These are the Most Common Problem Noticed by Editors of Past IEEE-TAS Special Issues:
- Improper use of definite and indefinite articles. Use “the” when writing about a specific noun or phrase. Use “a” or “an” when writing about something not specific.
- Use of indefinite articles for non-countable nouns. Incorrect: “He gave me an advice.” Correct: “He gave me advice”, and “I used the advice he gave me.”
- Use of the wrong indefinite article for spoken sound. In general, ‘a’ precedes a word with a spoken sound derived from a consonant, whereas ‘an’ precedes a word with a spoken sound derived from a vowel. Examples: “a conductor”, “an insulator”. Identifying the first letter as a consonant or vowel is not a sufficient criterion: “an honest mistake”, “a uniform field”. Acronyms, abbreviations, and constructed words are also governed by the spoken sound of the first letter: “a U.S. delegate”, “an ASC board member”.
- Improper use of prepositions. Referees and editors sometimes face a difficult challenge to interpret what the author is visualizing when a preposition the author has written does not make sense.
- Improper use of infinitives. Infinitives (“to” + base form of a verb, e.g. “to investigate”) may often be used as subjects, as a short form of ‘in order to’ or explaining ‘why’, and as objects of certain personal verbs (“I aspire to learn…”). This is a difficult problem for referees and editors, because it the replacement of an infinitive “to <verb>” by the –ing form “<verb>ing” can change the meaning of what is written, making it difficult to determine what the author meant to say.
- Subject and verb not in agreement in number.
- Changes in tense within a paragraph.
- Changes between active and passive voice.
- Capitalization errors.
- Improper punctuation.
- Run on sentences. Excessively long sentences are difficult to follow, especially when they contain multiple clauses or link many independent ideas. A sentence with five or more commas almost certainly needs to be broken into two or more sentences. A paragraph consisting of two very long sentences would be written much better with more breaks.