Medical Transcription Grammar, Usage and Style

   MT Reference Style Guide  >  Medical Transcription Grammar, Usage and Style

Grammar, usage and style in medical transcription isn't substantially different from any other application of the English language (American syntax).

Primary references for this section include:

The Gregg Reference Manual, 10th Ed. New York. McGraw-Hill?, 2004.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

In addition, multiple credible online resources are referenced in the footnotes of the entries, as well as in the Bibliography.

Table of Contents

• 1 Abbreviations and Acronyms
  • 1.1 Basic rules for acronyms
    • 1.1.1 Acronyms at the beginning of a sentence
    • 1.1.2 Common abbreviations
    • 1.1.3 Abbreviating contractions
    • 1.1.4 Abbreviating diagnoses and titles
    • 1.1.5 Abbreviations and acronyms with multiple meanings
    • 1.1.6 Abbreviated terms used as slang terms
    • 1.1.7 Abbreviations in units of measure
    • 1.1.8 Abbreviating terms dictated in full
    • 1.1.9 Abbreviations and punctuation
    • 1.1.10 Academic abbreviations
    • 1.1.11 First-time reference of an abbreviation or acronym
  • 1.2 Abbreviating names of organizations
  • 1.3 Abbreviating Latin expressions
  • 1.4 Plural and possessive forms of abbreviations
    • 1.4.1 Abbreviating plural and possessive weights and measures
    • 1.4.2 Abbreviating plural and possessive metric units
    • 1.4.3 Abbreviating a single letter possessive
    • 1.4.4 Plural and possessive lowercase abbreviations
  • 1.5 Abbreviations with multiple and/or uncertain meanings
  • 1.6 Abbreviating business names
  • 1.7 Abbreviating geographic names
  • 1.8 Abbreviated forms and punctuation
  • 1.9 Abbreviating drug administration routes
  • 1.10 Basic guidelines for symbols
    • 1.10.1 Ampersand symbol
    • 1.10.2 Degree symbol
    • 1.10.3 Ditto marks or symbol
    • 1.10.4 Division symbol
    • 1.10.5 Equal symbol
    • 1.10.6 Greater than and less than symbols
    • 1.10.7 Greek letters
    • 1.10.8 Minus symbol
    • 1.10.9 Negative symbol
    • 1.10.10 Number symbol
    • 1.10.11 Pound symbol
    • 1.10.12 Percent symbol
    • 1.10.13 Plus sign or symbol
    • 1.10.14 X or x symbol (by, times, magnification)
    • 1.10.15 Microgram symbol
• 2 Capitalization
  • 2.1 Basic rules of capitalization
  • 2.2 Capitalizing personal names
  • 2.3 Capitalizing family titles
  • 2.4 Capitalizing parenthetical expressions
  • 2.5 Capitalizing titles with personal names
  • 2.6 Capitalizing titles of publications and articles
  • 2.7 Capitalizing credentials
  • 2.8 Capitalization of acronyms
  • 2.9 Capitalizing academic degrees and references
  • 2.10 Capitalizing legal references
  • 2.11 Capitalizing eponyms
  • 2.12 Capitalizing departments, divisions and specialties
  • 2.13 Capitalizing drug names
  • 2.14 Capitalizing names of organisms (genus and species)
  • 2.15 Capitalizing geographic names
  • 2.16 Capitalizing sociocultural designations
  • 2.17 Capitalizing events, awards and legislation
  • 2.18 Capitalizing computer and software terms
  • 2.19 Capitalizing times, seasons, holidays and deities
  • 2.20 Capitalizing referenced report headings
  • 2.21 Capitalizing hyphenated compounds
  • 2.22 Capitalizing brief forms
• 3 Grammar
  • 3.1 Sentence structure
  • 3.2 Nouns
  • 3.3 Proper nouns
