The spirit of giving has come to the AMA Style Insider–check out some of our contributors in these awesome t-shirts celebrating the upcoming release of the 11th edition of the AMA Manual of Style! We wish you a happy holiday season, and our resolution is to bring you tons of useful tips from the new edition in the new year!
As a high school student, I stumbled across A Blueprint for Teen-Age Living in a recessed shelf of the library. The book was older than I was with a spine unbroken. Despite these red flags, I believed this William C. Menninger author might have some wisdom for the ages.
The breezy illustrations failed to track against the daily dramas unfolding around me in those years, and its advice did not seem to be applicable to peers. No one else was consulting a book on how to behave. One of the 7 signs of maturity was the ability “to deal constructively with reality.” Real life never arranges itself as in a guide to behavior, so to deal with reality, I began to disregard the Blueprint advice. Let’s just say that A Blueprint did not open any doors.
Happily, as a manuscript editor, I have access to guidebooks that not only open doors but also resolve questions. With the impending arrival of the AMA Manual of Style 11th edition comes the opportunity to take a brief peek at the first edition, which is of about the same vintage as that guide for teenagers.
The typeface on the cover is, like the illustrations in A Blueprint, deceptively breezy. The book gets down to business. Even a quick look shows that the book arranged itself according to the real life of an editor. Written by director John H. Talbott, MD, for the Scientific Publications Division, this 70-page Style Book was produced in 1962 for an in-house audience. Stapled with a green cover, it has the look and weight of a fundraising cookbook from church. The Foreword (spelled “Foreward,” a potential mash-up of “foreword” and “forward”) indicates that numerous blank spaces appear on pages for additions the user may wish to enter. How thoughtful, but the version in hand must be a facsimile edition because all pages are jam-packed with scant space for additions.
The Style Book consists of 25 sections, mostly about the conventions of punctuation, with excursions into italics, laboratory values presented as cc instead of mL, drug names, and proofreader’s marks (perhaps the most constant of all sections). The Style Book shouts. CORRECT USAGE. INTERROGATION MARKS. FOOTNOTES. What became of the cover’s breeziness? The CORRECT USAGE section 9 lists “lipid: noun” and “lipoid: adjective,” and “mucous: adjective” and “mucus: noun.” These distinctions have evaporated over the years. In contrast, Section 9.16 advises for “over”: “‘more than’ preferred when numbers are used,” which appears to be an eternal directive.
The current manual directs us not to use a colon if a sentence is continuous without it. No such ruling appears in the first edition, which mentions colons as an indication of an explanation or enumeration to follow, as an introduction to a formal direct quotation, or to separate numbers in time of day, biblical references, and parts of numeric ratios. The book does use colons even when the sentence would be continuous without. In at least one place, the verb “are” is followed by a colon then its predicate nominative string.
One change that won’t surprise those of us in house is the guidance about numbers. NUMBERS 16.00 indicates “In the text all numbers from one through ten should be spelled out.” Current style is to use numbers, which still surprises many authors who return proofs with the instruction to spell out numbers. Another minor change is in capitalization after a colon. CAPITALIZATION 4.00 directs that the first word after a colon in a reference gets capitalized. Now the opposite is true.
In current Common Usage, “utilized” is not preferred because “use” is concise. The Style Book has plentiful examples of “used,” but “utilized “makes at least 1 surreptitious appearance.
It may sound odd to personify a book, but the Style Book has become surer of itself in the last 58 years. I believe it must have gone through the 7 signs of maturity. The original Foreword claims that “Few of the rules contained in this book are inviolable” and that the book “is not to be static,” modest claims presented with a certain authority, not to mention an admirable realism. The current Foreword focuses on the need for communicative writing and the manual’s standing as a more extensive and comprehensive manual than earlier editions.
The upcoming Foreword characterizes the manual as indispensable for medical journalism and communication, which embodies being “not static.” The new manual is 17 times the size of the 1962 edition, whose Foreword also presented the optimistic expectation of a new edition every year. Unlike A Blueprint, the community of users was accurately assessed. I imagine that even in 1962, people who consulted the Style Book felt like part of a community centered around this makeshift blueprint for science editing. Now the community of users extends around the globe. The AMA Manual of Style also opens doors, not just for editors but also for conversations between editors and authors.–Timothy Gray
At the most recent annual conference of the American Medical Writers Association, we received a sneak peek at some of the changes to come with the AMA Manual of Style 11th edition. AMA Manual of Style Committee Members Cheryl Iverson, Stacy Christiansen, and Annette Flanagin gave an overview of some highlights, including changes to the way references are styled, updates taking into account the growing presence of social media, and changes to nomenclature. Other topics included updates to corrections processes, clarification of authorship guidelines, and data sharing rules.
In this post, I thought I’d share some of the changes that I’m most excited about as an editor, many of which promise to make the editing process easier and more intuitive. Several new guidelines for styling references caught my attention. For example, electronic references in the current edition mirror traditional references with the addition of a URL in the middle of the reference and a date accessed at the end. The new edition will put URLs at the end of a reference, similar to how DOIs currently appear. Another welcome change is the omission of publisher locations from references to books and reports, which seems sensible given the multinational nature of publishing and the increasing move toward digital formats.
