Re: Student looking for re-readers for his thesis ( it deals with embedded system, USB, Linux, microcontrolers, firmwares ... )

From: axlq (axlq_at_spamcop.net)
Date: 12/09/04 

Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 20:59:12 +0000 (UTC)

In article <41b8b206$0$9721$a1866201@visi.com>,
Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
>>> Another thing is your frequent use of sentences using
>>> "I", which makes it look more like a blog than a scientific text. E.g.
>>
>> There is an historical reason : I wrote first the logbook, which you
>> could call a blog. For this project I am used to speak in my own name.
>
>For whatever the reason, it's traditional to use passive voice
>in scientific/technical academic writing. Sometime's it's a
>bit awkward, but that's how it's done.

Nonsense! It's only "traditional" and "how it's done" because many
technical people don't know how to write well, and/or are too lazy
to write well, and/or don't know any better.

This is a pet peeve of mine. I routinely see technical papers
filled with passive voice (i.e. boring) sentences that COULD have
been written better in active voice (i.e. interesting, attention
grabbing) WITHOUT resorting to the personal pronoun "I". Take this
exerpt from the OP's paper:

  "In endebbed and limited systems, I want the computing time to be
   constant, and the error ratio to be the same for each computation.
   The use of random search may increase slightly the speed of the
   process, but since that can introduce big variations of error
   ratio, I don't want to use it."

Someone else suggested substituting "it is desrible for..." for "I
want...." I disagree. That makes the sentence boring. I suggest:

   In embedded and limited systems, the computing time should
   stay constant, and the error ratio should not change in each
   computation. A random search may increase slightly the speed of
   the process; however, this gain occurs at the expense of large
   variations in error ratio.

Even substituting "we" is acceptable in technical papers. I see it
often, and I like it because it allows one to communicate in active
voice without using "I":

   In embedded and limited systems, we desire consistency in
   computing time and error ratio in each computation. We avoid
   random searches because the slight gain in speed fails to
   compensate for the resultant large variation in error ratio.

-Alex

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