Films

     An ambiguity is a word, phrase, or sentence that can be interpreted in more than one way. Whereas poets win awards for ambiguity, engineers and scientists are sued for ambiguities. This lesson teaches you to be sensitive to four common sources of ambiguity in scientific writing: word choice, word order, pronouns (particularly it and this​), and missing punctuation.

Overall perspective on avoiding ambiguity.

Avoiding ambiguity, particularly with word choice and word order.

Avoiding ambiguity, particularly with pronouns and punctuation.

Exercises

     In the following excerpts, circle the words that cause ambiguities. For each excerpt, identify the source of ambiguity: (1) improper word order, (2) missing punctuation, or (3) unclear pronoun reference. Where possible, correct the error.
  1. Although engineers realized the design flaws in the Titanic soon after its sinking in 1912, the reasons for the severe damage inflicted by the iceberg remained a mystery until its discovery in 1985.
  2. To provide spill protection, all tanks were equipped with catchment basins and automatic shutoff devices or overfill alarms or ball float valves.
  3. The Lunar Module was only designed to hold two astronauts.
  4. As airplane designs change the anti-ice systems also have to change.
  5. The report claimed that a hull wire could have ruptured a gas cell if it fractured.
  6. Most people are diagnosed with phenylketonuria at birth.
  7. The beams are positioned with respect to the chopper blade so that while one beam passes the output of the opposite beam is completely blocked.
  8. In low water temperatures and high toxicity levels of oil, we tested how well the microorganisms survived.
  9. The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen because it is lighter than air.
  10. With the lid off the reactor core was exposed, allowing radioactive isotopes to escape.

References

  1. Michael Alley, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018), Lesson 3.
  2. Theodore Bernstein, The Careful Writer (New York: Free Press, 1995).
  3. H. W. Fowler, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965)..
  4. George Whitesides, “Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper,” Advanced Materials, vol. 16, no. 15 (2004), pp. 1375-1377.
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