Don't Panic - Where There's a Will

PANIC seems to be the word of the day. Career Step is not making it easy for us. But then, if it was easy everyone would do it!

When I started the Medical Transcription Editing course back in June, I was in a state of anticipation, excitement, and near panic. Then I started really diving into the material and thought, "What the hell am I going to do now?" In my case, I had time before starting the course to really get deep into the material available on the forum. I'd read post after post regarding what to expect, but until I was in it, I really didn't have a clue.

Now, almost 6 months later, I'm still asking myself the same question. "What the hell am I going to do now?" When I was in the Objective modules, the book learning, I felt fairly confident that I could figure things out.

The modules that really tested me were the ones dealing with punctuation and grammar and the modules dealing with pharmacology. Apparently, I didn't learn to use punctuation in my 12 years of education, and other than the few medications that I had personally taken, I had no frame of reference  for anything in the pharmacology module. I'll work through pharmacology in an upcoming post, but for now, this is my take on commas, prepositions, and, just for fun, flagging.

I finally had to break down punctuation to what I was getting wrong and figure out how to minimize those mistakes.

COMMAS! 

I sincerely hate these insignificant, tiny flea-like marks. So tiny and yet containing so much power. They should have a town named after them. Welcome to COMMA, IDAHO! Please use appropriate punctuation at all times!

I listed out the rules. What do you know? That actually helped!
Here's my list taken from CS; condensed, simplified, and worded so that I could understand them:

1. Commas join 2 independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction. Independent clauses can stand alone as a sentence or be joined by a word like "and" or "but" with a comma. (Sentence, and Sentence) Coordinating conjunctions: For, And, Not, But, Or, Yet.

2. Commas separate items in a series. (word, word, and word) The comma before and is determined by account instructions. Using that last comma is the formal usage, but that is an optional comma unless your account specifies differently.

3. Commas set off an introductory phrase. Use a comma if the first part of the sentence CANNOT stand alone. Do not use a comma if the first part can stand alone.

4. Use a comma to set off extra or nonessential information to the basic understanding of the sentence.

5. Use a comma to set off a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence if it is 4 words or longer. (I'll plug in a full preposition list shortly.)

6. Use a comma to set off a single word like however, also, no, yes, or well that begins a sentence.

7. Use a comma to separate a dependent clause if it comes first in the sentence. (A dependent clause cannot be made into a sentence of it's own.)

8. Use a comma to set off NONESSENTIAL information in the body of the sentence. (Say it falls in the middle somewhere.)

9. ESSENTIAL information does NOT get separated by commas. (Intuitionally, this seems backwards to me but it's the rule!)

10. Use a comma between coordinate adjectives. (Your sentence uses two descriptive words and then a noun. Can you use "and" between the descriptors? Are the words interchangeable? Equal?

11. Use a comma to set off parenthetical phrase or an "aside". (So and so were fighting, which I thought was dumb, over a cat.)

12. DO NOT join independent and dependent phrases with a comma and a conjunction. In its simplest form, this kind of sentence can be joined without the comma by just using the conjunction. (I couldn't help myself and didn't try.) 

This list is not the definitive, exhaustive list that you would find in an English Grammar and Punctuation book. However, it gives me everything I need to make a clear, clean sentence. At least when I pay attention to it. Nobody's perfect.

PREPOSITIONS Preposition list

aboard about above absent according to across after against  ahead of along alongside amid amidst among around as as far as as well as at atop before behind below beneath beside between by by means of despite down

due to during except far from following for from in in addition to in case of in front of in place of in spite of inside inside of instead of in to (into) like mid minus near near to next next to notwithstanding of off on on account of on behalf of on top of

on to (onto) opposite out of outside outside of owing to over past plus prior to regarding round save since than through throughout till times to  toward under underneath until up upon with with regards to within without

I had a teacher in the 7th grade that made us write them 10 times in sets of 5, adding the next 5 to the list each day until they were all written repeatedly. There was much whining and complaining, but I still remember most of them without looking. Thank you Mrs. W!

Flagging

Believe it or not, it is not the end of the world to put a flag on your report. It's really very easy. That little curvy thing above the 9 on the keyboard, 3 of the little Underlines, and the little curvy thing above the 10. There ya go! All better. No? Ok, ok. It doesn't make me feel any better either, but I have to remind myself I'M LEARNING. It's okay not to know something. It's okay not to hear something.

There will be times in the working world where we have to flag. It's a fact. From audio quality, to speech quality, to doctors making up their own words, it's all part and parcel of what we've signed on for. I compare it to the job I had for the Department of Fish and Game. I was an outdoor janitor. Yep, you guessed it! Poop and Garbage duty. If I didn't want to deal with the smells and slime, I shouldn't have applied for the job. There's good and bad about every job. Knowing for a fact that there will be times when you have to flag is just part of this particular job.

Happily, the fact that we need to flag for other reasons too helps keep us employed. Like when the doctor dictates that the patient has a broken right index finger in one section and later refers to splinting the left big toe. Hey, I'll take job security in all of it's forms. Now, if the government hadn't made personnel cutbacks I'd still be working Poop and Garbage duty. It wasn't like people stopped being people.