<![CDATA[Plain English for Doctors & Other Medical Scientists

<![CDATA[Plain English for Doctors & Other Medical Scientists - Blog]]>Wed, 08 Apr 2020 08:17:04 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Oxford Medicine Online Highlights Plain English for Doctors]]>Tue, 14 Jan 2020 01:08:31 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/oxford-medicine-online-highlights-plain-english-for-doctorsOur book, Plain English for Doctors, has been highlighted on Oxford Medicine Online's list of Clinical Skills books.

The books on the list were chosen to "help you develop and hone the essential clinical skills that every medical professional needs."

https://oxfordmedicine.com/page/clinical-skills]]><![CDATA["Writing Medical Science in Plain English" Talk at DePauw University & University of Akron]]>Mon, 22 Oct 2018 14:29:26 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/writing-medical-science-in-plain-english-talk-at-depauw-university-university-of-akron

We had two really great talks this month with Pre-med students from the Phi Delta Epsilon International Medical Fraternity at DePauw University & the University of Akron.

What they had to say:

"I liked the talk and handout because I have read a lot of medical journals for research and there have been many times where I’ve read a whole journal and not know what I just read because of all the medical speak. I think this should be implemented more."
"All the information was very helpful and was nice to hear as a freshman so that I can use it over the next few years of college."
"Glad I saw examples because I didn’t really believe that would improve writing at first, but seeing the examples made it obvious."
"I thought this was a great presentation that was full of information. I look forward to reading your book! Thank you for your time!"

]]><![CDATA[Book Cover Released]]>Mon, 06 Aug 2018 15:02:03 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/book-cover-released

We are very happy to share with you the cover design for our new book, Diagnosing and Treating Medicus Incomphensibilis:
Case Studies in Revising Medical Writing (Oxford University Press). The book will be released October 10, 2018 and is now available for pre-order. For more information on how to pre-order check out: https://www.pe4d.com/diagnosing-and-treating-medicus-incomphensibilis-case-studies-in-revising-medical-writing.html

]]><![CDATA[Article on OUP Blog]]>Tue, 01 May 2018 12:42:47 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/article-on-oup-blogOxford University Press has published an excerpt from our book, Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists, on their blog.

The article, "Ten Reason to Write in Plain English," is available now.

Read it here: https://blog.oup.com/2018/05/ten-reasons-to-write-in-plain-english-excerpt/]]><![CDATA[Article on Oxford Medicine Online]]>Wed, 04 Apr 2018 13:26:16 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/article-on-oxford-medicine-onlineThe homepage for Oxford Medicine Online, this month, features our article on writing medical science in plain English.

The article, Medicus Incomprehensibilis - Writing in Plain English, is available for free at: oxfordmedicine.com

Helloquence

]]><![CDATA[Book Release Date]]>Wed, 22 Feb 2017 13:54:15 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/book-release-date-march-15thWe are very happy to announce our new book Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists will be officially released in E-book on March 15th and in Paperback on April 12th.

The book is now available for pre-order through various booksellers around the world. For more information on where to pre-order check out: www.pe4d.com/pre-order.html

]]><![CDATA[Cover Design Released]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2017 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/cover-design-released

We are very happy to share with you the cover design for our new book, Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists, published by Oxford University Press. The book will be released April 12, 2017.

The book is now available for pre-order through various booksellers around the world. For more information on where to pre-order check out: https://www.pe4d.com/plain-english-for-doctors-and-other-medical-scientists.html

]]><![CDATA[Michigan Bar Journal Article]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2017 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/michigan-bar-journal-articleOur new article in the Michigan Bar Journal is now online: "Plain English Helps Explain Medical Issues Clearly." www.michbar.org/file/barjournal/article/documents/pdf4article3039.pdf]]><![CDATA[4. Making Clear the Risk of Testosterone]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2017 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/4-making-clear-the-risk-of-testosteroneThis blog post looks at an excerpt from an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (1) We underlined the long words.

The generalizability of these results is limited, however, because we excluded men with a high risk of prostate cancer and men with moderately severe urinary tract symptoms. Furthermore, the sample size was inadequate to assess reliably the effect of testosterone on the risk of these conditions. (WSEG = 46/23.0/23.4/15.6)

The WSEG score shows: this 46-word excerpt has an average sentence length of 23.0. Its reading ease score is 23.4 and grade level, 15.6. To us, this looks like garden-variety medical writing. We understand it, but it isn’t as clear as it might be.

Revising to improve reading ease

How might we revise to improve reading ease? For one thing, we would expect a text written in plain English to use sentences closer to 15 words average, and 25 words at most. The first sentence is 27 words long; we can easily split it in two.

This excerpt also uses more long words than it needs to. Nine of the 45 words, or 20%, have three syllables or more (9/46 = 20%). We can also replace some of the long words with shorter ones. In the excerpt, we underlined the long words and bolded the essential scientific terms. The table below shows our thoughts on replacing long words with shorter ones.

Trying to replace long words with shorter words

Long words	Shorter words that mean about the same thing
generalizability	general, generalize, can generalize
however	but, although
furthermore	too, also, and
inadequate	not enough, too small, too few, not robust
reliably	rely, reliable, repeatable, precise, accurate
conditions	illness, problem, disease

Precise vs. Accurate

As we looked for shorter words, it led us to ask, What does assess reliably mean here? The definition of assess is to estimate or judge the value, character, etc., of; evaluate (e.g., to assess one's efforts.)(2) In this context, the word assess alone implies a sound assessment. Therefore, the phrase assess reliably seems redundant.

