I read in the free dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/part the following rules:
You use part of or a part of in front of the singular form of a countable noun, or in front of an uncountable noun. … Don't use 'part of' or 'a part of' in front of a plural noun phrase. Don't say, for example, 'Part of the students have no books'. Say 'Some of the students have no books'. Don't say 'A large part of the houses have flat roofs'. Say 'Many of the houses have flat roofs'.
But in a subsequent section of the same page it gives the example:
A large part of his earnings went on repaying the bank loan.
I am confused. Isn't 'earnings' a plural noun? (I did check in the same online dictionary that 'earnings' is treated as a plural noun.) So why does it put 'A large part of' in front of 'his earnings'?
And in the section 'References in classic literature' of the same page, I also see the example:
Although he still hungered for the presence of the boy, who was the medium through which he expressed his love of man, the hunger became again a part of his loneliness and his waiting.
Shouldn't 'his loneliness and his waiting' as whole be treated as a plural noun? So why is 'a part of' put in front of `his loneliness and his waiting'?
So can I say "This work includes part of the results in my master thesis" and "…leading to my master thesis … (the title of my thesis), with parts of its results being published in …(a journal's name)" ? If not, how should I say? Change 'part' into 'some' or what?
Best Answer
Some nouns have a plural form that is a collective noun - one where we treat a group of things together as a single item. Examples are earnings, results and data (which is actually the plural of datum).
With plural collective nouns, you can think of them as either singular (the group) or plural (the individual items). This doesn't generally affect the verb case, but you can use either some of or part of.
The definition that you quote overstates the strength of the rule:
The Oxford Guide to English Grammar is rather more cautiously worded (note the highlighted **normally*:
Both of these sentences are therefore OK:
Note that I have changed the preposition in to from because you have copied data from your thesis to the work that you are describing. I have also added an apostrophe-s after Master.