Transcript IN GOD WE TRUST

AMA STYLE (Grammar)
SECTION 2
CHAPTER 7
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
STYLE OF WRITING
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10:00- 11:30
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IN GOD WE TRUST
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GRAMMAR
• The difference between the almost right word
and the
right word is really a large matter—it's the
difference
between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Mark Twain
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Modifiers
• Although in English nouns can be used as
modifiers, overuse of noun modifiers can lead
to a lack of clarity. Purists may demand stricter
rules on usage, but, as with the use of nouns
as verbs (see 11.3, Correct and Preferred
Usage, Back-formations), the process of
linguistic change is inevitable, and
grammatical rigor must be tempered by
judgment and common sense.
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• In The Careful Writer, Bernstein2 advises the
use of no more than 2 polysyllabic noun
modifiers per noun for the sake of clarity.
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Avoid
Preferred
diabetes patient
patient with diabetes, diabetic patient
depression episode
depressive episode, episode of depression
elderly over-the-counter drug users
elderly users of over-the-counter drugs
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Modifying Gerunds.
• When a noun or pronoun precedes a gerund
(a verb form ending in -ing that is used as a
noun), the noun or pronoun is possessive.
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Not;
• The toxicity of the drug was not a factor in the
patients dying so suddenly.
• The award recognized the researchers
planning as well as his performance.
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Preferred
• The toxicity of the drug was not a factor in the
patient's dying so suddenly.
• The award recognized the researcher's
planning as well as his performance.
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Subject-Complement Agreement
• Subjects and complements should agree in
number.
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examples
• The child can take off his own shoes.
• We asked trial participants to return their pill
dispensers.
However, when the complement is shared by all
constituents of the plural subject, it remains singular.
• The authors were asked to revise their paper.
• All study sites obtained approval from their
institutional review board.
• Investigators inserted a catheter into the study
participants' pulmonary artery.
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Pronouns.
• Pronouns replace nouns. In this replacement,
the antecedent must be clear and the
pronoun must agree with the antecedent in
number and gender.
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Ex
• The authors unravel the process of gathering
information about diethylstilbestrol and
disseminating it.
• The authors unravel the process of gathering
and disseminating information about
diethylstilbestrol.
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Ex
• A questionnaire was given to each medical
student and their spouses.
• Disagreement of pronoun with referent in
number; the referent is each medical student
(singular), but the pronoun used is plural
(their spouses)
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preferred
• A questionnaire was given to the medical
students and their spouses
• or
• A questionnaire was given to each medical
student and his or her spouse.
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Personal Pronouns
• Care must be taken to use the correct case of
personal pronouns: subjective (the pronoun is
the subject of the phrase or clause) or objective
(the pronoun is the object of the phrase or
clause).
• She was assigned to the active intervention
group. (She is the subject.)
• Collect all the samples and give them to her. (Her
is the object.)
• Your decision affects him and me. (Both him and
me are objects.)
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Ex
• George, Patricia, and myself attended the
lecture.
• George, Patricia, and I attended the lecture.
• The author replied to the editor, illustrator,
and myself.
• The author replied to the editor, illustrator,
and me.
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Relative Pronouns.
• Who vs Whom
• Who is used as a subject and whom as an
object. The examples below illustrate correct
usage.
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• Give the award to whomever you prefer. [Objective case:
whomever is the object of the verb prefer.]
• Give the award to whoever will benefit most. [Subjective
case: whoever is the subject of will benefit.]
• Whom did you consult? [Objective case: whom is the object
of consult.]
• Who was the consultant on this case? [Subjective case: who
is the subject of the sentence.]
• He is one of the patients whom Dr Rundle is treating.
[Objective case: whom is the object of is treating.]
• He is one of the patients who are receiving the placebo.
[Subjective case: who is the subject of are receiving.]
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That vs Which.
• Relative pronouns may be used in subordinate
clauses to refer to previous nouns. The word
that introduces a restrictive clause, one that is
essential to the meaning of the noun it
describes. The word which introduces a
nonrestrictive clause, one that adds more
information but is not essential to the
meaning. Clauses that begin with which are
preceded by commas.
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• A study on the impact of depression on US labor
costs was published in the 2003 JAMA theme
issue on depression, which contains articles on a
range of similar topics. [Nonrestrictive; there was
only one theme issue on depression in 2003.]
• The issue of JAMA that contained the article on
the impact of depression on US labor costs was
the 2003 depression theme issue. [Restrictive;
there are thousands of issues of JAMA.]
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Not;
• The high prevalence of antibodies to the 3
Bartonella species, which were examined in
the present study, indicates that health care
workers should be alert to possible infection
with any of these organisms when treating
intravenous drug users
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preferred
• There are more than 3 species of Bartonella.
Hence, the correct form here would be “...the
3 Bartonella species that were examined.
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Pronoun-Verb Agreement.
• Some indefinite pronouns (eg, each, either,
neither, one, no one, everyone, someone,
anybody, nobody, somebody) always take
singular verbs
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• some (eg, several, few, both, many) always
take the plural
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• and some (eg, some, any, none, all, and most)
may take either the singular or the plural,
depending on the referents. In the last case,
usually the best choice is to use the singular
verb when the pronoun refers to a singular
word and the plural verb when the pronoun
refers to a plural word, even when the noun is
omitted.
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Singular referent:
Some of her improvement is due to the increase in dosage.
Plural referent:
Some of his calculations are difficult to follow.
Singular referent:
Most of the manuscript was typed with a justified right-hand margin.
Plural referent:
Most of the manuscripts are edited electronically.
Singular referent:
Some of the manuscripts had merit, but none was of the caliber of last
year's award winner.
• Plural referent:
• None of the demographic variables examined were found to be significant
risk factors.
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Verbs
• In the active voice, the subject does the acting; in
the passive voice, the subject is acted on. In
general, authors should use the active voice,
except in instances in which the actor is unknown
or the interest focuses on what is acted on (as in
the following example of passive voice).
• He was shot in the abdomen and within 10
minutes was brought to the emergency
department.
• If the actor is mentioned in the sentence, the
active voice is preferred over the passive voice.
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Ex
•
•
•
•
•
•
Passive:
Data were collected from 5000 patients by physicians.
Active (better):
Physicians collected data from 5000 patients.
Passive:
The definition of bullying used in the survey was taken
from previous studies.
• Active (better):
• The authors used previous definitions of bullying in the
survey.
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Tense
Not;
• I found it difficult to accept Dr Smith's
contention in chapter 3 that the new agonist
has superior pharmacokinetics and was
therefore more widely used.
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preferred
• I found it difficult to accept Dr Smith's
contention in chapter 3 that the new agonist
has superior pharmacokinetics and is
therefore more widely used.
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Double Negatives
• A double negative is best avoided in scientific
writing because it often causes the reader to
go back and reread the sentence to make sure
of the meaning.
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• Rheumatologic symptoms were not
uncommon in both groups
• Our results are not inconsistent with the prior
hypothesis.
• The authors cannot barely contain their
enthusiasm
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Contractions
• A contraction consists of 2 words combined by
omitting 1 or more letters (eg, can't, aren't).
An apostrophe shows where the omission has
occurred. Contractions are usually avoided in
formal writing.
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Thanks for you attention
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