Scientific Writing for Computer Science Students - FTP Directory ...

54 CHAPTER 4. GRAMMAR WITH STYLE NOTES4.7 AdverbsAdverbs answer questions When? Where? What? Why? How?They express• time (immediately, now, soon, later, next)• place (here, there, everywhere)• manner (easily, temporarily, well, poorly)• degree (very, quite, ...) → Avoid in scientific texts!• frequency (often, seldom, usually, sometimes)• speaker’s attitude ”Fortunately, the data set is small, and function fcan be computed in real time.” → use sparsely!Notes:• Recommendation: Use expressive verbs and nouns which express themost of message, and as few adverbs/prepositional phrases as possible!• Use introductory adverbs like ”fortunately, similarly, conversely, certainly”carefully, as a synonum to expressions ”it is fortunate” or ”ina similar manner”. Drop them if they are not needed.• Notice that ”importantly” and ”interestingly” are not proper adverbs.E.g.”More importantly, the accuracy can actually increse when the complexityis reduced”→ ”More important, the accuracy can actually increse when the complexityis reduced.””Interetingly, we found that...”→ ”An interesting finding was that...”4.7.1 The position of adverbs in a sentenceThe adverb can be1. in the beginning, when you express time or attitude. E.g. ”Evidently,the students’ learning outcomes depend on their effort”, ”Later, werealized that...”