The choice of words: scientific writing part 2

Every scientist needs to become something of a wordsmith. Accurate word selection has a tremendous impact on the clarity and readability of your manuscript, and its chances of getting published. In this article, I briefly review a few practical points regarding accurate use of words in scientific writing for medical journals:

1-????Always use terms consistently:

Many writers switch between different terms to mean the same thing. This is generally not advised, mostly because the interchangeably used words do not necessarily harbor the same meanings.?

One example is the frequently interchanged use of “participants”, with “patients”, “cases”, “individuals”, or “subjects”. In this example, the word participants reflects the role of people in the research process or possibly their active role in the study, whereas “individuals” is preferably used when you mean to distinguish an individual or a group from another group or corporation. Another example is “atopy” and “allergen reactivity”, which do not exactly have similar scientific definitions. Try not to be tempted to change between terms to describe the same outcomes. For indexing in databases such as MEDLINE, it is better to select the most commonly used term, define it in methods and use it consistently throughout your paper.

2-????Short vs. long words:

Sometimes we choose longer words to appear more academic: This is a big mistake. Always use short, clearly understood words. Longer words may also bear the wrong meaning and cause confusion.?

Some examples include:?

-???????Established an agreement vs. has agreed.?

-???????Methodology vs. methods.?

-???????Utilize vs. use.

-???????Dosage vs. dose.

-???????Prevalence vs. incidence.???

3-????Avoid emotive terms:

Emotive terms are strictly off-limits in scientific writing.??We need to be factual and describe what we think or what we saw in a non-emotive way.?

-???????E.g. participants who have back pain, vs. participants who suffer back pain.?

When the P-value gets below 0.001: strong risk factor rather than a powerful one (limit your enthusiasm!)

4-????Abbreviations:

Should be avoided whenever possible, unless your abbreviation refers to a standard measurement such as cm or mm. Once an abbreviation is defined, then you must use it throughout your paper in preference to the full expression. Moreover, do not invent your own abbreviations so that the reader has to remember the abbreviation while reading your paper.

5-????Spelling:

Now that all digital writing programs have spell-checking abilities, poor spelling is no longer excusable. Always spell-check your manuscript at least twice before submission. Remember that some spelling errors may not be recognized by word spell checker as your spelling error may generate another word that has a distinct meaning ie. rats vs. rates, or affect vs. effect.?

Finally, remember to choose your words in the correct syntax.?