Correction of a short paragraph. Would anybody help me please?

Hi,

Major versus common.

Major implies the the "main reason or cause or the most substantive reason or cause".

Example 1

The major reason why Johnny has a cold (illness) is because he played with his friends who were all sick for the last two weeks. Of course, minor reasons also include that Johnny didn't take his vitamins and ran around outside poorly dressed in the cold weather.

Here we have something that is the main reason or cause. If he hadn't been playing with his sick friends, he might be okay today.

Example 2

Children commonly get sick with a cold (illness) during the winter. Usually kids don't go outside as much and play with their sick friends indoors. Being near other sick people is a common cause of becoming sick yourself. And the flu seems to visit the northern hemisphere every winter. People also get run down with the lack of sunlight and being caged up in a building all day long.

Here, we are saying that if you are near sick people, then you might or are likely to become sick yourself. We are NOT saying it is the MAJOR way, just rather it is common. We also note that the flu comes to the northern hemisphere at this time of year. So we are not really sure what drives what, but we do know that being exposed to sick people commonly makes us sick as well.

---

Looking at your sentence, I think "common" is correct. But I don't know for sure, and this is medical stuff. So you have to ask yourself if [1] lymphangioma is one of the primary reasons or causes, or [2] it is just often that lymphangioma often causes macroglossia.

I hope that helps.

MountainHiker

sunflower,

What happened was that I've used "major cause" as meaning "an important cause" (and not "the most important cause"), which now I know is wrong.

No, I have failed you. Major need not the the MOST but rather only significant. You can have a few major causes of lung disease and many minor causes.

Major causes:
-genetics
-smoking
-working in a coal mine (dust, silica)
-working as a waitress in a bar (second hand smoke exposure)

All these are major (and common) causes of lung diseases.

I am not even sure what I would list as a minor causes.

I am not sure how to explain common versus major. Major is a predominant. It is forceful. Common is just common. Common doesn't signify is rank or importance, other than it is common. Major does signify a high rank or high importance.

Letter to the editor, sure just post your letter here.

MountainHiker

Hi Sunflower,

Your letter is fine, with some subtle exceptions. But just be careful because "major" and "common" are often very similar.

As I demonstrated, sometimes you can use the words interchangably.

From my quick and uneducated reading of the following URL I tend to agree that "common" is more appropriate than major.

I hope this helps you.

MountainHiker

Dear Dr. ______
The [phrase] “lymphangioma is the major cause of macroglossia” [in the article "blah" ] was confusing and did not depict the author's [authors' (if plural)] [true intent because of a] poor translation into English. In the edited manuscript, the term “major” has been replaced with “common”, which is more appropriate. References have been supplied to the statement “lymphangioma is a common cause of macroglossia in children”.


I look forward to hearing from you.



http://www.emedicine.com/ent/topic746.htm:


True macroglossia can be subdivided into 2 main subcategories, congenital causes and acquired causes.

* Congenital causes

o Idiopathic muscle hypertrophy

o Gland hyperplasia

o Hemangioma

o Lymphangioma

o Down syndrome

o Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome

o Behmel syndrome

o Lingual thyroid

o Gargoylism

o Transient neonatal diabetes mellitus

o Trisomy 22

o Laband syndrome

o Lethal dwarfism of Blomstrand

o Mucopolysaccharidoses

o Skeletal dysplasia of Urbach

o Tollner syndrome

o Autosomal dominant inheritance

o Microcephaly and hamartoma of Wiedemann

o Ganglioside storage disease type I

* Acquired causes (Categories have been assigned to simplify the list, but there can be overlap of a particular etiology into more than one of these categories.)

o Metabolic/endocrine

+ Hypothyroidism

+ Cretinism

+ Diabetes

o Inflammatory/infectious

+ Syphilis

+ Amebic dysentery

+ Ludwig angina

+ Pneumonia

+ Pemphigus vulgaris

+ Rheumatic fever

+ Small pox

+ Typhoid

+ Tuberculosis

+ Actinomycosis

+ Giant cell arteritis

+ Candidiasis

+ Scurvy

+ Pellagra

o Systemic/medical conditions

+ Uremia

+ Myxedema

+ Hypertrophy

+ Acromegaly

+ Neurofibromatosis

+ Iatrogenic macroglossia

o Traumatic

+ Surgery

+ Hemorrhage

+ Direct trauma (eg, biting)

+ Intubation injury

+ Radiation therapy

o Neoplastic

+ Lingual thyroid

+ Lymphangioma

+ Hemangioma

+ Carcinoma

+ Plasmacytoma

o Infiltrative

+ Amyloidosis

+ Sarcoidosis