Does it mean the assessment is precise, accurate or both? Precise means repeated measurements show the same results. Accurate means measurements come close to the true value. (3)

Since we weren’t sure what the excerpt was trying to say, we left out the word reliably.

Our Revision

Here is our attempt to revise to improve reading ease.

Original	Revised
The generalizability of these results is limited, however, because we excluded men with a high risk of prostate cancer and men with moderately severe urinary tract symptoms. Furthermore, the sample size was inadequate to assess reliably the effect of testosterone on the risk of these conditions. (WSEG = 46/23.0/23.4/15.6)	But we can’t generalize much from these results. Why? Since we left out men with a high risk of prostate cancer or moderately severe urinary tract symptoms. The sample size was also too small to judge how testosterone affects the risk of these conditions. (WSEG= 44/11.0/68.7/6.4)

We reduced long words to just 13% (6/45 = 13%). Is this the best revision? Perhaps you can think of something better. The point is: when you try, you can often improve reading ease a lot.

How much does reading ease change?

The chart below shows before and after WSEG scores.

WSEG	Meaning	Original	Revised	Change
W	Total words	46	44	-2
S	Average sentence length	23.0	11.0	-12.0
E	Flesch Reading ease	23.4	68.7	40.4
G	Flesch-Kincaid grade level	15.6	6.4	- 9.2

These data show a reader would find the revision much easier to read. If the whole article were revised in plain English, it could reach a much wider audience.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we looked at an excerpt that used long sentences and long words —two classic symptoms of medicus incomprehensibilis. We revised to fix these issues. We talk more about reading ease in Chapters 1 and 2 of Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists (Oxford University Press, 2017).

This blog post is fourth in a series on the Symptoms of Medicus Incomprehensibilis.

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(1) Snyder P, et al., “Effects of Testosterone Treatment in Older Men,” NEJM 374, no. 7 (2016): 622.
(2) Dictionary.com, s.v. “Assess," http://www.dictionary.com/browse/assess?s=t.
(3) Wikipedia, s.v. “Accuracy and precision,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision (accessed 1/23/17).

]]><![CDATA[3. Breast Cancer Detection in Passive Voice]]>Thu, 08 Dec 2016 15:00:00 GMThttps://www.pe4d.com/blog/3-breast-cancer-detection-in-passive-voiceOne symptom of medicus incomprehensibilis is passive voice. Passive voice means that the subject of the sentence receives the action rather than doing the action. Passive voice can be a useful writing technique, but it works best when you use it sparingly. Sometimes, it can make a sentence sound vague, wordy or abstract. Medical writing tends to overuse passive voice.

For this post, we look at an excerpt from an article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association(1) that uses three sentences in passive voice and one in active voice. We underlined the words in each sentence that make it passive.

Mammograms from women attending routine breast cancer screening at these centers during the study period were included. These were arranged into batches of approximately 40 women pursuant to standard practice in the United Kingdom. All mammograms taken during the study period were included in the trial, regardless of when they were examined. Each batch contained all cases from a single mammography acquisition machine in a single day. (WSEG = 67/16.7/ 35.7/12.5)

Note that the first and third sentences both say that mammograms … were included. The mammograms didn’t do anything. Instead, somebody did something with them.

Passive voice often involves a form of the verb to be plus a past particle. The first sentence uses the word were, the past tense of to be, and included, the past participle of to include. In the second and third sentences, the words, were arranged, were included, and were examined show they also use passive voice.

Can we revise the excerpt to improve reading ease? The only special terms we see are mammogram and mammography, and they are commonly understood. Therefore, we think we can probably revise to improve reading ease.

Our Revision

Here is our attempt to revise the excerpt to use less passive voice and improve reading ease.

Original

Revised

Mammograms from women attending routine breast cancer screening at these centers during the study period were included. These were arranged into batches of approximately 40 women pursuant to standard practice in the United Kingdom. All mammograms taken during the study period were included in the trial, regardless of when they were examined. Each batch contained all cases from a single mammography acquisition machine in a single day. (WSEG= 67/16.7/35.7/12.5)

The trial used the mammograms from women who came for routine breast cancer screening at the centers. It covered mammograms taken during the study period without regard to when they were read. They were arranged into batches of about 40 women under UK standard practice. Each batch contained all mammograms from one machine for one day.
(WSEG = 56/14.0/61.6/8.2)

In our revision, only the third sentence has its main clause in passive voice (i.e., they were arranged). The second sentence also uses a dependent clause in passive voice (i.e., they were read). We did this to keep a consistent subject with the previous sentence.

Is this a good paraphrase of the original? Do you find it easier to grasp? Perhaps, you can think of a better way to say the same thing.

**Comparing WSEG Scores**

Let’s compare WSEG scores for the original and our revised version.

WSEG	Meaning	Original	Revised	Change
W	Total words	67	56	-11
S	Average sentence length	16.7	14.0	-2.7
E	Flesch reading ease	35.7	61.6	25.9
G	Flesch-Kincaid grade level	12.5	8.2	-4.3

These data show a reader would likely find the revision easier to read. If the whole article were revised in plain English, it could reach a wider audience.

Conclusion

In this post, we looked at an excerpt that used passive voice—one symptom of medicus incomprehensibilis. We showed how we would revise to use less passive voice and make it easier to read. We talk about passive voice in Chapter 4 of Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists (Oxford University Press, Spring 2017).

This post is third in a series on Symptoms of Medicus Incomprehensibilis.
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(1) Taylor-Phillips S, et al. “Effect of Using the Same vs Different Order for Second Readings of Screening Mammograms on Rates of Breast Cancer Detection: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” JAMA 315, no. 18 (2016): 1957.

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