other words, the first part does not modify the second part, as in Michaelis–Menten equation, energy–environment interface, and nature–nurture debate.
The third, and the longest, is the em dash, which is rarely used in scientific texts. Think of it as a counterpart of the colon (:), which comes before a list or an explanation. The em dash follows such items and either sums up their contents or introduces a contradiction, as in "Solar water heaters, wind turbines, water mills, or even a simple fire made by burning a few dried branches, all share a common feature—they all use renewable sources of energy." or "The floor was washed with disinfectant; the air was filtered through a fine filter; the surgeon used a mask and sterilized gloves—it was the food that was contaminated."

Thursday, September 3, 2009

在表格中撰寫"實驗句"

由於作者對研究數據已經非常熟悉,導致常常在表格中遺漏某些訊息,例如數據單位就是常常被遺忘的訊息。如果單位跟數據爲人所熟知,這樣的遺漏並不會造成太大的影響,比如身高體重或是空間的面積。不過,並不是所有人可以正確判斷單位。比如美國讀者可能對公斤、公分、公尺等單位不熟悉。所以他們有可能將這些沒有單位標示數據當作是磅而非公斤。
在一般的表格中,標題應該表示在最左邊的表格,如:東京月均溫表,月份是該表格資料的計量單位,而實驗句就可寫”東京的六月均溫為攝氏30度” 。根據這個例子,如果您忘記在表格中標示測量單位或是沒有提及這是來自東京的資料,那麼實驗句看起來就會不合邏輯。
因此,在投稿期刊前,養成在文章的每個表格中撰寫實驗句的習慣以檢查表格。