    • 3.3.1 Proper nouns: Personal names
    • 3.3.2 Proper nouns: Organizational names
  • 3.4 Plurals and Possessives
    • 3.4.1 Basic rules for forming plurals
    • 3.4.2 Irregular plural forms
    • 3.4.3 Plural and possessive units of time
    • 3.4.4 Forming plural compound nouns
    • 3.4.5 Forming plural proper nouns
    • 3.4.6 Plural personal titles
    • 3.4.7 Forming plural academic titles
    • 3.4.8 Forming plural when singular is dictated
    • 3.4.9 Plural forms of abbreviations
    • 3.4.10 Plural forms for microorganisms
    • 3.4.11 Nouns that are false plurals
    • 3.4.12 Nouns that are false singulars
    • 3.4.13 Use of parenthetical plurals
    • 3.4.14 Use of bilateral as a plural or singular form
    • 3.4.15 Forming plurals of foreign nouns and terms
    • 3.4.16 Basic rules for forming possessives
    • 3.4.17 Forming possessive pronouns
    • 3.4.18 Posessive forms of organizational names
    • 3.4.19 Forming possessive compound nouns
    • 3.4.20 Possessive forms of abbreviations
    • 3.4.21 Eliminating possessive form of eponyms
    • 3.4.22 Forming separate and joint possession
    • 3.4.23 Possessives standing alone (solitary possessives)
    • 3.4.24 Rules for inanimate objects and possessives
    • 3.4.25 Possessives preceding verbal nouns
    • 3.4.26 Use of possessives in of prepositional phrases
  • 3.5 Compound Words
    • 3.5.1 Compound adjectives
    • 3.5.2 Compound nouns
    • 3.5.3 Compound verbs
    • 3.5.4 Common compound words (not hyphenated)
• 4 Numbers
  • 4.1 Patient identification numbers
  • 4.2 Numbers to express age
  • 4.3 Numbers at the beginning of a sentence
  • 4.4 Expressing clock time numbers
  • 4.5 Expressing dates as numbers
  • 4.6 Expressing decimal numbers
  • 4.7 Writing fractions as numbers
  • 4.8 Money values expressed as numbers
  • 4.9 Numbers in a sequence
  • 4.10 Expressing ordinal numbers
  • 4.11 Using numbers to express periods of time
  • 4.12 Numbers spelled out
  • 4.13 The number one used as a pronoun
  • 4.14 Nonspecific numbers
  • 4.15 Numbers in accepted usage
  • 4.16 Expressing numbers in plural form
  • 4.17 Expressing numbers in lab values
  • 4.18 Number - word and symbol
  • 4.19 Writing numbers as roman numerals
  • 4.20 Proper names with numbers
  • 4.21 Numeral-word combinations
  • 4.22 Using numbers to express clock reference to anatomic position
  • 4.23 Expressing weapon caliber numbers
  • 4.24 Enumerated list within a sentence
  • 4.25 Numbered lists
  • 4.26 Numbers used in over or under expressions
  • 4.27 Basic rules for percents, proportions, ratios and ranges
    • 4.27.1 Expressing number ranges
      • 4.27.1.1 Number ranges with over or out of
      • 4.27.1.2 Number ranges with large numbers
      • 4.27.1.3 Number ranges with blood pressure readings
      • 4.27.1.4 EKG lead ranges
      • 4.27.1.5 Ranges in money values
      • 4.27.1.6 Ranges values used for intervertebral disk spaces and vertebrae
    • 4.27.2 Numbers used to express proportions
    • 4.27.3 Expressing numbers as a percentage
    • 4.27.4 Ratio expressions
• 5 Time and Time Zones
  • 5.1 Military times
  • 5.2 Hours and minutes
• 6 Measurements and Quantities
  • 6.1 Metric units and metric units of measure
    • 6.1.1 Abbreviating metric units of measure
    • 6.1.2 Capitalizing metric units of measure
    • 6.1.3 Using hyphens with metric unit expressions
