Point-Highlighting in Academic Writing

Rama Al Sawah

Nawras Al Halabi

Supervised by: Prof Nazir Ibrahim

Part II

Style• Formal writing– what to avoid?

• What confuses my reader?

• Phrasal verbs

• Abbreviations

• Prefixes

• Singular or plural?

• When to use Italics?

• Lots of ovarian-cancer women are diagnosed in an advanced stage,rending it a big thing in the Gynecology field.

• About 75% of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed in an advanced stage, rending it a large issue in the Gynecology field

Formal writing – what to avoid?

#01 avoid “lots of” give considerable data

#02 Do not classify patients by ailment

#03 avoid big/little use large/small

#04 avoid “thing” use “issue, factor or topic”

Formal writing – what to avoid?

• Women who have symptoms concerning for ovarian cancer should undergo various tests, including physical examination, transvaginal ultrasonography, measurement of biomarkers like cancer antigen 125 and so on.

• Ovarian cancer affects women of all ages but isn’t commonly diagnosed until after menopause.

#06 avoid “so on” and “etc.” “and” or “ and

other.” #05 avoid “like” “such as”

#07 try to avoid absolute statements use “may” or

“tends to”#08

DO NOT CONTRACT WORDS!

Formal writing – what to avoid?

• One of the good aspects of long-term hormonal contraceptive use is that it reduces the risk of ovarian cancer by about 50%.But how can we treat it? Treatment involves surgery.

• Fortunately, it has been proved that the physical and mental health of post-menopausal women gets better with hormone replacement therapy.

#09 avoid “good” and “bad” use “positive” or “negative” #10 Do not use questions

#11 avoid personal attitude

#12 avoid “gets better/worse” “improves/ deteriorates”

What confuses my reader?• Compound modifiers

• E.g. small bowel tumor

• Abbreviations

•E.g. Hep C (hepatitis c)

• When should we avoid them?

When is it preferable to use them?

• E.g. vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)

Use a hyphen “ – “ Small-bowel tumor

Introduce it between parentheses

Prefixes

• “non” – avoid it when possible

• e.g tumor is nonpalpable ?• a nonobstructed view ?• was non-diagnostic in 21 patients ?

• “Post” and “pre”

• e.g. painful voiding was present in 18 of the patients post flexible cystoscopy• painful voiding was present in 18 of the patients after flexible

cystoscopy

If the language used is nonperfect, it can make understanding nonpossible!

Phrases

• Why avoid them?

Verbal phrase Substitution

Consisted of

Rule out

Look at

Prior to

Build up

Before

Compromised

Exclude

Assess

Accumulate

PhrasesPhrases Sub.

The majority of

A number of

A variety of

With regards to

Has the ability to

Not the same

Not often

Due to the fact that

Despite the fact that

Matter of debate

Although

Because

Various

RarelyDifferent

Several

Can

Concerning

Most

Contentious

Singular or plural?Uncountable nouns NO plural form • Behavior• Data• Research• Education• Equipment• Information• Knowledge• Progress• Staff• Work

ARE

IS

IS

ISor

ARE?

When to use Italics?

• Titles

• Emphasis

• Words in a foreign language

• Introducing a term

References

References

References

References

• Hall, George M. How to write a paper. 5th ed. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2013.

• Bailey, Stephen. Academic Writing, A handbook for international students. 3rd ed. Canada: Routledge, 2006.

• Doubeni CA, Doubeni AR, Myers AE. Diagnosis and Management of Ovarian Cancer. PA, USA: Pubmed, 2016.

Thank you