Medical writing for non-native English speakers: Help for usage of articles

s. After _104_____ title, _105_____ abstract is _106_____ second most read part (frequently _107_____ only other red part) of paper, and so is likely to_108_____ basis on which _109_____work is judged by uncritical readers. It is also _110_____ first part of _111_____ paper that an editor reads carefully, and it may provoke _112_____ choice of references. Like _113_____ title, _114_____ abstract will reward time spent on it and should be short, intelligible, informative, and interesting. It should be _115_____ digest of _116_____ whole paper and contain its essence. It should consist of four basic parts, which can vary individually in length. These should describe succinctly (a) why what was done was done; (b) what was done; (c) what was found; and (d) what was concluded. 117_____ permissible length may be defined by the journal in question, but 200 words is a good average target that should be exceeded only in exceptional circumstances. 118_____ Vancouver Group suggests a maximum of 150 words for _119_____unstructured abstracts and 250 for fully structured formats. The process takes time. Remember, _120_____text that is easy to read is usually hard to write. Statistical methods. 'Statistics' is _121_____ science of collecting, describing and analyzing data that are subject to random variation. It consists of two main areas: (i) descriptive statistics, whereby _122_____ collection of data is summarized in order to characterize features of its distribution, and (ii) inferential statistics, whereby these summary data are processed in order to estimate, or predict, characteristics of another (usually larger) group. Before _123_____ research study is undertaken it is important to consider the nature of _124_____ 62 Škrbić and Igić. Scr Med 2019;50(1):56-63.