Quality of medical writing of original articles in the Revue de Medecine Veterinaire in 1997-1998

The quality of the medical writing of 24 original articles written in Frenc h and published in the Revue de Medecine Veterinaire in 1997 and 1998 has b een examined. The Titles were independent and informative (22/24), the obje ctives set out in the Introduction were met (19/24). The Discussion satisfi ed the objectives of the Introduction (23/24). Misuse of the present was fo und in the 24 original articles. On average, the use of medical jargon was found, per article, 16,9 +/- 9,9 times (range, 2 to 39), meaningless phrase ology 12,2 +/- 6,5 times (range, 1 to 22). Commentaries were found in the R esults chapters (20/24). The original articles studied were satisfactorily constructed : however, the use of a literary style was systematic and the w riting of chapters was at times lacking in rigour and accuracy. This style of writing pointlessly overloads the text and may make the article difficul t to read and mask its the scientific message.