The use (and misuse) of English in urological papers

At the request of the Editor-in-Chief, in this article I highlight some common mistakes in the use of English that are often made by authors who do not have English as a first language (and by those who do!). As is immediately apparent to those ‘learning English as a foreign language’, the basic rules are relatively simple, and many of the complexities in other languages (varied verb endings and forms, effect of gender, changes in plurals, etc.) are absent. However, because English has developed from many languages (Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Norman French, Latin, Greek, etc.) it has not only richness of expression and a vast vocabulary, but a bewildering variation in spelling, pronunciation and idiomatic usage. This complexity provides a challenge for authors, but the misuse of English by English writers of medical papers also creates problems. Because urologists read papers originating mostly from Europe and North America, they adopt the ‘bad habits’ common in these reports. Thus several words and phrases used commonly in urological papers are the source of most of the corrections made by a Technical Editor. How these poor expressions have developed is not easy to determine, but many tend to fall into the category of ‘infectious verbal pomposity’ [1], i.e. they seem to be used to make the author(s) sound more erudite and ‘scientific’. In the following sections I have taken some examples of typical errors, for instruction and amusement. There are many other examples; authors should read the various guides to writing scientific papers, e.g. [2–4], and not published papers, to learn how to write clearly. Importantly, many of the examples given here have been discussed in previous articles by the present author, and I recommend the reader to consult these for greater detail.