    • 6.1.4 Using periods with metric unit expressions
    • 6.1.5 Metric units with exponential expressions
    • 6.1.6 Metric units expressed in multiplication of values
    • 6.1.7 Expressing concentrations in metric units
  • 6.2 Conventional (non-metric) units of measure
    • 6.2.1 Expressions of concentration in nonmetric units
    • 6.2.2 Expressing temperature measurements
    • 6.2.3 Expressing angles as units of measure
    • 6.2.4 Expressions of dimension (feet and inches)
• 7 Punctuation
  • 7.1 Periods
    • 7.1.1 Spaces after periods
    • 7.1.2 Periods at the end of a numbered list
    • 7.1.3 Abbreviated personal and courtesy titles
  • 7.2 Question Mark
  • 7.3 Exclamation Point
  • 7.4 Parentheses, Braces and Brackets
  • 7.5 Forward slash (Virgule)
  • 7.6 Hyphens
    • 7.6.1 Hyphenating compound modifiers
    • 7.6.2 Hyphenating word division
    • 7.6.3 Hyphenating adverbs ending in -ly
    • 7.6.4 Hyphenating prefixes
    • 7.6.5 Hyphenating suffixes
    • 7.6.6 Hyphenating disease entities used as modifiers
    • 7.6.7 Hyphenating proper adjectives
    • 7.6.8 Hyphenating Latin expressions
    • 7.6.9 Hyphenating letter or number modifiers
    • 7.6.10 Hyphenating compound official titles
    • 7.6.11 Hyphenating special combinations
    • 7.6.12 Hyphenating temporary compounds
    • 7.6.13 Commonly hyphenated phrases
    • 7.6.14 Hyphenating noun combinations
    • 7.6.15 Hyphenating compounds starting with a number
    • 7.6.16 Hyphenating compound possessive nouns
    • 7.6.17 Hyphenating prefixes preceding a proper noun
    • 7.6.18 Suspensive hyphens
    • 7.6.19 Hyphenating compound numbers
    • 7.6.20 Hyphenating number ranges
    • 7.6.21 Hyphenating letter-number-symbol combinations
    • 7.6.22 Hyphenating eponymic names
    • 7.6.23 Hyphenating complementary adjectives
    • 7.6.24 Hyphenating proper and common noun combination
  • 7.7 The Comma
    • 7.7.1 Using a comma to separate two or more adjectives
    • 7.7.2 Commas in a simple series
    • 7.7.3 Commas and independent clauses
    • 7.7.4 Commas and introductory dependent clauses
    • 7.7.5 Commas and introductory elements
    • 7.7.6 Using commas with dates
    • 7.7.7 Commas and titles
    • 7.7.8 Commas and Geographic Names and Addresses
    • 7.7.9 Commas in units of measure
    • 7.7.10 Commas in drug dosages and instructions
    • 7.7.11 Commas in laboratory values
    • 7.7.12 Commas in dialogue
    • 7.7.13 Commas to indicate omitted words
    • 7.7.14 Commas in nonessential expressions
    • 7.7.15 Commas and interrupting elements
    • 7.7.16 Commas used with appositive expressions
    • 7.7.17 Commas to set off afterthoughts
    • 7.7.18 Commas and transitional expressions
    • 7.7.19 Genetics and chromosome punctuation
  • 7.8 Colons and Semicolons
    • 7.8.1 Using a colon between independent clauses
    • 7.8.2 Using a colon before lists and enumerations
    • 7.8.3 Using colons in expressions of time
    • 7.8.4 Using colons to express a ratio
    • 7.8.5 Using colons to set off titles and other elements
    • 7.8.6 Using colons in references
    • 7.8.7 Capitalizing after a colon
    • 7.8.8 Using a semicolon between independent clauses
    • 7.8.9 Using semicolons with transitional expressions
    • 7.8.10 Using a semicolon in a complex series
  • 7.9 Quotation Marks
• 8 Usage