HS111 Unit 7 Plurals and Pronunciation Reflection Example

Reviewed by Elspeth Marlowe, MSN, RN Medical Terminology Purdue University Global Free custom sample in 24 to 48h

The HS111 Unit 7 seminar reflection records how a live session on plurals and pronunciation changed one student's view of spoken terminology. Purdue Global HS 111 asks BS in Health Science learners to reflect on skills practiced aloud in seminar. The writer, who works in billing, arrived thinking pronunciation mattered little. A plurals round exposed "vertebras" and "diagnosises," and a medical assistant classmate modeled vertebrae and diagnoses. Recordings of ileum and ilium showed how spoken terms get confused, which matters when coders write terms heard on calls. A list of Latin and Greek plural endings, with English exceptions, became a habit: the writer now checks diagnoses every time. A practice routine and the remaining difficulty with cervices close the reflection.

CourseHS111 Medical Terminology
UnitUnit 7
Paper typeSeminar reflection
LengthAbout 800 words, 5 pages double-spaced
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolPurdue University Global
ProgramBS in Health Science
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for HS111 Unit 7

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Vertebra, Vertebrae and the Ending That Will Not Take an S: A Unit 7 Seminar Reflection on Plurals and Pronunciation

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HS111: Medical Terminology

Unit 7 Seminar Reflection

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The seminar and classmates are composite and described by role; the textbooks cited are real.

What this part is doingNaming the specific plurals in the lead tells the reader the reflection will stay concrete.
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What I Expected

I came into the seminar thinking pronunciation was the least important part of the course. I work in a billing office, where terms arrive in writing, and I assumed that as long as I could spell a word, I did not need to say it. I also thought plurals were a minor detail that spellcheck would catch.

Moment One: The Plurals Round

The instructor ran a quick round in which each of us had to say and then spell the plural of a term on the screen. The first few went fine: bronchus to bronchi, ovum to ova. Then came vertebra. I said "vertebras" before I could stop myself. A classmate who works as a medical assistant in an orthopedic office said "vertebrae," pronounced VER-teh-bray, without hesitation; she hears it every day. The rule is that Latin nouns ending in -a usually form plurals in -ae (Ehrlich et al., 2021). I had seen "vertebrae" in writing many times and never noticed the ending.

The next one caught almost everyone: diagnosis. The plural is diagnoses, pronounced dy-ag-NOH-seez, because Greek nouns ending in -sis change to -ses. Several of us said "diagnosises" or wrote "diagnosis's."

I had been reading these plurals for months without seeing them, because my eye was trained to look for the root and skip the ending.

What this part is doingIdentifying why the error happened, not just that it did, shows reflection rather than reporting.
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Moment Two: Hearing the Difference

The instructor then played two recordings: ileum and ilium. They sound almost identical, but ileum is part of the small intestine and ilium is part of the hip bone. A classmate who works in a hospital laboratory said that when terms are spoken in a busy area, people rely on context, and mistakes happen when context is thin. That changed my view of pronunciation. In billing, a coder who hears a term on a call with a provider's office and writes it from memory can choose the wrong one, and the claim will carry a code for the wrong body part.

Moment Three: The Correction I Now Make

The instructor gave us a short list of endings to memorize: -a to -ae, -um to -a, -us to -i, -is to -es, -ix and -ex to -ices, and -on to -a (Gylys & Wedding, 2017). She pointed out exceptions, such as virus to viruses and sinus to sinuses, which follow English rules. The correction I now make without thinking is diagnoses. Every time I write a summary of a claim with more than one diagnosis, I check the ending. I caught it twice at work the week after the seminar, once in my own email and once on a form a colleague had drafted.

Moment Four: Stress and Syllables

Near the end, we practiced where the stress falls in longer terms. The instructor pointed out that the stress often lands just before a common suffix: gas-TROS-co-py, hep-a-TI-tis, car-di-OL-o-gy. Saying the terms in pairs made the pattern obvious, and I found that once I could hear the stress, I could also see where the root ended and the suffix began. A classmate who is studying to become a pharmacy technician said she uses the same trick with drug names, which have their own patterns of stems. That comment made me realize that pronunciation is not separate from word parts; it is another way of finding them.

How I Will Practice

I have started reading new terms aloud when I meet them at work, even quietly at my desk, and writing a simple respelling next to any term I am unsure about. Each week I take five terms from claims I processed and say their singular and plural forms aloud before writing them down. This takes a few minutes, and it has already made me slower to type a plural without checking it.

What Changed

My view of pronunciation changed most. I now see it as a safety skill, not a social one, because spoken terms are where similar words get confused. I also understand why some sections ask for pronunciation in glossaries: saying a term aloud forces attention to every syllable, including the endings I used to skip.

