So, in this last module for week three, I just want to give some parting tips about
repetition, key words, and acronyms. Some of these things I've alluded to
already, but they're worth repeating. And so, I'm, as we've going along in some
of modules, I've noted a couple of times something about repetition.
So, I've pointed out to you a few times where I think the authors you know, had
used a word once, and then they found themselves using the same word either
within the same sentence or maybe a sentence nearby.
And they reached either in their brain or, you know, an actual thesaurus, they reach
for a synonym to give a different word there, to replace that word with a synonym
because they didn't want to repeat the word.
And so, I think a lot of us have you know, after years of being told not to repeat
words, somehow, somehow we've got it ingrained that we're never supposed to
repeat a word too close to having used the word before.
And so, this is something that, you know, everybody kind of does.
We find ourselves reaching for the thesaurus.
So, as I've alluded to before, there's a couple of things I want you to do when you
find yourself reaching for the thesaurus to avoid using that word twice or, you
know, multiple times. So, the first question I want you to ask
yourself is whether or not the second instance of the word is even necessary.
And I've given you several examples where when you find yourself repeating the word,
it's actually just because you're being too repetitive, and you don't really need
to use the word at all. There doesn't, there nothing is necessary.
You can just delete it completely. So, so I gave you some examples two weeks
ago, there was a sentence where the author has used challenges and then difficulties.
And, we didn't need challenges and difficulties in the same sentence.
They were both, those words were making the same point.
And in that same sentence, the author used the verbs illustrate and demonstrate.
And, actually, we only need one of those verbs because we could use illustrate or
demonstrate for both solutions and challenges.
So, we could drop one of those verbs altogether.
In an earlier module this week, I gave you an example where in the first sentence the
author wrote, evidence-based medicine teaches clinicians.
And then in the second sentence, they started the next sentence, it guides
clinicians. So, they had to use an it, they replaced
evidence-based medicine with an it., and then they reached for the Thesaurus to
find another word that wasn't teaches but was like teaches, and they found guides.
So, that was another instance where actually we didn't need two sentences
there, and so we ended up deleting one of those sentences and deleting the word
guides and just leaving it teaches. So, a lot of times when you find yourself
reaching for the second instance of that word is actually not even necessary.
It's telling that you need to, need to lead something.
But, of course, there are some times when the word is actually needed.
And then, you may be tempted to say, well, okay, I've, I've gone through, I've vetted
it, and I know I do need to refer to this word again, it's not just repetition.
But I, I still feel like, I won't ever say the same word twice, so you're reaching
for that synonym. Ask yourself the question then, is if the
word is really needed. Is the synonym actually better than just
repeating the word? And so, you can get into a lot of trouble,
and I'm going to show you some amusing examples.
When you're trying too hard to replace a word with a synonym, sometimes, it's
actually better to just repeat the same word and it's okay to repeat a word
sometimes. Now, this is especially important for
scientific literature, for scientific manuscripts because sometimes it's
absolutely essential that you repeat exactly the same word as is every time you
use it in the manuscript. Which may mean, that it's repeated
frequently within, you know, a close distance.
So, these are things like when you're naming the comparison groups in your
study. When you're naming the variables, or
naming the instruments you used. I even see with, with my students that
they are tempted to even change all those words.
So, those key words, and that can lead to all sorts of trouble, right?
So, I've had students come in and, you know, they're working on a particular
disease. Well then, you know, they, there's two
words for the same disease and one is to use the, the one word, and another
instance they use the other word. And, of course, I don't know that those
are exactly the same disease so I think, well, maybe those are slightly different
takes on the same disease, right? It gets the reader confused.
Or, you can imagine if you're calling, you're comparing groups and you've got
like an obese group and a lean group. And, one case you call it the obese group
versus the lean group, but then later on you say, well, I already used those terms
so I'm going to call it the heavier group versus the lighter group.
Well, that's problematic because now, as the reader, I'm going to myself, oh, is
that a new group? Have you redefined the groups?
Have you rejiggered the categories? You know, I think that you're talking
about a whole different group. So, it's absolutely essential in
scientific writing that you be consistent in how you name those keywords.
So, again, I just want to repeat, [laugh] I want to repeat to you that it's okay to
repeat a word. Sometimes it's necessary to repeat a word,
and sometimes it's actually better to repeat that word than to reach for the,
the awkward synonym. And, there's some fun examples that I just
have to share with you of, of needless synonyms.
So, this is instances where professional writers, these are all examples that came
from newspaper and magazine articles, they kind of have this oh, I can't repeat a
word, you know, drilled into them. And so, they went to find a synonym, two
simple words and came up with these kind of very amusing synonyms, so I have to
share some of these with you. These examples, by the way, were compiled
in an article in Time, and I have the reference down there if you want to read
further and find some more of these examples.
Probably, the most famous example of this is there was an article that somebody was
writing about a fruit company. And, they used the word banana several
times because, of course, not surprisingly, since it was an article
about fruit. And they felt like, oh, I've used the, the
word banana too many times. And so, at one point, you know, three or
four bananas into the piece, they started referring to the banana as the elongated
yellow fruit and you can see that that's just kind of ridiculous.
