OCG533, Fall 2001
Answers to Assignment 3, Articles
Here are ten sentences from your samples of writing. Comment on the right or wrong use of articles in each. Rewrite as necessary or as you feel led.
1. I need help with grammar, precision, and the overall
awkwardness of my written voice.
Grammar and precision are
abstract nouns, and so do not need articles. In contrast, overall awkwardness
of my written voice is a member of the class awkwardness, and so
needs an article.
2. Salinity plays a major role in the composition of ocean waters.
This sentence is fine. Salinity is
an abstract noun, even though used here to later refer to salts dissolved in
water, and so does not take an article. Ocean waters also represents an
entire class, so takes no article.
3. The Gilbert Stuart Brook is the source of [the]
freshwater for this estuary.
Brooks, streams, and creeks by convention
don’t take articles, although big rivers such as the Mississippi, the
Nile, and the Amazon do. A the before freshwater for this
estuary may or may not be required, depending on the broadness intended by freshwater.
If you mean the freshwater as opposed to the saltwater in the
estuary, then members of the class water are in play, and would take an
article. If you mean freshwater in general in the estuary, then freshwater
stands for a class, and takes no article. Note that in this case, the
prepositional phrase for this estuary modifies the entire the source
of freshwater, not just freshwater; this keeps freshwater general by
not narrowing it specifically.
4. The high-temperature and saline upper water had an HSW core
centered at about 200 dbar, a highest salinity of more than 34.90, and a
temperature of about 20 °C.
This sentence contains a triple direct
object, which may be represented as V[DO1 + DO2 + DO3].
To make this structure clearest, the objects should be written as nearly
parallel as possible. One way to do this is to show the article for each, since
they are all members of various classes. You don’t have to worry about overly
repeating articles because they aren’t the same; the first is an, and
the last two are a.
5. The lowest salinity value at all the stations appeared at
around 26.75 sigma-theta, so the seawater properties at that value should show
the intrusion route of the LSW.
Assuming that this passage refers to a
particular investigation, it would be wrong to write all stations, which
would mean the entire class of stations worldwide. Thus we write all the
stations, meaning all in this particular experiment only.
6. (Title) A low salinity water core of the
Kuroshio in the East China sea and an intrusion of the western
boundary current east of the Ryukyu Islands.
Since this noun phrase is a title, and
titles are commonly written in short form like headlines, one may omit some
articles that would normally be needed. The full version would, however, require
an article with low salinity water core because it is a member of a
class, an article with Kuroshio because it is a specific geographic
feature rather than a class, and articles with intrusion of … and western
boundary current east of … because they are members of classes. Water
is deleted because it is the only kind of core a current can have.
7. On 19 August 1997, extensive flooding by typhoon Winnie happened
along the western coast of Korea, which is a remote area from typhoon center and
has no significant local wind forcing.
We don’t use an article with extensive
flooding by typhoon Winnie happened … , or with typhoon Winnie created
extensive flooding, because extensive flooding is a class, not a
member. Had we instead written the severe flooding created by Typhoon Winnie,
the flooding would have been a member of the class flooding. We won’t
bother to correct from typhoon center because it needs to be rewritten as
remote from typhoon centers.
Revision: On 19 August 1997,
typhoon Winnie created extensive flooding along the western coast of Korea,
which is normally far from typhoon centers and without significant local wind
forcing.
8. The variability of sea level using (a?) monthly averaged
series of sea levels has been extensively studied for the coasts of the
Northwestern Pacific Ocean.
Variability of sea level … takes
an article because its postmodifiers show that it is a narrow member of the
large class variability. Sea level does not take an article
because at this first mention it can only be considered as the general class.
The article before monthly is questioned because it depends on whether series
is singular or plural. This sentence needs to be revised, as shown below.
Revision: The sea-level
variability along the coast of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean has been studied
extensively by using a series of monthly averages.
9. Monthly mean sea levels are suitable and accessible data in the
investigation of climatic ocean variations.
Investigation of … takes an
article because it is a member of a class. The added article the
disappears, however, when the sentence is rewritten with verbs (gerunds,
actually) in place of the weaker nouns.
Revision: Monthly mean sea
levels are suitable and accessible types of data for investigating climate-scale
oceanic variations.
Revision 2: Monthly mean sea
levels are suitable and accessible types of data for investigating climate-scale
variations of the ocean.
10. In Shanghai, while the population density of the densest district,
Nanshi, is 58223 (persons/sq. km), that of the sparsest one, also located in the
center part, is only 15228 (persons/sq. km).
This sentence needs rewriting as well as
articles.
Revision: Although the
population density of Nanshi, the densest district of Shanghai, is 58,223
persons per square kilometer, the density of the sparsest one, also in the
center, is only 15,228.