学术论文中标点符号10大问题分析

这篇短文，我将来讲讲英文写作中最基础的要素-标点符号。可千万不要小看它们，标点符号对于正确表达意思，增加写作流畅性有着非常重要的作用，否则会闹出笑话，比如 Let's eat, Grandpa! 和 Let's eat Grandpa!

主要有哪些标点符号？

英文论文中常用的标点符号主要有：

1. 逗号，冒号和分号，分别是 , : ;

2. 句号和问好，分别是 . ?

3. 连字号，双引号，括号和中括号，分别是 - '' () [ ]

10大注意问题

1. 引导性从句之后用逗号。比如 Since we would be returning late anyway, we stayed to watch the sunset.

2. 列觉三个或三个以上对象时，最后两个对象之间一般用逗号。虽然不用逗号也有存在，比如To my mother, father and brother. 这样写没有错，但是大部分的写作形式推荐加入逗号，这种逗号叫牛津逗号（Oxford Comma），即To my mother, father, and brother. 我个人也是非常推荐这么用，因为各个对象之间区别好，显得很清晰而不容易误解。比如Mr. Murray left all his money to his three children: Jack, David and Michael. 就让人读起来会觉得财产是Jack占一半，David 和 Michael 平分剩下的一半。而如果加了逗号，就非常清楚是三个人平分财产：Mr. Murray left all his money to his three children: Jack, David, and Michael.

3. 补充说明的从句，在其左右要用逗号。比如：My friend, who was born in UK, lived most of his life in States. 但是在限制性从句中，就不能用逗号，比如：A cell-free protein synthesizing system (S30) that was tRNA dependent was prepared from Krebs II ascites tumor cells. 来自论文：Purification of Biologically Active Globin Messenger RNA by Chromatography on Oligothymidylic acid-Cellulose.

4. 两个有连接词相连的从句之间，要加逗号。比如I really want to see the game,but the store is having a huge sale. 如果没有连接词，则用分号。比如 The results in the first study were expected; those in the second were not.

5. 和中文表达不一样，数字表达习惯中一般在3个数字之间用逗号隔开，符号英语阅读习惯。比如 1,000

6. 独立从句或完整句子后面要有冒号，否则，不用冒号。比如，例子1(来自论文A Robust Regularization Path Algorithm for ν -Support Vector Classification): Given a training sample set S={(x1,y1),…,(xl,yl)} with xi∈?d and yi∈{+1,?1} , the standard ν -support vector classification ( ν -SVC) [1] considers a primal problem as follows: 例子2: The formula is a=b+c.

7. 双引号用以强调相反意思，比如： The 'normal' result ... 在国外，如果说话时，想表示相反或不认同的意思，往往伸出双手的食指和中指,像兔子一样，就像写作时用引号的意思差不多，有时候还有讽刺的意思。如果你和老外交流多，一定会见到这样的手势。

8. 显示统计结果，比如 was statistically significant, F(I, 32) = 4.37, p = 0.045. 后面表示统计结果且已经有（）就不需要再用括号括起来了，即 was statistically significant, (F(I, 32) = 4.37, p = 0.045). 而一般会见到类似这样：Compared with placebo, the combination of fluoxetine with CBT was statistically significant (P =.001) on the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised.

9. 论文中引用文献多余1个的，之间用分号，比如常见的APA或MLA引用格式都是这么规定。例子：Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Krech Thomas, 2004).

10. 列举事物时，在动词后面不能直接跟冒号。比如错误表达：The things on my mind are: papers, grades, and finals. 正确的表达则是The things on my mind are papers, grades, and finals. 或者 The things on my mind are the following: papers, grades, and finals.

在我的微信学术群里面，有人问到中文输入法的逗号和英文输入法的逗号。在此强调一定要注意切换。比如 In 1999， Jimmy et al. presented xx... 正确的应该是 In 1999, Jimmy et al. presented xx... 大家在写英文论文时，记得开启英文输入模式。在实际写作中，很多人会切换成中文输入法，开个小差和朋友聊天啥的，还得用中文，不过得记得回到英文写作时切换回去。