Writing in Health Sciences

The Research Article

Luis Saldarriaga (English teacher)

Writing in Health Sciences

The protocol

• Select a field and a topic for research.

• Plan the research and write it down as a protocol.

• It starts with a title and a summary.

• The protocol should include the rationale for the study, objectives and methodology.

The protocol

• The protocol should include ethical considerations and gender issues (if relevant).

• It should also include the statistical methods used for sample size calculation and for data management and analysis.

• And the protocol should include relevant references to previous work on the topic.

The null hypothesis

• A research must not be carried out to prove a hypothesis, but only to test it.

• The null hypothesis is the assumption that the research hypothesis is not true.

• If the results do not support the null hypothesis, then the research hypothesis is more likely to be true. But usually there is no absolute certainty about the validity of scientific results, only a high level of probability.

The research article

The research article

• Introduction: why this research was done.

• Methods: how this research was done.

• Results: what the researchers got.

• Discussion: implications of this research for its field. Why the findings are relevant.

• References: about what has been done before.

• Abstract: a brief summary of the present research.

Moves in Introductions

• Move 1: What the topic is. Why it is important.

• Move 2: The nature of a problem, its significance. What has been done.

• Move 3: The gap, a very specific problem that brought about the need for the research.

• Move 4: Filling the gap (solving the specific problem). Objectives of the report.

Moves in Introductions

Move 1: Research area (What the topic is)

Move 2: General research question (The nature of the problem)

Move 3: Specific research question (The gap)

Move 4: Research objectives (Filling the gap)

Writing moves in Introductions

Methods

Methods

Randomised controlled trial of specialist nurse intervention in heart failure (BMJ 2001)

Results

Discussion

Abstracts

Abstracts should provide the context for the study, state the study’s purposes, basic procedures (selection of study subjects, observational and analytical methods), main findings (giving specific effect sizes and their statistical significance, if possible), and principal conclusions. They should emphasize new and important aspects or observations of the study.

Publish or perish

• Research is not complete until its results are published in scientific journals.

• But a scientific report will not be accepted for publication until it has been approved by other scientists, who serve as referees (peer review).

• Another way to inform the scientific community is to present the results in scientific meetings.

Publish or perish

Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Common mistakes

Compound nouns

Compound nouns

Past Tense vs Present Perfect Tense

Adjectives with -ed and -ing

Adjectives with -ed and -ing

Passive voice Object + Verb to be + Main verb (past participle)

Style I

• Short words, short sentences

• Short paragraphs

• No jargon, no abbreviations

• Prefer nouns and verbs to adjectives and adverbs

• Cut all cliches

• Don’t be too chatty

Never use six words when one will do

Style II

• Avoid figures of speech and idioms

• Prefer active to passive

• Prefer the concrete to the abstract

• Don’t hector

• Be careful with slang

• Avoid “the unblack cat crossed the not unwide road”

• Do not be non-unstuffy.

Prefer active to passive

Style III

Prefer Anglo Saxon over the Latin:

• Assist (help)

• Commence (begin, start)

• Comprehend (understand)

• Humiliate (demean)

• Inundate (flood)

• Mortal (deadly)

• Rapid (quick, fast)

Style IV

Avoid phrasal verbs. Use verbs with Latin/ Greek derivations instead.

• Look about, look into, look up.

• Survey, examine, consult.

• Doctors used to put people under by chloroforming them.

• Doctors used to anesthetize people with chloroform.

To be or not to be

• It is challenging for health care personnel to be up-to-date. (“To be”)

• Health care personnel face challenges in staying up-to-date. (Not “to be”)

• There are several strengths of this study, including… (“To be”)

• Strengths of this study include... (Not “to be”)

• There’s evidence… / Evidence suggests…

Parallelism: Use the same pattern of words

Grammar tip – Please never say: “Gaga enjoys dancing, singing and to wear food on her body.”

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

You can either leave a preposition at the end or re-structure the sentence:

1. She is a person I cannot cope with.

2. She is a person with whom I cannot cope.

However, most grammarians would select option 1 when speaking but option 2 when writing.

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

• It is behaviour I will not put up with. (This example ends in two prepositions: "up" and "with".)

• It is behaviour up with which I will not put. (This example sounds extremely contrived.)

A good solution is to re-word the sentence:

• It is behaviour I will not tolerate.

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

In some passive expressions it is impossible to avoid this:

• The dress had not even been paid for. √

• Paid for the dress had not even been. X

• The match was rained off. √

• Rained off was the match. X

• "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." (Oscar Wilde) √

Ending a Sentence with a Preposition

• Two unrelated ladies (A and B), waiting at airport lounge, sitting next to each other. One of them asks the other:

• Excuse me, where are you from?

• I am from a place where we never end our sentences with a preposition.

• So, where are you from, bitch?

And please avoid this (in every sense)

Images in Medicine.

N Engl J Med 363;18 (2010)

References (1)

• A practical guide for health researchers. (WHO 2004)

• The inside view on writing for medical journals. (BMJ - Power Point presentation)

• SCIENTIFIC WRITING - Easy When You Know How. BMJ (2002)

• Clinical Epidemiology: How to Do Clinical Practice Research. Chapter 16 (2005)

References (2)

• Writing a research article: advice to beginners. Int J Qual Health Care (2004)

• Preparing Manuscripts for Submission to Medical Journals: The Paper Trail. Effective Clinical Practice (1999)

• Dena Bain Taylor: A Guide To Verb Tense Voice And Mood In Scientific Writing. (Online)

References (3)

• Zimmerman F: English for Science. (1989)

• Chemistry journal articles: An interdisciplinary approach to move analysis with pedagogical aims English for Specific Purposes. English for Specific Purposes (2013)

• Oral health: prevention is key. Lancet (2009)

• Images in Medicine. A Foreign Body. N Engl J Med 363;18 (2010)