學術論文常見片語「as a result」，使用時應注意其背後的因果關係

文：Steve Wallace

請問在研究論文中應該如何使用「as a result」一詞？我對此感到很困惑，因為它在研究寫作中似乎有兩個含意。

──準備回覆審閱者的教授作者

「As a result」是經常用來表示因果關係的片語。

從這個意義上來說，它是「therefore」、「hence」、「consequently」、「as a consequence」及「accordingly」的同義詞。

以下是一些使用as a result的句子：

• The molecule has bulky substituents in the ortho positions; as a result, the eclipsed rotamer is energetically disfavored.
• The fact that eclipsed rotamer is energetically disfavored is a consequence of the steric bulk of the substituents.
• The diphenyl phosphine oxide group is electron withdrawing, and as a result, the central carbon of the allene is electron deficient.
• The electron deficiency is a consequence of the presence of the electron-withdrawing group.

在編輯許多論文的過程中，我經常遇到「as a result」的非標準使用法。

在該用法中，「as a result」被拿來連接描述修飾的子句，與描述該實驗結果的第二個子句。這種用法似乎特別常見在作者的母語為中文的論文中。

以下是一個例子：

We investigated the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol in water and concurrently evaluated the estrogenic activity of the treated water. As a result, 17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2 in a TiO2 suspension under UV irradiation for 3 h.

有些讀者可能會一時將「as a result」，誤解為礦化作用是調查與評估的結果。

然而，作者實際上只是單純想用as a result來承接後面的文字，僅僅只是想要描述實驗的發現結果發現。也就是說，「17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2…」構成了實驗結果。因此建議是將「as a result」放句首，改為：「As a result of this experiment, we found that…」。

以下是另一個例子：

Serial dilution tests of the JCAbl antibody were performed on the three tissues. As a result, JCAbl reacted with JCV-IMR32 cells and PML tissues at all the dilutions.

在此，作者同樣不是指抗體與組織的反應，是由連續稀釋試驗引起的。相反地，作者的意思是實驗觀察到的結果，是抗體在所有稀釋度下均與特定組織產生反應。

我不會將上述「as a result」的使用方式，視為嚴重的錯誤。但正如上一個所示範的那句一樣，有些讀者會覺得上述的用法僅是暫時分散注意力。因此我認為，最好的修改方式是將「as a result」直接替換為「we found that」：

We investigated the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol in water and concurrently evaluated the estrogenic activity of the treated water. We found that 17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2 in a TiO2 suspension under UV irradiation for 3 h.

或者您也可以修改為下列的例句：

• We investigated the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol in water…. The results of these experiments indicated that 17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2 in a TiO2 suspension under UV irradiation for 3 h.
• When we investigated the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol in water…, we found that that 17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2 in a TiO2 suspension under UV irradiation for 3 h.
• Investigation of the photocatalytic degradation of 17β-estradiol in water and concurrent evaluation of the estrogenic activity of the treated water indicated that 17β-estradiol was totally mineralized to CO2 in a TiO2 suspension under UV irradiation for 3 h.

本文經WALLACE華樂絲授權刊登，原文刊載於此

責任編輯：朱家儀
核稿編輯：翁世航