What this part is doingLinking the plural rule to a change in daily work shows the seminar's lesson left the classroom.
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What I Still Find Hard

The -ix to -ices pattern still trips me up. Appendix to appendices feels natural, but cervix to cervices does not, and I sometimes hear "cervixes" in conversation. I have added these to a list I review before writing anything for a provider, checking any doubtful plural in a medical dictionary rather than trusting spellcheck (Venes, 2021).

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References

Ehrlich, A., Schroeder, C. L., Ehrlich, L., & Schroeder, K. A. (2021). Medical terminology for health professions (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Gylys, B. A., & Wedding, M. E. (2017). Medical terminology systems: A body systems approach (8th ed.). F. A. Davis.

Venes, D. (Ed.). (2021). Taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary (24th ed.). F. A. Davis.

What the HS111 Unit 7 assignment asks for

The seventh unit's paper looks back on a spoken practice session, live or replaced by a written task, about pronunciation, plurals or spoken use of medical terms. Reflections commonly run one to two pages in first person, depending on the section. Instructors look for specific examples from the session, an honest account of errors and a concrete change in how the student uses terminology. Many prompts ask students to connect the seminar to their work or study. Citing the textbook for plural rules or pronunciation guidance is often expected. Refer to classmates by their jobs, never by name. A note on what remains difficult shows ongoing learning and is frequently encouraged.

Inside the HS111 Unit 7 example

The reflection opens with the writer's expectation that pronunciation was unimportant in billing. Moment one recounts the plurals round, the vertebra error, a classmate's correct answer and the -a to -ae rule, followed by diagnosis to diagnoses; the highlighted sentence explains why the writer had never noticed the endings. Moment two covers the ileum and ilium recordings and their relevance to coding. Moment three gives the list of plural endings and exceptions and the correction now made at work. A fourth moment covers stress patterns. A practice routine, a summary of what changed and a note on cervices complete the paper. The writer also explains why pronunciation turned out to be a safety skill in coding work.

HS111 Unit 7 rubric: what earns full points

Graders of this reflection look for specific examples, candor about mistakes, links to the student's work, correctly stated rules and clear writing. Specificity often weighs most, rewarding exact terms and moments rather than general statements. Naming a real mistake and its cause also earns credit. Connection to practice scores well when the student describes how a change will appear at work or in study. Accurate rules, such as plural endings, should be stated correctly with a textbook citation. A natural first-person voice and an orderly account round out the grade. Some instructors also check that each rule mentioned matches the textbook's wording. A reflection that only summarizes the seminar's agenda usually earns partial credit.

HS111 Unit 7 help from the desk

Weaker reflections list what was covered without describing what the writer learned or changed. Another is stating plural rules incorrectly or without the common exceptions. Some students describe pronunciation as a matter of sounding professional and miss its role in avoiding errors. Others name classmates. Leaving out a concrete example of the change in practice weakens the conclusion. If your seminar focused on a different skill, perhaps abbreviations or spelling of eponyms, send your notes, and we can shape the reflection around the exact moments that changed how you use terms. Rules learned in seminar should appear in the reflection with their exceptions, such as virus and sinus.

Get an HS111 Unit 7 example written to your instructions

Tell us what your Unit 7 seminar covered, or point to the written alternative your section posted, and attach the rubric. Within 24-48h you receive a custom seminar reflection anchored in those terms and plural rules, in the format your instructor uses. The first reflection is free of charge. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.

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HS111 Unit 7 questions, answered

What if I missed the live seminar?

Many sections offer a written alternative, often a set of questions or a response to the recording, and it is graded on the same material. Look for it among the unit materials. A reflection built on the alternative should still name specific terms and rules, since the rubric usually cares more about the vocabulary than about whether you were present live.

How do I show pronunciation in writing?

Use a simple respelling with hyphens between syllables and the stressed syllable in capitals, such as brong-KY-tis for bronchitis, unless your textbook uses its own system. Consistency matters more than which system you choose. Avoid the formal phonetic alphabet unless the instructor asks for it, since most readers in the section will find a plain respelling easier to follow.

Which plural should I use when both are accepted?

Follow your textbook, and then stay consistent throughout the document. Terms like carcinoma and fibroma accept both an English plural and a Greek one, and graders rarely penalize either choice on its own. What does lose points is switching between them from one paragraph to the next, which suggests uncertainty rather than a considered choice.

Where can I find a free HS111 Unit 7 sample paper?

The complete Unit 7 seminar reflection is on this page, describing how a plurals round and recordings changed a billing professional's view of pronunciation.

What is the plural of diagnosis?

Diagnoses. Greek nouns ending in -sis change to -ses in the plural, so diagnosis becomes diagnoses and prognosis becomes prognoses.