English translation: data of various nature (kind(s); types)
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Explanation: ... reconciliation of data of various nature...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2011-07-21 12:49:59 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
The sequence
plural noun + of + singular collective noun denoting quality
is not foreign or unnatural in English. It is relatively old-fashioned but good writing, unfortunately not used frequently in the age of MS Word grammar-check programs that will demand a plural after the "of." For example, if you subject this sentence from an 1882 chemistry dictionary by an Englishman to MS Word spell-checking:
"The interior of the plant contains juices of various nature, which cannot pass through the epidermis, whereas that membrane is always impregnated to a certain extent with the moisture of the air."
... MS Word will (wrongly) demand that you change "nature" to "natures."
Here's a Google Books (published works only) search on "of various nature," in which the usage is demonstrated by native writers of English, as well as in translations and other articles by foreigners. http://www.google.com/search?q="of various nature"&hl=en&noj...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 hrs (2011-07-21 19:49:03 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I'm not terribly interested in defending myself against attacks on my command of English or competence in written English in a variety of contexts, about the motive for which (attacks) I can only speculate. But, just in case anybody might have been confused by the "Discussion" section, perhaps a few points are relevant.
- The phrases "of various nature" and "of various kind(s)" are synonymous.
- The use of a singular noun such as "nature" or "kind" in constructions of this type is a traditional one in English, which has become less frequent in recent decades, yet is still comprehensible, concise, and often graceful in prose, including scientific prose.
- The plural noun "data" is not decisively different from any other plural noun that might precede that construction.
- Even if there were ZERO examples returned by Google, the construction "data of various nature" would still be legitimate, understandable, and not offensive to the ear in English prose, including scientific prose. It's not the only option, but it's a legitimate one.
- Since pronouncements have been made about the supposed incompetence, arbitrariness, and ignorance of contextual demands, in the very suggestion of using such a construction, we might as well look at a few of the handful of instances by native writers of English (as far as I can tell; and if the words of a foreigner snuck in there, they still sound fine), available in the Internet:
"The records of a business and enterprise contain a great deal of
data of various nature, all of it important to a greater or lesser
degree and for different reasons."
"By using a GIS system for the record, combination and analysis of
data of various nature, the validity of maritime archaeological
projects is considerably enhanced."
"Publications: ... photometry of peculiar A-type stars: computer
analysis of astronomical data of various nature ..."
(Clip from bibliographical material in an entry in American Men &
Women of Science, 2003.)
"The approach suggested is both simple to apply and applicable to
a wide class of spectroscopic data of various nature."
the word 'prose' is misinterpreted in the previous post as sounding similar to the Russian 'проза,' which refers to fiction rather than scientific writing
That is, the English 'scientific prose' is good indeed as a synonym of 'scientific writing,' whereas the Russian 'научная проза' is not
Sorry about the excess
However, the original idea of that post was about the quality of argumentation used to support answers: a lack of links to the sources of quoted writings and "legitimate" as a last argument hardly make an answer more convincing
the first three examples given by Rachel are not found by Google, and the corresponding author of the paper containing the last one is a Russian speaker
Should anyone take for granted "quotes" not backed by links?
People with serious background in scientific writing know that it's by no means analogous to prose
These words may not be taken for granted either, but a quote from Grammar by George L.Trigg, a renowned expert on the subject,
"Mixed metaphors are a pain in the neck and ought to be weeded out"
says enough about the difference between prose and scientific writing:
Like any art, a piece of the former is good when it produces an aesthetic impression (by its style, metaphors etc.)
A good piece of the latter must be precise in its wording, easily readable, and devoid of any aesthetic appeal so that the reader wouldn't be distracted from its content
Trigg's Grammar can be found here: http://lib.ru/ANEKDOTY/orfograf.txt
In any rating scale of translation quality, "legitimate" is just above "grammatically correct"
Please forgive me this metaphor:
Similarly, medicine is just above theology in the rating of "precise" sciences
Beware of "scientific prose" stylists...