An update to the style of tables and figures was also covered in the presentation. Starting with the 11th edition, column heads in tables and axis labels in graphs will appear in sentence case capitalization rather than title case. Table and figure headings and labels in scientific publishing often contain a great deal of text, making it all the more important to display that text in a way that’s as easy as possible for readers to parse. In addition to saving space, the use of sentence case capitalization throughout figures and tables will make these elements appear more standardized and easier to read.
The new edition also makes some helpful distinctions between AMA style preference and alternatives considered acceptable. For example, it is now acceptable to use of “they” as a singular pronoun. In addition to circumstances in which “they” is a person’s preferred pronoun, this construction can also be helpful in preserving patient confidentiality (eg, avoiding the disclosure of patients’ sex in a small sample size to preserve anonymity).
Many other exciting changes are anticipated with the upcoming 11th edition. Stay tuned for more!—Heather Green
Maybe, like me, you’ve got a lengthy commute to work, either by train or by car. Maybe, also like me, you’ll be road tripping for the holidays and need a way to pass the time. So probably (wait for it…like me!), you are already filling your phone with podcasts in preparation.
Among your daily news briefs, true-crime series, and Stuff You Should Know, consider adding these grammar and language podcasts if you want to brush up on your word nerdiness while you’re on the go.
Grammar Girl: It’s a top podcast among editors and writers, and one you probably already subscribe to. Mignon Fogarty has been bringing Quick and Dirty Tips on grammar and usage to the masses for more than a decade in the form of her website, books, and podcast. With more than 600 podcasts (!) in her library, even if you’ve heard them all, there’s always a topic you can revisit.
Lexicon Valley: This podcast from Slate has also been around for a number of years, and its current host, linguist John McWhorter, explores grammar, of course, but also topics such as etymology and dialect. I particularly like his take on subjects because he frames them in historical context, mixes in relevance to current social issues, and recognizes that, like society, the English language is ever changing.
The World in Words: Packaged in the familiar part reporting, part storytelling format of many popular public radio programs, this podcast from Public Radio International tells stories of language of all types and how it affects those who use it. You’ll hear a wide variety of intriguing topics, including bilingualism, rhetoric in politics, and even how animals communicate.
Bonus audiobook:
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries: If you’ve ever obsessed over the meaning and definition behind words, you’ll probably see bits of yourself in Kory Stamper’s book about her life as lexicographer. Plus, you’ll get a peek behind the doors at Merriam-Webster and find out just how words and their definitions make it to the page.
What language podcasts or audiobooks keep you both entertained and informed on long trips?—Jamie Scott
After reading Gabriel’s last post regarding modern preconceptions of premodern physicians and caregivers, I was reminded of an old New Yorker article on leeches that I had only recently read. (I used to subscribe to the New Yorker and have a backlog of old issues.) The article is about an American-born zoologist, Roy T. Sawyer, who was reintroducing the ancient practice of using leeches for medicinal purposes. Sawyer is the founder of Biopharm (an international company and leech farm based in Hendy, South Wales in the United Kingdom) and the author of Leech Biology and Behaviour. In 1983, he created Biopharm with the goal of identifying all the curative chemicals in the leech.
The earliest references to the medicinal uses of leeches appear in ancient Sanskrit writings. Indian physicians applied leeches to snakebites and boils and around diseased eyes. Asian healers mixed dried leeches in water for a variety of symptoms. However, just like bloodletting and trepanning, the use of leeches in medicine came to be viewed as barbaric and devoid of any legitimate purpose. Sawyer has helped to change the misconceptions many hold about the medicinal uses of leeches.
There are more than 650 species of leech. Hirudo medicinales is the primary species that is used for medical purposes. In the course of writing his book, Sawyer became convinced that the medicinal uses of leeches in the past were “based on a high degree of evolutionary adaptation.” In 1884, a British physiologist identified the anticoagulant hirudin in the saliva of H medicinales. Subsequently, it was purified in the 1950s and cloned in 1986.
Like most species of leech, H medicinales has 3 jaws designed for sucking blood, and each jaw has about 100 teeth.* These “medicinal leeches” secrete saliva containing several chemical compounds that are injected into a wound while it is feeding. As already mentioned, hirudin is a powerful anticoagulant; calin is another chemical (ie, a platelet adhesion inhibitor) that is responsible for prolonged bleeding, and it is this continual flow of blood that can provide the time needed for a body part or appendage to reestablish its own circulation after microsurgery. The leech decongests blood as it feeds and promotes continual decongestion long after it has finished feeding and has dropped off.
Roy T. Sawyer’s findings seems to be in line with the finding of the 2 researchers at the University of Nottingham mentioned in Gabriel’s post, the ones who made that surprising medical discovery in an enigmatic 1000-year-old text called Bald’s Leechbook. Also, I like the slogan of Sawyer’s company, Biopharm Leeches: “The Biting Edge of Science.”—Paul Ruich
*Editor’s note: I think they’re kind of cute! 
