Bradford VTS Online Resources:
Teaching & Learning
English - Writing & Speaking
DOWNLOADS
path: WRITING, REFERENCING & GRAMMAR
WEBLINKS FOR ALL TRAINEES
- How to write in Plain English
- Basic English Grammar Rules with examples
- 16 daily ways to improve your English writing skills
- English writing exercises
- How to Reference and do Citations (BVTS)
BOOKS FOR ALL TRAINEES
- Eats, Shoots and Leaves: the zero tolerance approach towards punctuation, Truss L. (fabulous and easy to read)
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (a classic, first published 1935, updated since then; small but can be a bit heavy).
YOUTUBE VIDEO LESSONS MAINLY FOR IMGs
Pick one and then choose another when you’re done. Don’t try following them all at once! It’s too much.
- YouTube: Simply English Videos (I love these two teachers)
- YouTube: Learn English with Gill (excellent)
- YouTube: English Jade (excellent)
- YouTube: English with Ronnie (excellent)
- YouTube: Oxford English Online (excellent)
- YouTube: EnglishSchoolOnline (good for pronunciation)
- YouTube ETJ English (good for pronunciation)
- YouTube: The English Coach
- YouTube: Grammar Girl (sometimes too theoretical)
- YouTube: EnglishClass101.com YouTube playlist
If you have files you would like me to host on here and share with others, please email them to me. [email protected]
This page is not just for IMGs!
I’ve created this page because there are so many trainees born and educated in the UK who get to medical school and pass, yet their written English often requires improvement. And if you’re going to be writing articles, projects or papers for publication, then you really ought to brush up in this area. Others may be international medical graduates who want help with their writing. This page will serve both those born and educated in the UK and those born and educated outside. So what perfect opportunity to do it during your GP training years.
In the “Downloads” section above, you will find useful resources helping you with…
- English sentence construction
- Grammar
- English spelling
- Punctuation
A selection of random video clips on English Language, Grammar & Culture






















YouTube Video Lessons for IMGs
Writing in English - quick tips
Some of the best YouTube English teachers: (probably best to pick one that is British rather than American as you are working in the UK)
- YouTube: Learn English with Gill (excellent)
- YouTube: English Jade (excellent)
- YouTube: English with Ronnie (excellent)
- YouTube: EnglishSchoolOnline (good for pronunciation)
- YouTube ETJ English (good for pronunciation)
- YouTube: The English Coach
- YouTube: Grammar Girl (sometimes too theoretical)
- YouTube: EnglishClass101.com YouTube playlist
- No double spaces after a full stop.
- After a sentence, it’s JUST THE ONE SPACE.
- Dr. Mr. Mrs. or is it Dr Mr Mrs?
- Can use with or without the full stop. Not necessary to use the full stop.
- Dr. and Dr are both acceptable these days.
- Life-threatening
- follow-up
- face-to-face
- super-quick
- safety-netting
- safety-net
- well-balanced meal
- time like:
- “it will only take a one-minute telephone call”
- take a 5, 10- or 15-min break
- age: the 22-year old
- Some towns like Stockton-On-Tees
- Worldwide not world-wide
- Straightforward not straight forward
- “What are you on about”, John said.
- John said it was “useless” and wanted different medication to try instead.
- Her exact words were “you must be kidding”.
- When you are using a direct quote
- For phrases or to highlight a particular word or a word phrase you have coined.
- It is called ‘medical phronesis’. In this case, you would now not need to quotations again for every instance of the words medical phronesis.
- ‘patients are experts of their own lives’
- You don’t want to look ‘dodgy’.
- If you do that, it might ruin the ‘flow’.
- They can be quite powerful ‘thought triggers’.
Capitalise the first word, all others in lower case.
- Difflam not difflam
- Ibugel not ibugel
- However, generic names are NOT capitalised
- gabapentin not Gabapentin
- amoxicillin not Amoxicillin (generic) BUT Amoxil not Amoxil (brand)
No capitals for disease names unless eponymous. Eponymous means something which is named after a particular person or group.
Eponymous:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Freiderichs Ataxia
- Henoch-Schonlein purpura
Non-eponymous:
- multiple sclerosis not Multiple Sclerosis
- diabetes not Diabetes
- hypertension not Hypertension
Abbreviations are capitalised though
- An acute MI
- She has narcistic personality disorder (NPD).
- Thank goodness we spotted that it was a DVT.
Symptoms are lower case
- hallucinations, delusions
- cough, dysphagia, haemoptysis
- doctors not Doctors
- district nurses not District Nurses
- GP trainee not GP Trainee
- GP trainer not GP Trainer
- duty doctor not Duty Doctor
- dermatology not Dermatology
- cardiology not Cardiology
- accident & emergency not Accident & Emergency
- out-of-hours not Out-Of-Hours
- emergency department not Emergency Department
- occupational health not Occupational Health
- blood pressure not Blood Pressure
- temperature not Temperature
- blood glucose not Blood Glucose
- respiratory rate not Respiratory Rate
- capillary refill time
- peak expiratory flow rate
- But abbreviations are capitalised – PEFR, BP, RR
However,
So,
For things like…
- So, it is important to be overt when you are closing a discussion.
- You can underline or bold or italicise. Only choose one. Usually italics preferred.
Underline or italicise.
Do not put in quotes – not necessary.
- Active sentences engages the reader more.
- So, instead of ‘It is rare that I have to do this’… ‘I rarely have to do this’.
- ‘The emergency team was summoned’ … ‘We called the emergency team’.
- ‘He was given an antibiotic’ … ‘We gave him an antibiotic’
- The research says that when coming towards the end of a telephone consultation, you need to be more overt in closing the session than in a face-to-face consultation. In a face-to-face consultation, lots of subtle verbal and behavioural cues in both the doctor and patient indicate the meeting is coming to a close. You don’t have that in remote consultations, so you need to be more overt; otherwise, it can seem to the patient that you have “hung up” rather abruptly and closed the patient off.
- The research says that when coming towards the end of a telephone consultation, you need to be more overt in closing the session than in a face-to-face consultation. In a face-to-face consultation, lots of subtle verbal and behavioural cues in both the doctor and patient indicate the meeting is coming to a close. You don’t have that in remote consultations, so you need to be more obvious; otherwise, it can seem to the patient that you have “hung up” rather abruptly and closed the patient off.
