Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Layout of the fourth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Problem: the illness
- Part II Solution: symptomatic relief
- 4 Technology, changing language and authority
- 5 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 6 Spelling
- 7 Is there a better word?
- 8 Superfluous words
- 9 Imprecise words
- 10 Superfluous phrases
- 11 Trouble with short words
- 12 Use of the passive voice
- 13 Consistency: number and tenses
- 14 Word order
- 15 Punctuation
- 16 Circumlocution
- 17 Words and parts of speech for EAL writers
- 18 Clichés and article titles
- 19 Constructing sentences
- 20 Further help with sentences for EAL writers
- 21 Drawing clear graphs
- 22 It can be done
- Part III Practice: recuperation
- Appendix British–American English
- References and further reading
- Index
10 - Superfluous phrases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface to the fourth edition
- Layout of the fourth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Problem: the illness
- Part II Solution: symptomatic relief
- 4 Technology, changing language and authority
- 5 Guidelines to clearer writing
- 6 Spelling
- 7 Is there a better word?
- 8 Superfluous words
- 9 Imprecise words
- 10 Superfluous phrases
- 11 Trouble with short words
- 12 Use of the passive voice
- 13 Consistency: number and tenses
- 14 Word order
- 15 Punctuation
- 16 Circumlocution
- 17 Words and parts of speech for EAL writers
- 18 Clichés and article titles
- 19 Constructing sentences
- 20 Further help with sentences for EAL writers
- 21 Drawing clear graphs
- 22 It can be done
- Part III Practice: recuperation
- Appendix British–American English
- References and further reading
- Index
Summary
It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language . . .. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.
(Antoine Lavoisier, 1743–1794, the father of modern chemistry. Traité élémentaire de Chimie, 1789.)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.
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.
HAS BEEN SHOWN TO
HAS BEEN FOUND TO
WAS NOTED
These constructions, which occur in a number of variations and tenses – have been shown to be . . ., had been found that . . ., is noted to be . . . – can usually be omitted or replaced by a simple verb. We applaud the simple verbs show and found instead of demonstrate and exhibit, but they have a tendency to become compound verbs: the giveaway is the attachment of to. Found – unsurprisingly – is a common word in medical articles: about one in every 1000 words. A quarter of those occurrences are in found to, and two thirds of those are in found to be. Shown is a less common word, but a third of its occurrences are in shown to of which nearly half are in shown to be. On Ngram, found and shown both occur half as frequently as in PubMed®, and fewer than a tenth of the occurrences are attached to to.
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- Medical WritingA Prescription for Clarity, pp. 200 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014