2. Do you fear writing your first medical
manuscript?
If yes, we can understand your fears. English is often
considered as the most difficult and tricky language to
learn. Probably due to its tricky grammar rules or
exceptions to these rules.
For example, the past tense of “sit” is “sat”, but the past
tense of “hit” is “hit”. Similarly, “overlook” and “oversee”
are words with a different meaning, but “look” and “see”
are synonyms.
3. Just remember the following three
aspects of English grammar to write
a perfect and error-free medical
manuscript.
4.
5. 1) Tenses
It’s important to use the right tense in your
research paper; when the things happened
or will happen. Use the same tense
throughout your paper. If you write your
research paper in the past tense, stick to it.
6. Past simple: It is the basic form of past tense in English and
talks about the action completed in the recent or the distant
past. It includes adding‘d’, ‘ed’, or ‘ied’ to the base form of the
verb. e.g. ‘We mixed the solutions’
Past continuous: It describes the actions which began in the
past and are still going on. e.g. ‘We were mixing the solutions’
Past perfect: This tense talk about the actions that were
completed before a point in the past. e.g. ‘We had mixed the
solutions’
Past perfect continuous: It describes an ongoing action that
started in the past and continued for some time in the past. e.g.
‘We had been mixing the solutions’
7. Don’t change the tense in between your sentences or
paragraphs. It will only confuse the readers and they
will fail to understand the essence of your ideas.
For example, A tiny bird sits on the ground, close to the
nest. The bird cries out for its mother. Several
people passed by, looked at it, but no one touches the
bird.
Can you observe the inconsistency of the tenses in this
paragraph? Doesn’t it confuse you?
8. 2) Punctuation
Presence or absence of a simple comma can change the
meaning of a sentence. For example:
“Let’s eat, Joseph!” and
“Let’s eat Joseph!”
The meaning changes when you use a comma, a colon or a
semicolon in a sentence. Keep your sentences short and
simple to make sure the readers understand their meaning.
9. The second difficulty arises with the use of
apostrophes. They are tricky for native and non-native
speakers alike. Apostrophes are used for two purposes:
To show possession – the child’s book
In abbreviations – that’s instead of that is, doesn’t
instead of does not
Remember, for plurals which include numbers, do not
use an apostrophe. Like apples, not apple’s and 1980s,
not 1980’s.
10. 3) Word Types
Nearly 50% of the English language comprises
of nouns, the names of things, people and places.
These words are the most simple and impossible
to go wrong, but other words in the sentence can
be challenging.
11. Articles: When to use the article and which one to use
can be confusing. “the” is used to refer to something
specific like “write all the key points”. “A” and “an” are
used for general things. “An” is used before a word that
starts with a vowel sound like “an electric charge” and
“a” is used for words that start with a consonant sound.
E.g. “a friendly mail”.
Prepositions: Prepositions like about, besides, below,
between, above, etc. tell you where something is, and
using the right one will guide the reader through your
research. When in doubt, check it with your editor.
12. English might be tough, but it’s not
impossible. Just convey the right meaning of
the sentences and present your research
manuscript in an understandable and
reproducible way.
