| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
Special Reports |
1 From the Radiological Society of North America, 820 Jorie Blvd, Oak Brook, IL 60523. Address correspondence to K.L.F. (e-mail: franks@rsna.org).
Index terms: Radiology (journal)
Grammar and punctuation are very important to communication and are of immense help in meeting the goal of the writing process: to ensure clear communication of ideas. Meeting this goal is particularly important to RSNA manuscript editors because our goal is to help authors communicate with the readers of our journals, who are from various parts of the world and some of whom may not be as familiar with the English language as others. The following are some of the most common grammar and punctuation problems encountered in scientific writing, which then serve to obscure the authors’ meaning.
Grammar
Modifiers
It should be clear what an adjective (ie, modifier) is modifying. Sentences often are written so that the adjective is modifying the wrong noun or a phrase is modifying a noun when it should be modifying a verb.
On the basis of (not based on) their previous clinical results, the authors developed their treatment plan.
If "based on" were used instead of "on the basis of," the sentence would mean that the authors are based on their results.
Thirteen patients were scanned by using (not using) a 10-MHz US transducer.
If "by" were not inserted before "using," "using" would be an adjective with nothing to modify (ie, a dangling participle), because an adjective cannot modify a verb.
Modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the words they modify. Note the different meanings of the three sentences below:
Only the mammographic findings were positive in the 20 patients.
The mammographic findings were only positive in 20 patients.
The mammographic findings were positive in only 20 patients.
Which versus That
"That" introduces essential information, but phrases that begin with "which" give additional, nonessential information and are set off by commas.
The fetal sonograms that were obtained at 24 weeks gestation depicted all of the abnormalities.
The fetal sonograms, which were obtained at 24 weeks gestation, were not available for interpretation.
In the first sentence, "that were obtained at 24 weeks gestation" is essential information: It makes clear which sonograms, as opposed to others obtained at another time, depicted the abnormalities. In the second sentence, only one set of sonograms was obtained; that they were obtained at 24 weeks is extra information. The emphasis in the second sentence is that the sonograms were not available for interpretation. "Which were obtained at 24 weeks gestation" is additional information and is thus set off by commas.
Parallel Construction
It is easier for readers to understand a comparison or a list if the items are presented in similar—or parallel—form.
The fracture was hypointense on either the T1-weighted or the T2-weighted SE MR images (not either on the T1-weighted or the T2-weighted SE MR images).
Anthropomorphism
Only humans—not imaging modalities (eg, CT, US, MR imaging) or equipment—can diagnose, detect, or identify. Imaging modalities and equipment can help the radiologist to diagnose or detect, and imaging modalities specifically can depict findings.
CT helped [the physician] to diagnose hepatocellular carcinoma.
Hepatocellular carcinoma was diagnosed with CT.
MR imaging depicted the cerebral aneurysm.
Punctuation
Hyphenation of Compound Modifiers
In most cases, modifiers composed of more than one word (ie, compound modifiers) are hyphenated when they precede the noun but not when they follow the noun. If no confusion will result by not hyphenating, then there is no need to insert a hyphen.
The well-defined border indicated that the lesion was benign.
The lesion was well defined on the image.
Compound modifiers are hyphenated to make clear the modifier and the object being modified.
The patient had a small-bowel obstruction.
Without the hyphen in "small-bowel," it would not be clear whether the patient had a small obstruction of the bowel or an obstruction of the small bowel.
Certain other terms, including those that are hyphenated in the dictionary, are always hyphenated, regardless of whether they appear before or after the noun. Examples include well-being, time-consuming, and false-positive.
Commas
In most cases, three or more adjectives in a series should be separated by commas if the order of the adjectives can be changed.
A small, sessile, avascular mass was seen at imaging.
However, if the adjectives combined are seen as one entity, they should not be separated by commas.
The fast spin-echo MR images better depicted the stellate lesion.
In the above example, there is no comma between "fast" and "spin-echo" because these words combined constitute one term.
Commas can be used with semicolons to replace missing repeated words.
In the 12 patients, the mean lesion size in the head of the pancreas was 4.0 cm; in the body, 2.5 cm; and in the tail, 3.0 cm.
Virgule
The use of virgules, or slashes, to separate words can be confusing because the virgule could be interpreted to mean "and," "or," or "to."
The two study populations had similar male-to-female (not male/female) ratios.
The patients reported having ankle and foot (not ankle/foot) pain.
If "ankle/foot" were used, it would not be clear whether "ankle or foot" or "ankle and foot" was meant.
FOOTNOTES
2 Virginia Boyce Hill was a manuscript editor, and later editorial training manager, at the Radiological Society of North America from 1994 to 2000. She is currently attending medical school. 
REFERENCES
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| RADIOLOGY | RADIOGRAPHICS | RSNA JOURNALS ONLINE |