My dad held onto his old comic books from when he was a kid — Mad Magazine, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. I know it’s unoriginal, but how could I not fall for the Caped Crusader? I romanticized Batman’s brand of justice: smart, deliberate, vigilante, under the cover of darkness, and always, always for Good. I read both crates of my dad’s comics when I was a boy, but Batman was the only series I came back to as I got older. I took the stories and their Good and Bad morality seriously.
Now I’m an adult and a professional editor. I thought characters like Batman didn’t exist off the page. Then I heard about the Grammar Vigilante. It’s relatively old news, but I only heard about the Grammar Vigilante last month. He’s been correcting storefronts in Bristol, England, for 13 years. When he sees an incorrect apostrophe (“Amy’s Nail’s” is one example), he goes out at night with his homemade Apostrophiser to correct the mistake by covering it with a colored sticker. That’s the kind of real-world vigilante justice I can get behind, and it’s something almost anyone reading this blog can chuckle about.
Strangely, I look at the Grammar Vigilante as seriously as I did Batman. What strikes me is his belief in making these corrections despite the risks. “I do think it’s a cause worth pursuing,” he says in the video. He denies his actions are a crime, quipping, “It’s more of a crime to have the apostrophes wrong in the first place.” Despite the joke, he defaces private property and could face legal action if he is caught.
I believe in the Grammar Vigilante. The AMA Manual of Style includes chapters on grammar, plurals, and capitalization and quite long chapters on punctuation and correct and preferred usage. As the lattermost suggests, some of these rules are up to interpretation or preference but others are simply right. The primary goal of the written word is to communicate, and that is done most effectively, with the least confusion, using proper grammar and punctuation.
I have a personal tie-in to all of this. In high school, I worked as a server at a restaurant. One day, one of the managers posted a long document about new policies and expectations with explanations for each change. I read it standing next to a coworker and said that I wished I could copy edit the sheet to fix some small errors. She turned to me and looked hurt and disgusted, told me that was insulting, and said that nobody else cares about the right way.
I felt embarrassed, and I didn’t talk about the sheet with anyone else. I didn’t have the ability to put it into words then and still struggle arguing it now, but improper grammar, no matter how small, obscures meaning and harms interpretation. Proper grammar and punctuation aids my reading just as much as it does for those who don’t know or don’t care about it.
Are the Grammar Vigilante’s corrections helpful? Or pretentious? Or even noticed by most? Is there a difference between correcting public storefronts and private postings? By Batman’s morality, is he doing Good or Bad? I don’t know, but I support what he does. He’s not a hero, but I think he’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. He’s my real-life Dark Knight.—Kevin Brown
I am a serious news junkie these days, and I am never satisfied by the stripped-down daily brief or casual perusal of the headlines. I want the digging-into-the-deep-marrow kind of in-depth reporting that seems to be in decline in our instant-gratification-obsessed culture—the kind that takes months of investigation and hard work to uncover, and real talent to produce and present cohesively. I have found that one of the most enjoyable ways to quench my thirst for this type of journalism is in the form of podcasts. For culture and politics The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal is absolutely on point, as is Politico’s the Global Politico. If you are a health care policy wonk, the new podcast put out by vox called the Impact produces very compelling stories on how policy impacts human lives. Oh hey, and did you know that the JAMA Network also produces a podcast series where you can catch up on the research, opinion, and educational content from across all our journals while on your daily commute or during your workout?
For me though, the absolute best example of the kind of work that a podcast can do is to be found in WNYC’s Radiolab. This is a highly entertaining and effective show where culture, science, and the humanities converge in ways that are entertaining, enlightening, and often deeply moving.
It was on Radiolab that I encountered a fascinating story that encompassed some of the questions central to my own scholarly interests: ancient texts and the intersections between superstition and science, magic and modernity. The episode is called Staph Retreat, wherein we learn of 2 researchers at the University of Nottingham who make a surprising medical discovery in an enigmatic 1000-year-old text called Bald’s Leechbook.
The story centers around a bioscientist who studies history as a hobby and a historian who dabbles in bioscience in her spare time. The pair share a fascination with the medical text and decide to use their combined talents to put one of the remedies to the test in a scientific study. The remedy is for what appears to be a staph infection.
Remarkably, they found that the remedy was efficacious in treating Staphylococcus aureus in an in vitro model of soft tissue infection and even killed methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA) in a mouse wound model. You can find the peer reviewed findings of their study published under an open access license in mBio here.
At a time when the dangers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more apparent and urgent, is it possible that ancient texts may hold novel approaches to keeping our armamentarium apace with the evolution of these resistant infections? That may be a stretch, but it does open up a whole new area of study, ancientbiotics, which could theoretically yield new treatment options for increasingly resistant bacterial infections.
Perhaps equally important, this scholarship has implications that pertain to our modern conceptions of premodern physicians and caregivers. These researchers discovered that the efficacy of the remedy was decreased if any one of the ingredients was removed, implying a synergistic activity of the entire combination. This highlights a level of rational methodology that is often denied to premodern medical professionals by modern medical historians.—Gabriel Dietz