Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Acknowledgements
- PART I PROBLEM: THE ILLNESS
- PART II SOLUTION: SYMPTOMATIC RELIEF
- 3 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 4 Is there a better word?
- 5 Superfluous words
- 6 Imprecise words and phrases
- 7 Superfluous phrases
- 8 Trouble with short words
- 9 Use of the passive voice
- 10 Consistency: number and tenses
- 11 Circumlocution, metaphor and cliché
- 12 Word order and pronouns
- 13 Punctuation
- 14 Constructing sentences
- 15 Drawing clear graphs
- PART III PRACTICE: RECUPERATION
- Appendix: examples to rewrite
- References and further reading
- Index
7 - Superfluous phrases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the first edition
- Preface to the third edition
- Acknowledgements
- PART I PROBLEM: THE ILLNESS
- PART II SOLUTION: SYMPTOMATIC RELIEF
- 3 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 4 Is there a better word?
- 5 Superfluous words
- 6 Imprecise words and phrases
- 7 Superfluous phrases
- 8 Trouble with short words
- 9 Use of the passive voice
- 10 Consistency: number and tenses
- 11 Circumlocution, metaphor and cliché
- 12 Word order and pronouns
- 13 Punctuation
- 14 Constructing sentences
- 15 Drawing clear graphs
- PART III PRACTICE: RECUPERATION
- Appendix: examples to rewrite
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
There are important differences between writing and speaking. Spoken information needs to be padded, repeated in different ways, given a number of different emphases; all help the audience to follow the speaker's ideas. When reading, readers read at their own pace, stopping and re-reading as they need to (although the need for a lot of re-reading indicates a lack of clarity): the padding is not necessary.
Common superfluities
The following examples of the most common superfluities in medical writing would mostly seem inelegant even in speech. Yet they easily slip past the glazed eyes of the hard-pressed reader as part of ‘scientific convention’. After reading, or better, writing a few pages from which the excess has been cut, one soon develops a taste for this type of surgery. The outcome of excision is shorter, clearer text with a sense of coming to the point.
(IT) HAS BEEN SHOWN (THAT)…
(IT) HAS BEEN FOUND (THAT)…
(IT) WAS NOTED (THAT)…
(IT) WAS SHOWN TO BE, etc.
These constructions can usually be omitted or replaced by a simple verb.
It has been shown that plasma cholinesterase is decreased in pregnancy…
It has been shown that [some drugs] cause a fall in plasma potassium…
Make the unqualified statements: plasma cholinesterase is decreased in pregnancy; [some drugs] cause a fall in plasma potassium. Many writers use it has been shown that to imply doubt but if there is doubt about the universality of an observation it is better to be explicit.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Medical WritingA Prescription for Clarity, pp. 116 - 122Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006