"данные разной природы" встречается не так часто потому, что это словосочетание маловразумительно и по-русски
Подобное "творчество" во всяком случае неуместно в ответах на вопросы, заданные под рубрикой "scientific writing"
Кстати, "смесь" ответов от Susan и Ravindra,
"data of various kinds"
представляется наилучшим вариантом
Сам именно так и перевел бы
Вы правы, в тот момент у меня был другой Гугл
Хотя
"variety of data of various nature"... что-то типа "куча данных из разных куч" (не поймите буквально)
- не тот пример, который стоило приводить :)
это было время перевода с русского не на английский, а на русский, только записанный английскими словами
Сейчас это делает машина-переводчик
И мы знаем, как это выглядит
Эх, еще каких-то 20 лет назад... сидишь крапаешь перевод на печатной машинке, обложившись словарями... и ни тебе гугла с его ссылками, и ни мультитрана... золотое было время ))
About 2,090 results (0.36 seconds)
и первое вхождение:
MegaPrime/MegaCam history in view of data quality
www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Science/CFHTLS.../megaprimehistory.html - Cached
Data users wanting to avoid headaches due to a large variety of data of various nature should in consequence focus only on data taken after the 21st of June ...
Explanation: ... reconciliation of data of various nature...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2011-07-21 12:49:59 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
The sequence
plural noun + of + singular collective noun denoting quality
is not foreign or unnatural in English. It is relatively old-fashioned but good writing, unfortunately not used frequently in the age of MS Word grammar-check programs that will demand a plural after the "of." For example, if you subject this sentence from an 1882 chemistry dictionary by an Englishman to MS Word spell-checking:
"The interior of the plant contains juices of various nature, which cannot pass through the epidermis, whereas that membrane is always impregnated to a certain extent with the moisture of the air."
... MS Word will (wrongly) demand that you change "nature" to "natures."
Here's a Google Books (published works only) search on "of various nature," in which the usage is demonstrated by native writers of English, as well as in translations and other articles by foreigners. http://www.google.com/search?q="of various nature"&hl=en&noj...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 hrs (2011-07-21 19:49:03 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I'm not terribly interested in defending myself against attacks on my command of English or competence in written English in a variety of contexts, about the motive for which (attacks) I can only speculate. But, just in case anybody might have been confused by the "Discussion" section, perhaps a few points are relevant.
- The phrases "of various nature" and "of various kind(s)" are synonymous.
- The use of a singular noun such as "nature" or "kind" in constructions of this type is a traditional one in English, which has become less frequent in recent decades, yet is still comprehensible, concise, and often graceful in prose, including scientific prose.
- The plural noun "data" is not decisively different from any other plural noun that might precede that construction.
- Even if there were ZERO examples returned by Google, the construction "data of various nature" would still be legitimate, understandable, and not offensive to the ear in English prose, including scientific prose. It's not the only option, but it's a legitimate one.
- Since pronouncements have been made about the supposed incompetence, arbitrariness, and ignorance of contextual demands, in the very suggestion of using such a construction, we might as well look at a few of the handful of instances by native writers of English (as far as I can tell; and if the words of a foreigner snuck in there, they still sound fine), available in the Internet:
"The records of a business and enterprise contain a great deal of
data of various nature, all of it important to a greater or lesser
degree and for different reasons."
"By using a GIS system for the record, combination and analysis of
data of various nature, the validity of maritime archaeological
projects is considerably enhanced."
"Publications: ... photometry of peculiar A-type stars: computer
analysis of astronomical data of various nature ..."
(Clip from bibliographical material in an entry in American Men &
Women of Science, 2003.)
"The approach suggested is both simple to apply and applicable to
a wide class of spectroscopic data of various nature."
Rachel Douglas United States Local time: 23:56 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 100
Grading comment
Thank you all!
And thank you, Rachel, for clear explanation.
The translation workplace 
