Fine-Tuning Medical Writing

Renzo Mocini

Fine-Tuning Medical Writing

Pitfalls and strategies

This book is the outcome of a series of reflections concerning some of the major difficulties Italian healthcare researchers and students often encounter when writing academic articles in English. The contents of the volume are informed by an interdisciplinary approach based mainly on the PICO model, a mnemonic expedient used in Evidence-Based Medicine and referring to the four elements typical of clinical inquiry (Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) and the possible harbinger of recovery.

Printed Edition

18.00

Pages: 158

ISBN: 9788835107149

Edition: 1a edizione 2020

Publisher code: 1058.57

Availability: Buona


While slips of the pen do not necessarily prevent readers from understanding the contents of a text, they can label authors as outsiders, as not fully-fledged members of the discourse community to which they seek entry. Although healthcare writing belongs to the realm of "scientific literature", it should be harmonic, fine-tuned, mutatis mutandis, like a well-conducted symphony orchestra, where a false note, even that of a single badly-played instrument, can compromise its overall harmony and excellence of performance.
This book is the outcome of a series of reflections concerning some of the major difficulties Italian healthcare researchers and students often encounter when writing academic articles in English. The contents of the volume are informed by an interdisciplinary approach based mainly on the PICO model, a mnemonic expedient used in Evidence-Based Medicine and referring to the four elements typical of clinical inquiry (Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) and the possible harbinger of recovery.

Renzo Mocini is Associate Professor in English Language, Linguistics and Translation at the Department of Surgical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Italy. His major research interests lie in Functional Grammar, Corpus Linguistics, language teaching methodology, narrative and discourse analysis. His recent publications include: Filling gaps in medical knowledge: comparative mechanisms in evidence-based medicine (2019, Cambridge Scholars Publishing), If lexis be the food of communication, speak on! CLIL. A language-in-progress, hands-on approach. Engineers or bricoleurs? (2018, Sette Città), The construal of trust through relevance: patterns of evaluative language in medical writing (2017, Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Giuliana Elena Garzone, Foreword
Introduction
Part one. Writing skills for EBM
Knowledge dissemination within the medical community
(The discourse community; Review of the related literature)
Evidence-Based Medicine
(The EBM paradigm; The PICO model; The PICO model vis-à-vis the IMRaD structure; The pyramid of evidence; The collection of texts and the methodology)
The P element of the PICO model
(Strategies and mistakes; Sample mistakes referred to P)
The I/C elements of the PICO model
(The study design; Study designs in primary research; Study designs in secondary research; The lexis of study designs; Sampling; Randomisation; Blinding; Confounders; Description of clinical tests carried out; The passive voice; Structural choice above the clause: prevalence of list relation structure; Sample mistakes referred to I/C)
The O element of the PICO model
(Inanimate agency; Quantitative data; Presentational constructions; Comparative mechanisms dealing with outcome; Fronting; Hedging devices; Highlighting outcomes; Uncountable nouns; Sample mistakes referred to O)
Conclusion
Part two. For a didactic pathway
From oneiric to specific motivation
Answerable questions
(The first phase of ESP teaching/learning practice: background questions; The second stage of ESP teaching/learning: foreground questions; Two supplementary activities)
Final remarks
References
Journal-article references.

Contributors: Giuliana Elena Garzone

Serie: Lingua, traduzione, didattica

Subjects: Linguistics

Level: Scholarly Research - Textbooks

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