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Journals should commit
themselves to good style

This article appeared in the autumn 2003 edition of Short Words, the newsletter of Tim Albert Training. It was written by Tim Albert.

Why are medical journals so hard to understand?

Clear and simple prose has been the style advocated for several decades by editors of medical journals.

Favour short sentences in the active voice. Choose short words rather than long ones. Avoid jargon.

The problem is: look in any journal and you will see this advice constantly flouted. What editors say is not what their journals do.

This has given me severe professional problems. When I started on

my training career, nearly 14 years ago, I urged medical writers to write simply. It didn't work.

Several times, after a successful session learning the value of the active voice and simple words, participants returned for the second day saying that their professor had changed everything back.

Once, trying to convince a doctor that the BMJ disliked the passive, I hit on the idea of showing him a passage in the journal clearly written in the active. 'That must be a mistake', he said.

Does it matter? Yes, because the journals are the role models for most health professionals. If they commit themselves to good style then others will surely follow; if they don't, then we will get the gobbledegook we probably don't deserve.

Of course, this is easier said than done, as Jane Smith from the BMJ explains on page 2. And on page 3, I offer an alternative strategy: worry less about the style and more about the structure.