This week’s advice for good medical writing is: avoid “fancy talk.”
Examples:
. . . “ology” refers to the study of something. Thus, etiology, strictly is the study of cause and is not the cause. So, “The etiology of diabetes is ……” is fancy talk. Better: “The “cause of diabetes is …….”
“The patient’s symptomatology was/were headache, fever, nausea.” Better: “The patient’s symptoms were headache, fever, nausea.”
“The methodology used in this paper was/were . . .” Better: “The methods used in this paper were. . . “
“Utilized” is overused. Thus, “We utilized colonoscopy to examine the colon” should be, “We used colonoscopy to examine the colon.”
Authors often use fancy talk in an attempt to appear intellectually sophisticated. That’s a mistake.