Chapter 11 Part 4在线视频

Case analysis 2

This abstract titled as

“Canagliflozin and Renal Outcomes

in Type 2 Diabetes

and Nephropathy” is from

New England Journal of Medicine

First let’s look at the structure

and content of the abstract

Structure analysis

This is a structured abstract following

the IMRaD format which

includes the Introduction part

named as BACKGROUND the Methods part

the Results part

and the Discussion part named as CONCLUSIONS

Besides

it is in accordance with the formatting guidelines

specified by the journal

As for the content

this abstract stays within the allowed

word count with 404 words in total

It is complete in itself

without the audience’s need to read the paper

and suggests the effect of

Canagliflozin on improving renal

outcomes in patients

with type 2 diabetes

which is present in the whole text

As for the content

this abstract

contains the same key words and terms

“Canagliflozin”

“renal outcomes”

and “type 2 diabetes”

as presented in the title and the introduction

Then

let’s analyse the language features

of this abstract

and we look at the sentences at first

Introduction part

In the first sentence in the Background part

the authors start with a general topic

of the relationship between

type 2 diabetes and kidney failure

and use the sentence pattern

“is the leading cause of”

to indicate the known

Following a conjunction “but”

the unknown is stated by the sentence pattern

“few are available”

In the second sentence

the authors suggest the study hypothesis

of the effect of the inhibitors of sodium

glucose cotransporter 2

on improving renal outcomes in patients

with type 2 diabetes by using the sentence pattern

“exploratory results have suggested that”

As the relationship between type 2 diabetes

and kidney failure is a long-standing fact

the present tense is used here

Although the previous findings

indicated the association between

SGLT2 inhibitors

and the renal outcomes in patients

with type 2 diabetes

in the past

these results are still

being proved by the researchers

so the authors use the present perfect tense

The modal verb “may” suggests

the uncertainty of the hypothesis

Methods part

In the Methods part

the past tense is used in these three sentences

to mark the time of the action of

“assigning certain patients to some drugs”

“treating the patients”

and “testing

prespecified secondary outcomes”

in the past

The sentence patterns “we assigned”

“were treated”

and“were tested”

are used here to describe the details of the trial

In the Results part

the past tense

is used in these sentences

to mark the time of the action of

“finding the lower risks

of the primary outcome

in the canagliflozin group”

The sentence patterns

“The relative risk of

was 30% lower in, than with event rates of”

“The relative risk of was lower by”

“ had a lower risk of”

and “There were no significant differences

in rates of”

are used to describe the findings of the clinical trial

In the Discussion part

the authors conclude that

the canagliflozin group

had a lower risk of kidney failure

and cardiovascular events

compared with the placebo group

from the trial results

In this abstract

the authors use the past tense to

suggest the discussion of the study

was completed in the past

Then

let’s analyse how the authors make

best use of diction

to write a concise abstract

Strong and powerful verbs

In this abstract

the authors use the specific

rather than vague words to describe the action

happening in the study

Look at this sentence

The verb “suggest” denoting “to hint”

in this sentence and the modal verb “may”

indicate the potential

validity of the hypothesis

to be tested in the following text

If we change this verb to “indicate” or “show”

the tone would be much more different

The verb “receive” here

means “to eat or drink”

Imagine

if we replace this verb

by a common verb “have” or “take”

The significance of having a specific treatment

of an oral canagliflozin for these special patients

as in a clinical trial would be weakened

Precise and objective adjectives

Another language feature of this abstract

is the objectiveness displayed in choosing

appropriate adjectives

In the Results part

the authors use the adjective

“relative” to modify “risk”

In dictionary

the word “relative” means

"considered

in relation or in proportion to something else”

If there is no “relative”

before “risk” in this part

the abstract would appear less objective

or convincing

Case Analysis 3

This abstract named as “summary”

is titled as“Type

and timing of menopausal hormone therapy

and breast cancer risk

individual participant meta-analysis

of the worldwide epidemiological evidence”

from the Lancet

First let’s look at the structure

and content of the abstract

This is a structured abstract following

the IMRaD format

which includes the Introduction part

named as Background

the Methods part

the Results part named as Findings

and the Discussion part

named as Interpretation

Besides it is in accordance with the

formatting guidelines specified by the Lancet

As for the content

this abstract

stays within the allowed word count

with 521 words in total

it is complete in itself

without the audience’s need to read the paper

and reviews

how the breast cancer risk

is associated with

different types and timing of

menopausal hormone therapy

which is present in the whole text

this abstract contains the same key

words and terms

“menopausal hormone therapy”

“breast cancer risk”

and “types and timing of MHT use”

as presented in the title and the introduction

Then

let’s analyse the language features of

this abstract

and we look at the sentences at first

In the background part of this abstract

the authors state the problem

by using the sentence pattern

“findings are inconsistent

with limited information on”

To indicate the study objective

the sentence pattern

“We review” is used

As the inconsistency among published findings

on the association of breast cancer risk with

menopausal hormone therapy

is the established fact

the present tense is used here

In the Methods part

the past tense is used in these sentences

to mark the time

of the action of searching

collecting and analysing the data in the past

The sentence patterns

“analyses used data”

“Studies were identified by searching”

and“Logistic regression

yielded adjusted risk ratios”

are used here to describe the

details of the meta-analysis

The sentence pattern

“were included” is used to refer

to the grouping details

In the Results part

the past tense is used in these sentences

to mark the time of the action

of finding out the steady increase of risks

between breast cancer incidence

and MHT

with specific types and timing in the past

The sentence patterns

“was associated with

which increased steadily”

“ these excess risks were definite”

and “were twice as great”

are used to describe the results

or findings of the study review

In the Discussion part

the authors conclude that

the longer timing and

the specific types of MHT

would increase breast cancer incidence to

different degrees

by using the sentence patterns

“would increase incidence”

and “ would be about twice as great”

When implying the likelihood of the hypothesis

the modal verb“would” is used

Then let’s analyse

how the authors make best use of diction

to write a concise abstract

Strong and powerful verbs

Look at this sentence

The verb “to attenuate” denotes

“to weaken the effect of”

Compare these two sentences

The risk ratios were attenuated by

starting MHT after age 60 years

The risk ratios were reduced by

starting MHT after age 60 years

The first sentence

stresses the change of the harms

from being forceful to being weak

while the second merely emphasizes the

result of being less in extent

In the last sentence

the verb “persist” is used to mean the continuous

existence of the excess risk of breast cancer

despite ceasing MHT

This word

could not be replaced by the verb “exist”

as it does not bear meaning

of continuity in action

Precise and objective adjectives

To make a condensed abstract

becareful to choose

the adjectives that bear meaning

in the paper

In this sentence

the adjective “principal”

means“most important”

means“most important”

which is objectively used here

to indicate the most

related analyses in the study

The modifier

“eligible” is used

appropriately here to limit the range of studies

the researchers need to focus on

The word “complete” suggests

the validity of the study to have considered

all the information related to MHT use

for the individuals

Then turn to this sentence

The use of the adjective “excess”

corresponds with that of the adverb

“steadily” to show

the consistent increase of risks

with different types and timing of MHT use