(3) Adjectives, adverbs, and conjunctions in Scientific Writing

科学写作中的形容词、副词和连词

Adjectives are used to modify nouns and to ascribe properties to the subject or object of a clause, whereas adverbs are used to modify all parts of texts except nouns. Although, in general, few adjectives and adverbs should be used in scientific writing to avoid fluff and keep the text short and easy to understand, using correct ones can help the writer communicate with the readers more effectively.

Adjectives: extremely big

Verbs: frequently walk

Adverbs: very thoughtfully

Articles: just the book I need

Sentences: Fortunately, we found him.

Conjunction is defined as a word that links words, phrases, or clauses. They are easier to illustrate than define (the first two are also categorized as subordinating conjunctions). 

Adverbial: although, because, since, when

Relative: who, whom, whose, which, that

Sentence: however, nevertheless, therefore, thus

Coordinating: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet

Correlative: both … and …, not only … but also…, neither … nor …

A thorough reading of Belytschko et al. (2009) has identified some useful adjectives, adverbs, and conjunction words that can be definitely useful for your writing, listed in Table 1. 

AdjectivesAdverbs

Conjunctions or
useful words / phrases

accessibleaccuratelyalthough
additionalappropriatelyas a consequence
advantageousarbitrarilyas already mentioned
appealingbasicallyas can be seen
conceptualcloselyas described later
convenientcollectivelyas indicated in the above
conventionalcompletelyas proposed in
desirablecomputationallyas shown in
difficultconsequentlybecause
efficientconvenientlyby contrast
embryoniccurrentlyfollowing this viewpoint
essentialdirectlyfor example
extensivedramaticallyfor this purpose
feasibleeasilyfurthermore
identicalespeciallyhowever
implementationalexactlyin addition to
inadequateextremelyin contrast
incompatiblefruitfullyin the latter
independentfurtherit can be seen that 
indispensablegenerallyit is sometimes stated that
majorimmediatelyit is worthwhile to illustrate
noteworthylatelyit should be mentioned that
particularparticularlyit should be pointed out that
pertinentpreciselyit should be stressed that
promisingpreviouslyit was reported that
robustreadilymoreover
significantrecentlynext
straightforwardrelativelynote that
unifiedremarkablyof course
versatilerespectivelyon the other hand
well-knownsignificantlysince 
 similarlyso that
 simplysubsequently
 strictlysuch as
 substantiallytherefore
 tremendouslythus
 usuallyto illustrate this
 widelywhereas

 1. BELYTSCHKO, Ted, GRACIE, Robert, et VENTURA, Giulio. A review of extended/generalized finite element methods for material modeling. Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, 2009, vol. 17, no 4, p. 043001.

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