Ben Yousef Benkhedda University

Faculty of Sciences

Department of Natural and life Sciences

TECHNICAL ENGLISH

Academic year: 2023 - 2024

 Introduction to English for specific Purposes :

This course is designed students to help them adapt to nowadays

technological advancement, knowing that the English language is a vital tool in

the area of scientific research as well as getting to know more about the learner’s

field of study.

In today’s course, you will refresh your mind concerning the different

tenses which are used in academic writing of scientific essays, journals and

articles. Due to the fact that not all the tenses are suitable to be used in academic

writing and research, since some of them demonstrate a tone of informality,

which is not favorable to be found.

Note that knowing more about the grammar of English language will

allow you to use it appropriately in debatable situations about your field of study,

as well as writing academic pieces of writing in a perfect way that illustrates your

proficiency in your speciality.

 Tenses in English and academic writing : (PART I)

There are three main tenses :

 Past

 Present

 Future

Each one of these tenses includes four (4) aspects :

 Simple

 Continuous (in some references, it is called « progressive »)

 Perfect

 Perfect continuous

Every tense has a particular function in writing. However, in academic writing, only

three tenses

tend to be the most commonly used, which are : present simple, present perfect and

past simple.

1- When should we use the present simple ?

It is widely known that the present simple tense is the one that is extensively used in

academic

writing , so if you are writing a scientific essay , and you doubt about which tense to

use , this

tense will be the best option to go for in a similar case.

There are two main situations in academic writing which require the use of the present

simple

tense :
a- Describing facts, generalizations and explanations :

Especially when it comes to the explanation of scientific terms in your subject area or

even

theories.

Examples :

• Photosynthesis refers to the process by which plants convert sunlight into chemical

energy.

• The domaine of Plant Physiology includes the study of phytochemistry.

• Plants produce a wide array of chemical compounds not found in other organisms in

order to function and survive.

b- Describing the content of a text :

This rule is applicable when you describe what you are doing in your own text. For

instance,

when you summarize a research in your study abstract, describing your objectives

behind

conducting a study, or giving the overview of your topic in the introduction.

Examples :

• This research aims to synthesize the two theories related to Photomorphogenesis.

• Chapter 9 explains the methodology and discusses ethical issues.

• The paper concludes with recommendations for further research.

2- When should we use the past simple ?

For scientific purposes, the simple past tense is used to report the steps of a given

research

(yours or someones’s else research) that have been completed. Describing historical

events
related to science is also an option that can be consulted whenever it is needed.

Examples :

• We found a positive correlation between the variables, but it was not as strong as

we hypothesized.

• We transcribed and coded the interviews before analyzing the results.

• All of the focus group participants agreed that environmental physiology is a recent

field of study in plant ecology.

3- When should we use the present perfect ?

The present perfect is used to describe past research that happened in an unspecified

time. You

can also use it to establish a link between the findings of past research and your own

work.

Examples :

• Green et al have conducted extensive research on the ecological effects of wolf

reintroduction.

• Recent studies have found that biology of plants differs with animals, since their

symptoms and responses are quite different.

 How to form correct grammatical structures using the three previous tenses ?

Basically, all the verbs in English take the same form in the infinitive, unlike

French that includes the endings (er – ir and re) which makes it easier to

understand.

Verb in the infinitive = To + stem

E.g : To summarise

1- present simple : We omit « to » and we keep the stem.

 With (I – you – we – they) : we put the stem only. E.g : you summarise the

findings

of research.

 With (he – she – it) stem + s. E.g : the biologist aims to understand how

living

organisms function.

2- Past simple : in this tense verbs are classified into two main categories (regular

and irregular verbs).

Regular : stem + ed. E.g : the scientists concluded all the results about

phytopathology

Irregular : changes occur on the level of the stem itself. E.g : Jan Baptist Van

Helmont grew a willow tree for five years in a pot containing 200 pounds of

oven-dry soil.

(the infinitive is : to grow => grew in simple past)

3-Present perfect : it generally refers to an action that started occuring in the past

and it is ongoing in the present / moment of speaking.

Have or has + stem in past participle. E.g :

 A researcher has discovered that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients

as

inorganic ions in water.

 Contemporary studies have agreed that one of the most important areas of

research in environmental physiology is that of phytopathology, the study of

diseases in plants.

«Our world is built on biology and once we begin to understand it, it then becomes a technology.»

Ryan Bethencourt