Publishing research in English is a big hurdle for many medical professionals. Even if your data is solid and your conclusions are sharp, unclear wording can weaken your paper or make a presentation fall flat.
I’ve seen brilliant researchers struggle not because of the science, but because they weren’t sure which verb to use when describing a result. The good news? The vocabulary you actually need is narrower than you think. Let’s focus on what matters – writing and presenting.
Core Vocabulary for Writing Papers
Most medical research papers follow a standard IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion). Here are the verbs and phrases that will make your writing sound natural and precise.
Describing your study
Use these to state what you did:
- We conducted / performed a randomised controlled trial.
- Patients were enrolled / recruited from three hospitals.
- Data were collected / obtained using standardised questionnaires.
Be careful with carried out – it’s fine, but conducted is more formal in medical writing.
Presenting results
When you show what you found, avoid vague words like showed or proved. Try these instead:
- The treatment significantly reduced blood pressure compared to placebo (p < 0.01).
- We observed a 20% decrease in infection rates.
- There was a strong correlation between BMI and fasting glucose.
The word significant is tricky – in medical English, it almost always means statistically significant, not just important. Write clinically meaningful if you mean practical importance.
Discussing findings
This is where you interpret results. Common phrases:
- These results suggest / indicate that early intervention is beneficial.
- Our findings are consistent with previous reports by Smith et al.
- A limitation of this study is the small sample size.
Notice that suggest is softer than indicate. Use suggest when your evidence is strong but not definitive – which is most of the time.
Vocabulary for Presentations
Presenting at a conference or internal meeting has a different rhythm. You need to guide your audience’s attention and sound confident.
When showing data on a slide, use visual verbs:
- "This slide illustrates the survival curves."
- "As you can see in Figure 1, the difference is clear."
- "I’d like to highlight the outlier in the third group."
Transitioning between sections:
- "Let me briefly touch on the methodology."
- "That brings me to the next point: adverse events."
- "To wrap up, I’ll present our main conclusions."
Avoid rushing through these phrases. A calm, clear voice is more persuasive than speed.
Formal vs. Informal: A Quick Comparison
In medical writing, you often choose between a more formal word and a simpler one. Both are correct, but the right choice depends on the journal and context.
| Formal (academic) | Informal (everyday) | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| demonstrate / illustrate | show | Formal for papers; informal for internal memos |
| administer / deliver | give | ‘Administer’ for drugs; ‘deliver’ for interventions |
| elucidate / clarify | explain | Rarely needed; ‘explain’ works 90% of the time |
Don’t overdo the formal words. A paper full of elucidate and demonstrate sounds stiff. Use them sparingly for emphasis.
A Practical Mini-Exercise
Read the paragraph below. It’s written in a very informal style. Rewrite it for a medical journal.
We gave the drug to 50 patients and saw that their pain got a lot better. We think the drug works because it stops inflammation.
Possible revision:
The drug was administered to 50 patients, and a significant reduction in pain was observed. These findings suggest that the drug exerts its effect by inhibiting inflammation.
Notice the shift: active to passive voice (common in Methods), stronger verbs (was administered, exerts), and precise phrasing.
Why Your Vocabulary Matters
Editors and reviewers judge your work partly by how it reads. Awkward English doesn’t just look unprofessional – it can obscure your meaning. The goal is not to sound fancy, but to be clear and accurate.
Start by mastering the 20–30 core phrases we covered. That’s enough to write a solid draft and present with confidence. The rest will come with practice.
Improve your medical English further. If you want to check your current level or practise reading and listening with scientific texts, take our free English test at English Measure. It covers reading, listening, writing, and speaking – all in real-world research contexts. Test your English now.
📝 Related Practice Section
Writing Practice: Check out our free, AI-powered writing practice section to improve your English writing and grammar!
Ready to Take Your English Further?
Don't just read! Actively practice and improve your speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills with our interactive modules.