Quiz - Week 27
Editing/Proofreading Practice
Instructions: Not counting the title, there are 16 errors consisting of homonyms, misspellings, and mishears in the report below. All the errors are words (not grammar or punctuation). Can you find the errors?
Two Errors Human
The patient was admitted because of fever, chills, cough and basically asymptomatic condition. He appeared weak and malnourished, obviously do to an adequate diet. On x-ray of the pelvis, there did appear to be a fracture of the hip. As the patient denied any injuries, it was felt that this could be pathologic. A diagnosis of a traumatic fracture was made. On physical exam, the only pertinent findings other than those mentioned above were a regular rhythm of atrial fibrillation with gallop heard.
The patient was taken to surgery, and repair of the hip fracture was done through a curvalinear incision. A small 2 ml mole near the incision sight was dessicated with cautery after a biopsy was taken. Sitology was benign.
The patients coarse was afebrile one, with temperatures over 100 degrees, in spite of inadequate antibiotic regimen. Finally, the patient responded to treatment and was discharged ambulent and on irregular diet.
Study Tip - Week 27
Whenever you find that you've made an error, it's always a good idea to analyze the error, try to determine why you made the error, and develop a plan for avoiding the error in the future. For example, a frequent typo can be corrected using auto-correct in a word processor or by your abbreviation expander.
For habitual errors such as typing their for there (a mistake that will not be caught by a spell checker), you can use auto correct or your abbreviation expander to convert these correctly spelled but sometimes incorrectly used words to theirx and therex. This forces the spell-checker to stop on the word and gives you the opportunity to make sure you've used the correct term.
It only takes a moment to let the spell-checker correct the spelling if you've chosen the right term. If you haven't chosen the correct word, you can correct it and avoid being embarrassed by a rookie mistake. Also, there are many lists of commonly misspelled, misused, and soundalike English and medical words. Collect such lists, break them down into shorter lists of 10 or 20 to study in groups. (Good practice, by the way, for credentialing exams as well!)
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Answers to Quiz - Week 27
To Err is Human [Answer Key]—matching numbered explanatory notes follow the paragraph.
The patient was admitted because of fever, chills, cough, and basically (1)symptomatic condition. He appeared weak and malnourished, obviously (2)due to (3)inadequate diet. On x-ray of the pelvis, there did appear to be a fracture of the hip. As the patient denied any injuries, it was felt that this could be pathologic. A diagnosis of (4)atraumatic fracture was made. On physical exam, the only pertinent findings other than those mentioned above were (5)irregular rhythm of atrial fibrillation with gallop heard.
The patient was taken to surgery, and repair of the hip fracture was done through a (6)curvilinear incision. A small 2 mm(7) mole near the incision (8)site was (9)desiccated with cautery after a biopsy was taken. (10)Cytology was benign.
The (11)patient’s (12)course was (13)a febrile one, with temperatures over 100 degrees in spite of (14)an adequate antibiotic regimen. Finally, the patient responded to treatment and was discharged (15)ambulant and on a (16)regular diet.
Error Analysis
1. The dictator might have used the article “a” or simply said “uh” in front of symptomatic. Context is king!
2. I call this a “copy-type” error; transcribing by sound and not by meaning.
3. MT misheard “in” as “an.”
4. Hearing ok but not thinking of context. A pathologic fracture is one that occurs without trauma (atraumatic).
5. MT misheard “ir” as “a.” Context, context, context! Atrial fibrillation is irregular by definition.
6. This is a commonly misspelled word. Recommend MTs study lists of commonly misspelled English and medical words, many of which are available on the Internet.
7. Typo, MT not thinking or doesn’t know appropriate abbreviations for different metric units of measure.
8. MT not thinking or doesn’t know homonyms. Again, recommend MTs study lists of common English and medical homonyms and near-homonyms.
9. Another commonly misspelled word.
10. MT not thinking or doesn’t know homonyms.
11. The possessive of patient is needed. Confusing patient’s and patients and its and it’s can be typos, but more often they’re not. If repeated, these are red flags identifying the uneducated.
12. Another homonym.
13. Typo, MT not thinking. The line that follows clearly indicates the patient was febrile, not afebrile. It’s not uncommon for students to attach articles to the words that follow or mishear prefixes as articles. Proofreading after the fact without the audio should catch errors such as this.
14. MT misheard “an” as “in.” The phrase "in spite of" is a clue to meaning.
15. Commonly misspelled word.
16. The reverse of #4, MT misheard “a” as “ir”.