Help with English

[Jonnas]

Hey, sorry if this thread is irrelevant, but I need some urgent help with English (of the formal kind). I'm finishing my thesis in English, and two wording issues have come up.

 

1: Instead of "They need to be tuned", can I say "They require to be tuned?". Or is it only correct to say "They require tuning"?

 

2: Is "In most cases" interchangeable with "Most of the time"? There are two paragraphs where I have to use this expression (in the spoiler). I just need to know if I'm using them correctly:

 

When making such a broad analysis, it is important to find models as simplified as possible, knowing that even the most complex structures can be reduced to simpler systems, most of the time. Simply supported footbridges can be modelled as simple structures, meaning that this is the most adequate system to examine in this study.

(...)

 

The structure in question is a beam, held together by two pinned supports. In most cases, it is sufficient to consider a single vertical degree of freedom in its mid-span (pictured in figure 4.1), as it represents its biggest displacement and the most problematic deformation in the beam.

 

 

 

I'll appreciate any help!

[Shorty]

1: Instead of "They need to be tuned", can I say "They require to be tuned?". Or is it only correct to say "They require tuning"?

You can't say "require to be", probably because "require" basically combines the verbs "need" and "to be" on its own. "They require tuning" or "Tuning is required" are fine.

 

2: Is "In most cases" interchangeable with "Most of the time"? There are two paragraphs where I have to use this expression (in the spoiler). I just need to know if I'm using them correctly:

You're using it fine yeah. I wouldn't say it's 100% interchangeable, "most cases" literally refers to repeated occurrences and suggests that the majority of them will be the same, but "most of the time" could refer to the majority of all time or a single time period.

[S.C.G]

1. They require tuning

 

2. Mostly, in most cases and most of the time

 

They all seem to mean the same thing but as to which one is more fitting, I'd say it's context sensitive.

[Dog-amoto]

[Jonnas]

Thank you They were all proposed corrections, but the person suggesting them isn't fluent in English, so I needed to tidy up the wording a little bit, and even after that, those parts looked weird to me.

 

"Requires Tuning" was how I had it originally, but they asked me to put "to be tuned". I see I can't keep the fancy "requires", now, gotta go with the simple "needs to be"

 

Thank you once again

[bob]

Is this Masters or PhD?

[MoogleViper]

Depending on context you could say "They are required to be tuned". However I would only use this if it was something more official akin to a rule.

 

e.g. you could say something like "The rules of the University state all oscilloscopes are required to be tuned before experimentation is conducted". However something less official would have to be "Before I can begin the experiment the oscilloscopes require tuning".

 

n.b. I know nothing about oscilloscopes, or whether or not they require any sort of tuning.

[Supergrunch]

The reason "require to be tuned" is bad is that require can't take an infinitival complement. As others have said, "need to be tuned" is fine, and this is because need can take an infinitival complement. If you find need too low register but still want to retain "to be tuned," you could try something like "it is necessary for them to be tuned," but I think at this point the phrasing gets sufficiently wordy that it's better style just to use need.

 

[Edit: As Moogle's comment shows, it's actually more complex than this - both allow infinitival complements, but it's still to do with the differing properties of need and require - in technical terms it's about whether they allow a structure known as raising. But this isn't terribly relevant to the advice.]

 

"Most of the time" and "in most cases" are very similar, but I think there's a small register difference - I personally find the former more casual and would avoid it in formal writing. And you should consider just using usually, which also means largely the same thing. I'd write the passage you quote as follows:

 

"knowing that even the most complex structures can in most cases be reduced to simpler systems."

 

"The structure in question is a beam, held together by two pinned supports. It is usually sufficient to consider a single vertical degree of freedom in its mid-span (pictured in figure 4.1)"

 

So I've used "in most cases" for the first sentence and "usually" for the second, and have moved their positions to respectively following the auxiliary can and copula is, which reads more smoothly to me.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Supergrunch

[Jonnas]

Is this Masters or PhD?

 

Masters. So, nothing too fancy

 

Depending on context you could say "They are required to be tuned". However I would only use this if it was something more official akin to a rule.

 

e.g. you could say something like "The rules of the University state all oscilloscopes are required to be tuned before experimentation is conducted". However something less official would have to be "Before I can begin the experiment the oscilloscopes require tuning".

 

n.b. I know nothing about oscilloscopes, or whether or not they require any sort of tuning.

 

That's good to know. I wasn't aware of that usage. The sentence that I'm writing isn't a rule, though, it's more along the lines of "A human being requires breathing".

 

I ended up going with "needs to be tuned", anyway, as it fit the complete sentence better. All things considered, it's not that important (especially considering I won't be graded by anglophones).

 

"Most of the time" and "in most cases" are very similar, but I think there's a small register difference - I personally find the former more casual and would avoid it in formal writing. And you should consider just using usually, which also means largely the same thing. I'd write the passage you quote as follows:

 

"knowing that even the most complex structures can in most cases be reduced to simpler systems."

 

"The structure in question is a beam, held together by two pinned supports. It is usually sufficient to consider a single vertical degree of freedom in its mid-span (pictured in figure 4.1)"

 

So I've used "in most cases" for the first sentence and "usually" for the second, and have moved their positions to respectively following the auxiliary can and copula is, which reads more smoothly to me.

 

As usual, you have good suggestions I ended up going with "in most cases" for both paragraphs, though, since that's more evocative of what I'm trying to convey (namely, that I'm actually talking about potential situations a.k.a. cases).

 

When making such a broad analysis, it is important to find models as simplified as possible, knowing that, in most cases, even the most complex structures can be reduced to simpler systems.

 

(...)

 

In most cases, it is sufficient to consider a single vertical degree of freedom in its mid-span (pictured in figure 4.1), as it represents its biggest displacement and the most problematic deformation in the beam.

 

 

 

The use of "usually" was something that slipped my mind, but it is not quite what I want to convey. I tend to think that something "usually" happens, but this is describing a course of action to take, not something that just happens.