Some people say that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn. If English is your first language, you probably don’t think so. But those who learned English as a second or third language would likely disagree. My associate Ramona Rea (@RamonaRea), who...

Many clinical studies measure patient satisfaction with the outcome of a surgical procedure or other treatment intervention. Typically, 5-point Likert scales are used, ranging from very satisfied to satisfied, neutral (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), and...

Have you ever noticed multiple spellings for some words? These differences are largely due to “American” spelling versus “British” spelling of words. We Canadians generally use a mix of both in our correspondence. Some tend to use American spelling more frequently and...

A while back I wrote about some word pairs that frequently get mixed up and are used incorrectly. It’s hard to say if it’s an effect of the notorious autocorrect feature, or if people get confused by which term and spelling to use. It’s probably a bit of both....

When reading various tweets and posts on social media, I can’t help but notice that a number of word pairs get mixed up and used incorrectly quite frequently. I don’t know if that’s an effect of the notorious autocorrect feature, or if people get confused on which is...

According to a Twitter poll I conducted recently, numerous people are challenged to use the words “affect” and “effect” correctly. These terms come up frequently in scientific and medical writing. Affect is commonly used as a verb, meaning to impact on, to influence,...