Symptoms of Medicus Incomprehensibilis - Series Introduction
Medical science writing tends to be hard to read and understand. It would be easier to read if everyone wrote in plain English.
To prove this point, we have written a few blog posts based on excerpts from articles published in leading medical journals. In each post, we look at an excerpt, and note symptoms of medicus incomprehensibilis. We conclude by revising the excerpt using the tips from our book, Plain English for Doctors and Other Medical Scientists (Oxford University Press, 2017).
We intend these case studies only to help teach plain English medical writing. Please don’t take them as criticism of any author or journal. You may feel uneasy that we analyze and revise someone else’s work. Like dissecting a cadaver to learn anatomy, dissecting medical writing can seem unpleasant, but it is part of learning.
We hope these posts inspire you to write in plain English.