Medical writers and editors are often the core contributors on writing projects, and they need a solid understanding of grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
In writing, style refers to the preferred way we express ourselves in writing and how we represent an organization’s identity or a company’s brand. Style guides or manuals include myriad instructions about word choice, grammar, abbreviations, citations, and other details that create and maintain an identity for a publication or text.
In this blog, we review some common style errors and introduce you to resources and tools that can help strengthen your writing foundation and prevent errors.
A good place to begin is a medical style guide.
A Resource for Medical Style
One key resource is the American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style, described as the “must‑have guide for anyone involved in medical and scientific publishing.” Understanding this industry standard style is crucial for medical communicators, and it is one key to advancing in this competitive field.
For example, if you write healthcare as one word, you will be identified as a writer or editor who is unfamiliar with AMA style, which adheres to this term as 2 words (health care). If you are considering a career in medical communication, you must follow the style of the discipline.
AMWA members can access the AMA Manual of Style with a special discount.
Common Medical Style Mistakes to Avoid
A few medical style mistakes are common to beginning medical communicators. Sharpen your skills by recognizing, correcting, and eventually preventing these errors.
Overuse of nominalizations
Nominalizations are nouns created from verbs or adjectives. For example, decision is a nominalization of decide, and intensity is a nominalization of intense. Nominalizations are common in medical writing, but they tend to lead to wordier sentences rather than simpler subject-verb statements. For example,
The classification of nutrients as essential or indispensable makes for an extensive list.
Better:
Many nutrients are classified as essential or indispensable.
Misplaced or dangling modifiers
Modifiers clarify or give additional information about a concept in the sentence. Dangling modifiers make the sentence more ambiguous because of incorrect placement.
For example, consider this sentence: Dr. Taylor treated the patients using antidepressants.
You can interpret this sentence in more than one way because it does not clearly state whom Dr. Taylor treated. Did he use antidepressants to treat patients in general? Or did he treat only patients who were already using antidepressants?
Recasting the sentence as follows makes the information more clear:
Dr. Taylor prescribed antidepressants for these patients.
When a misplaced modifier appears at the beginning of a sentence, it is a dangling modifier because it does not modify the first noun in the sentence. For example,
Using a #5 blade, an incision is made to the abdomen.
In this sentence, the opening clause does not modify the first noun (incision). One possible solution is to assign a subject to the modifier:
Using a #5 blade, the surgeon made an incision to the abdomen.
Nonparallel construction
Nonparallel construction is common in many types of writing. When terms or phrases are listed or compared, they should have the same form or pattern—that is, they should have parallel construction. Consider this example:
There was a long delay between the development of the assay and when it started to be used in clinical practice.
In this sentence, “development of the assay” and “when it started to be used in clinical practice” are different structures. Here we fix the error:
There was a long delay between when the assay was developed and when it was used in clinical practice.
This mistake with nonparallel construction occurs often in bulleted lists. When crafting lists, make sure to structure each bulleted item in the same way as the others. For example,
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Check to see that each item is punctuated the same way; if one item uses a period, the rest should also.
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Ensure that verbs use the same tense.
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Make sure to maintain singular or plural construction (medical writers vs. the medical writer).
Faulty comparisons
Faulty comparisons are a common type of nonparallel construction. This is often a result of a writer attempting a shortcut by making assumptions on the part of the reader. Be alert when using comparison terms such as greater, less than, more, like, and similar to.
A simple example:
The progression-free survival in group 1 was greater than group 2.
The writer intended to compare survival in group 1 to survival in group 2. But the sentence actually compares survival in group 1 with group 2 itself. So the writer must add words to allude to survival, like this:
The progression-free survival in group 1 was greater than that in group 2.
A more complex example:
Outcomes with chemotherapy for lymphoma are similar to diffuse lymphoma in other sites.
Here is the corrected sentence:
Outcomes with chemotherapy for lymphoma are similar to those for diffuse lymphoma in other sites.
Redundancy
Redundancy is common and can appear in many forms. Medical writing can be detailed and formal, but it should not be unnecessarily wordy.
Consider this example:
The rash on her skin is red in color and rough in texture.
“In color” and “in texture” are redundant because readers know that red is a color and rough is a texture. Beginning medical writers might miss that “on her skin” is also redundant because it need not be stated that a rash is on the skin.
Redundancy abounds in writing in general and in medical writing specifically. Watch for phrases such as “combine together,” “advance planning,” and “general consensus.” For other examples, see the table of redundant words in section 11.2.1 of the AMA Manual of Style.
Lack of agreement between noun and pronoun
Agreement between a noun and its pronoun is a basic grammatical principle, but many factors can complicate the issue. One common error is disagreement between a pronoun and noun when the noun is a company or client.
Consider this example:
The pharmaceutical company has been successful in sharing information with their stakeholders.
“Company” is singular, so it calls for a singular pronoun. The corrected sentence should include “its stakeholders” instead of “their stakeholders.”
Inclusive Style
One rapidly growing aspect of style involves the words we use to describe people when discussing race and ethnicity. The AMA Manual of Style pays close attention to evolving understandings of bias and how to communicate concepts of race and marginalization.
This AMWA blog post explores some of the recent changes to AMA style in response to current awareness of the importance of communicating with inclusive language. The AMWA course Updated Guidance on Inclusive Language for Science Writers and Editors presents an overview of these changes.
Growth for Medical Communicators
Every medical writer has different experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. No matter where you are in your medical communication career, you can always benefit from taking stock of what you know and don’t know, especially about grammar, punctuation, and usage. Mastery of these topics is a crucial first step toward becoming a successful medical writer. The following are some resources for continued learning.
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For early career medical communicators, AMWA’s Essential Skills Certificate program establishes a firm foundation for expertise in medical communication.
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As you advance in your career, especially if you take on many editing assignments, AMWA’s Certificate in Medical Editing helps enhance and fine-tune editing skills, including adhering to relevant style guides.
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AMWA events and online learning opportunities can help medical communicators at every step of their career.
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For further reading, the AMWA Journal has regular columns with helpful tips for medical communicators. The Conscious Writing section helps writers bring awareness and intention to their craft.
A Tool for Medical Communicators
AMWA’s Medical Editing Checklist provides a simple explanation of macroediting and microediting, along with a thorough checklist that covers the essentials of grammar, spelling, and usage. The checklist helps medical communicators at any career stage to avoid unnecessary errors, sharpen their writing, and ensure that the intended audience will grasp the meaning of your message.
This content was originally developed by Lori Alexander, MTPW, ELS, MWC, and was published on the AMWA blog in 2020. It has been revised/updated by AMWA for republication. AMWA acknowledges the contributions of Crystal Herron, PhD, ELS, in the development of this AMWA resource.
