English in Chemistry-Q&A ^^

[PTThang]

Hello everyone.

First, I'm very sorry about creating my topic here but I couldn't found any proper area for the content of my question. It is the question about English Grammar in Chemistry or how to use correct english in chemistry documents. I am from Vietnam not an english speaking country so sometimes when I have to make analysis report to oversea customers, I have a lot of confuse about the using word and grammars. "One false step leads to another" and my report will be some kind of terrible thing.

And my question today is "Major VOCs are considered as the most abundance compounds in analysis sample and occupied more than 85% of TVOCs Distribution."

Is it OK for me if I use the sentence above in my analysis report, in this case I wonder about "considered as", "TVOCs distribution" utilization? Should I remove "as" in "considered as" or use "TVOCs Contents" instead of "TVOCs Distribution"?

Many thanks for your opinions or any other suggestions.

[Peter Apps]

Hello everyone.

First, I'm very sorry about creating my topic here but I couldn't found any proper area for the content of my question. It is the question about English Grammar in Chemistry or how to use correct english in chemistry documents. I am from Vietnam not an english speaking country so sometimes when I have to make analysis report to oversea customers, I have a lot of confuse about the using word and grammars. "One false step leads to another" and my report will be some kind of terrible thing.

And my question today is "Major VOCs are considered as the most abundance compounds in analysis sample and occupied more than 85% of TVOCs Distribution."

Is it OK for me if I use the sentence above in my analysis report, in this case I wonder about "considered as", "TVOCs distribution" utilization? Should I remove "as" in "considered as" or use "TVOCs Contents" instead of "TVOCs Distribution"?

Many thanks for your opinions or any other suggestions.

If the 85% is the result of an analytical measurement then "considered" is the wrong word - "considered" suggests that the result that you are reporting is a matter of opinion rather than a matter of fact.

The sentence says the same thing twice - the major part of the VOCs is 85% of the VOCs. Or in other words that 85% of the VOCs are 85% of the VOCs. I thnk that you probably want to say something different to this.

Peter

[PTThang]

From Peter "The sentence says the same thing twice - the major part of the VOCs is 85% of the VOCs. Or in other words that 85% of the VOCs are 85% of the VOCs. I thnk that you probably want to say something different to this."

Thank you.
Let me explain more detail about my question. I'm the person in charge of GC/MS in our Lab, when I give my analysis result to customer, as you may know, there are so many obtained compounds which are from very low concentration to high concentration and in some kind of sample, the number of these compounds could be reached to hundreds. Of course the report will be as long as hell, if I make the report with the detailing of all compounds (Compound name, concentration...). So the point here, I have to make it short by dividing it into two group:
+ Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) = Major Volatile Organic Compounds (Major VOCs)+Other VOCs (The Remaining)
+ Major VOCs which have the amount that equal to 85% and above of Total VOCs and they are one of the highest concentration in analysis sample. The Major VOCs will be first numbered with limited amount (usual about 40 compounds and more than 95% of total compounds' amount), and had detail information about Name, concentration and so on...
+ The Others (the remaining VOCs) is only given in simple information as concentration without identification because they have very small amount (usual less than 5% and unidentifiable)
=> I want to let my customer to understand my report clearly, I give them the definition of Major VOCs as questioned yesterday.
I'm not sure that my definition is correct or not, so please let me know my mistake or correct my sentence in this case.

[Peter Apps]

From Peter "The sentence says the same thing twice - the major part of the VOCs is 85% of the VOCs. Or in other words that 85% of the VOCs are 85% of the VOCs. I thnk that you probably want to say something different to this."

Thank you.

+ Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) = Major Volatile Organic Compounds (Major VOCs)+Other VOCs (The Remaining)

This is clear and logical

+ Major VOCs which have the amount that equal to 85% and above of Total VOCs and they are one of the highest concentration in analysis sample.

This is unclear, and may be illogical. There can only be a maximum of one VOC with a concentration of 85% of the total VOCs, because 2 x 85% = 170%

The Major VOCs will be first numbered with limited amount (usual about 40 compounds and more than 95% of total compounds' amount), and had detail information about Name, concentration and so on...

I think that what you intend to do is to start with the biggest peak, identify it and report the percentage that it contributes to the total VOC peak area, if it is less than 85% you go to the next largest peak and repat the process until you have identified all the peaks whose areas when added together make up 85% of the total area
+ The Others (the remaining VOCs) is only given in simple information as concentration without identification because they have very small amount (usual less than 5% and unidentifiable)
=> I want to let my customer to understand my report clearly, I give them the definition of Major VOCs as questioned yesterday.
I'm not sure that my definition is correct or not, so please let me know my mistake or correct my sentence in this case.

I am also not sure that I understand what it is that you are trying to say, or what the data analysis process is, so I cannot help with this.

The best thing for you to do is to find someone who speaks both English and Vietnamese, you can then explain to them in Vietnamese, and they can translate it into English

Good luck Peter

[PTThang]

It is really nice if you also know about GCMS works. As I mentioned and wrote "s" behind the VOC many times to mean a plural of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) so when I say "Major VOCs" it will be involved of many kind of VOC which they have total amount equal to 85% Total VOCs' amount which included Major VOCs and Others.

So how about this one "Major VOCs are the compounds which are considered as the most abundance compounds and more than 85% TVOCs Distribution in analysis sample."?

[CE Instruments]

Major VOCs are the compounds which are considered as the most abundance compounds and more than 85% TVOCs Distribution in analysis sample."?

Major VOCs are the compounds which are considered as the most abundant compounds and more than 85% TVOCs Distribution in analysis sample."?
Abundance refers to a general distribution. "The most abundant" means that of the compounds present these make up 85%

Not sure if this is what you mean to say ?

Major VOCs are the compounds expected to be the most abundant, and in the samples analysed TVOCs made up more than 85% of the compounds found.

[Peter Apps]

It is really nice if you also know about GCMS works.

The problem is not with the GC-MS analysis, or with the results, but with how these results are expressed. No technical knowledge of GC-MS is necessary to correct the English, as long as you can make it clear what it is that you did. You are not able to make clear what you did by writing in English - that is why you posted the question. Also, I am not sure that you understand clearly what it is that I am writing

As I mentioned and wrote "s" behind the VOC many times to mean a plural of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) so when I say "Major VOCs" it will be involved of many kind of VOC which they have total amount equal to 85% Total VOCs' amount which included Major VOCs and Others.

So: do you indentify and quantify only the subset of VOCs that are most abundant and that collectively contribute at least 85% of the total VOCs ?. If so then this:

So how about this one "Major VOCs are the compounds which are considered as the most abundance compounds and more than 85% TVOCs Distribution in analysis sample."?

Can be expressed as this: Major VOCs are the compounds that are most abundant and together make up 85% of the total VOCs.

Peter

[PTThang]

Thank you all, guys. You help me much to solve my problem. I hope my stupid didn't bother you much^^! See you on my next problem in the near future.