It's probably just better to say banana. I've got several other cute examples of
this. So, there was a piece in the newspaper
where the author was talking about a beaver.
And the author replaced beaver on a, you know, a second or third reference with the
furry, pedal-tailed mammal. Another article, mustache was replaced
with under nose hair crops. Another article, milk from a cow was
referred to as the vitamin laden liquid from a bovine milk factory.
So, you can see these just, you know, they're really funny because it's, the,
the author's just trying too hard, just go with a simple word.
And then, finally, there was an example where somebody replaced the word skis, and
they've used skis already so they didn't want to repeat so they replaced skis with
the beatified barrel staves. So, you can see how quite amusing it is
when you're trying too hard to come up with synonyms.
It would have better just in all those cases to stick with a simple word.
And, if you want to read more about this, there's that Time article that I, I have
on the, the earlier slide. And then, Henry Fowler actually coined the
term elegant variation for this kind of needless synonyms.
So, he came up with this term of, of people trying too hard to come up with a
synonym rather than just using the simple word to avoid repetition.
And so, if you want to read his whole, whole article on elegant variation, the
link is there for those of you who are curious.
And, I just want to, you know, emphasize again that, you know, I'm giving you some
examples that are a little amusing or inelegant in, you know, magazine articles.
And it, but, you know, elongated yellow fruit, everybody's going to understanding
your meaning. It's even more disastrous, not just
needless, it's kind of sometimes disastrous in scientific writing to
substitute a key word with a synonym. So, again, the reader, if you, if you
start switching around the names of your groups, the names of variables to, just to
avoid repetition, your readers actually going to think that you're referring to
different groups, different variables, models, instruments.
And so, it was really disastrous. And I've, I've reviewed many, many papers
where this has been a major problem because I actually thought that the
authors were, you know, talking about two different groups, or talking about two
different variables, and I didn't realize that they were actually talking, referring
to the same thing. But, they changed their words, probably to
avoid repetition. So, you don't need to avoid repetition.
So, it's not, it's, it's actually okay and preferable in many cases to repeat a word,
especially a key word. And this leads to a final thought in
acronyms which I've mentioned in an earlier module but it's, it's worth
repeating. Again, it's okay to repeat words and I,
and I think one of the reasons that acronyms have become so just widespread in
he scientific literature is simply that, I think, when authors are writing, you know,
they're writing this same key word over and over again.
It's not that, its not like that they get a little lazy and don't want to keep
typing it out. I think that they have this thought, oh, I
can't repeat a word and they feel this, you know, angst about the fact that
they're repeating this keyword so many times.
So then, they fall into the trap of making an acronym to avoid repeating it.
Well, it would be better again, just to write out the keyword than to just make up
acronyms all over the place. As I talked about in an earlier module, we
had the example where an author had abbreviated Micro RNA, which of course, is
itself already an acronym, with the acronym MIR.
And I should point out sometimes people make the distinction between acronyms and
initialisms. Acronyms actually, you know, making a kind
of a new word, and initialisms just being the initials.
I'm not going to, I just tend to refer to them, to them all as acronyms but I'll
point out that distinction. So, you can see that, that you know, using
MIR in this case rather than micro RNA was really unnecessary.
It only saved a few letters, and the author's, you know, the reader is not
going to know what MIR is. It would have been easier for the reader
if he just, repeated micro RNA. So again, I'm going to repeat myself and
say to you, please only use very, very standard acronyms like RNA and DNA.
And please, don't make acronyms as you go along make them up, you know?
A lot of authors do this nowadays, when they're writing on, saying, oh, I have to
just keep saying the same keyword, I'm just going to come up with an acronym.
That's really, really, really hard on the reader.
And, I can't tell you how many papers I've been reviewing where I've, you know,
gotten lost in acronyms because there's just, they're just so all over the place.
In, in manuscripts nowadays, and it's not that easy to find the definition.
So basically, I have, as a reviewer, I have to stop, or a reader, say, oh, what
was that acronym? Now, I'm going to search through the whole
paper to try to find where they defined that acronym.
It's really distracting and makes the paper much, much harder to read.
So, I'm going to really encourage you to give up the acronyms except the ones that
are most absolutely the standard. And if there's a few acronyms that you
can't let go of, or that you absolutely won't let go of, at least make sure that
you define them in the abstract as well as within each table and figure, as well as
within the text. Because remember, reader's are not
necessarily reading all of those parts. And for long papers, I actually recommend
that you redefine those acronyms occasionally in different parts of the
paper because most readers don't typically sit down and read a paper from start to
finish. So, just because you had that acronym
early on, and defined it early on, doesn't mean that it's going to be easier for the
reader to find that definition. So again, try to cut down on your use of
acronyms and don't feel bad about repeating those keywords.
It's better to repeat those keywords, than to find ridiculous synonyms for them, or
to turn them into acronyms. The preceding program is copyrighted by
the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
Please visit us at med.stanford.edu.