The regular answerers on the YA Cancer section are all familiar that there are PhD's, doctors, nurses, experienced cancer patients, and other very brilliant medical people, plus adult lay people, and many young teens who may not understand the vocabulary. For which ones do we write ? ? Ages are so often not given. We have to guess by the grammar of the asker. Any, hints, ideas, ways you do it ?
2012-07-17T22:25:46Z
Good answers so far. I don't think I would ever dumb it down, but that's good advice. I'm a cancer specialist doc but also a college world history teacher. Maybe the history teacher sixth grade approach is best.
2012-07-17T22:54:44Z
My sixth grade comment is not a slur/insult on that age. I sometimes think I was at my best /smartest that year. The short concise sentence idea is good - also breaking up the prose. And thank you Tiny.
thatartistwin2012-07-18T12:45:19Z
Favorite Answer
You will never be able to use terminology that suits each participants knowledge level because their individual experiences are most often not known to you. Unless you see evidence that you are answering a question posted by a person who seems to have a vast degree of insight into their particular question, why not just use simple layman's terms. For example, use the simple term "tumor" instead of the particular type of malignancy or use the term "spread" instead of metastasized. You might even preface your response with the phrase "In simple terms,...", or "Simply stated,...".
In any case, thank you for all you do to respond to those looking for answers here. No matter how you answer the question, we are just very appreciative that you do.
You are so write, I often find myself wondering about a person's ability to comprehend my answers. I like the idea of a 6th to 8th grade reading comprehension as suggested above, but it is hard some of the time, when discussing a remote or complex medical topic, to not go into that medical jargon and language because sometimes there is just no way to avoid it.
I also am of the mind that if a person is highly motivated, is asking a serious question, and in need of a serious answer, they may just really appreciate your answer and input regardless of the "doctor speak" should it work it's way into your answer. I also like to think people are somewhat intelligent and do know how to use Google should they run into a term they do not understand.
I think your Best Answer numbers speak for themselves in regard to your posing this question, you do great service on here and are by far one of if not the most qualified answer provider in this forum. I really think you do not need to further accommodate the information seekers on YA more than you clearly already do. Keep it up and thank you.
I am not conscious about the actual wordings. English is not my native language, so perhaps I automatically apply a simpler vocabulary than some of you would (Not sure about that though),
I try to make the sentences as short as possible. If there are more than two commas, I consider rephrasing.
I also believe that writing in paragraphs (using a double line shift here and there) makes the text a bit more reader friendly.
And even though I try to make my answers as reader friendly as possible, there are still posters who find them boring. We can't please them all - no matter how hard we try.
I know a lot of people think I give wrong answers because I see others "correct" the answers I give - I'm more inclined to "dumb down" answers because if the average person has a 6th grade reading comprehension, 50% of the people comprehend even less.
If a person can comprehend my answer: great. If they need more information, I hopefully gave them enough information that they have a reasonable idea where to look further.