Medical Writing: A Guide for Clinicians, Educators, and

Researchers

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Robert B. Taylor

Medical Writing

A Guide for Clinicians, Educators,

and Researchers

Third Edition
Robert B. Taylor
Oregon Health & Science University
Portland, OR, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-70125-7    ISBN 978-3-319-70126-4 (eBook)

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For Francesca, Masha, Jack, and Annie
Preface

This book is intended to make you a better medical writer.

This is true whether you are a clinician in a busy practice, an
educator teaching students in the health professions, or a
researcher who conducts and reports randomized clinical tri-
als. It is for the physician, physician assistant, or nurse practi-
tioner who sees patients and who also wants to contribute to
the medical literature. It is for the medical educator writing
articles and book chapters to share new information and,
incidentally, to attain promotion and tenure. And it is for the
investigator whose career success depends, in large measure,
on critical skills in developing research protocols, preparing
grant applications, and writing articles describing the even-
tual research findings.
It has been 6 years since publication of the second edition
of this book. The landscape of medical writing has changed in
many ways, and I will cover much of the new territory in this
third edition. But the aim of the book remains unchanged: to
improve your writing skills, whether you are a clinician, edu-
cator, or medical researcher.
So what exactly has happened in the past 6 years? Although
there had been some early rumblings when the second edi-
tion was written, the intervening years have seen the evolu-
tion of pay-to-publish open access journals, predatory
publishers, highjacked journals, and bogus book reviews. The
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has
changed its Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts to an
updated version: Recommendations for the Conduct,

vii
viii Preface

Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in

Medical Journals. In this third edition, I cover these topics, as
well as add new sections on altmetrics, parachute studies,
bacronymic article titles, peer review fraud, how to find per-
mission-free illustrations for your work, and ways to avoid
common mistakes in writing and submitting a research
report.
Medical writing is different from composing a short story
or a novel. Although all authors should strive for accuracy,
clarity, and simplicity, medical writing has certain rules—
some unwritten and others found in the Instructions to
Authors that seem to differ just a little from journal to jour-
nal—that seem to encourage complexity rather than a pleas-
ing flow of words. Yet, despite the need to be precise and
often to include p-values, confidence intervals, and other foes
of an elegant literary style, medical writing can still be read-
able and sometimes even natural.
If you are new to medical writing or even if you have been
the author of some articles or book chapters and seek to
improve your abilities, this book can help you. Who am I that
I can make this assertion and write this book, both fairly pre-
sumptuous acts? Here’s my reasoning. As a practicing physi-
cian and medical educator, writing has been my avocation.
Over 14 years in private practice and 39 years in academic
medicine, I have written using all the major models described
in this book: review articles, case reports, editorials, letters to
the editor, book reviews, book chapters, edited books,
authored books, research protocols, applications for grant
support, and reports of clinical research studies. Most items
submitted for publication have been published. Not all.
Perhaps my most noteworthy qualification is not that I have
managed to produce a lengthy curriculum vitae. In my opin-
ion, what is more important for you, the reader, is that I have
made all the errors. That’s right, the mistakes. Over the years,
I have jumbled spelling, mixed metaphors, tangled syntax,
wandered away from my own outline, written on unimport-
ant topics, submitted grant requests that seemed to befuddle
reviewers, and offered articles to the wrong journals. But
 Preface ix

along the way, I have published 33 medical books and added

several hundred papers and book chapters to the literature.
This book is written to share what I have learned—what
works and what doesn’t in medical writing.
This book aims to help clinicians, educators, and research-
ers translate their practice observations, pedagogical innova-
tions, wise thoughts, and investigational data into written
form and eventually into print. In striving to achieve this
purpose and as (I hope) a good educator, I have written the
book with four learning objectives in mind. Upon completion
of this book, the reader should:
• Understand more about the art of medical writing, includ-
ing motivation, conceptualization, composition, and
frustrations
• Know how to use different models of medical writing, such
as the review article, report of clinical research, and more
• Recognize how to get a manuscript published
• Realize that writing can be fun
The book’s content is a blend of personal experience and
research on the Web and in printed sources. Throughout all
chapters, I have attempted to follow the time-honored prin-
ciple of supporting theory with examples, some from actual
published materials and some simply created to help illus-
trate the ideas presented. Most of the examples presented are
“good examples”; a few are illustrations of what not to do.
In Chap. 1, I challenge authors to consider three questions
before beginning work on an article or book: So what? Who
cares? Where will it be published? As the author, I believe
that I should answer the three questions in regard to this
book. The “So what?” question asks what is new and differ-
ent, and I think that the answer lies in the fact that I address
medical writing knowledge and skills from the viewpoint of
the clinician and medical educator, not that of the journal
editor or professor of English literature. The “Who cares?”
issue concerns the potential reader; for this book, that is the
reader who aspires to write for publication in the medical
literature. This is, in fact, a surprisingly large number of per-
x Preface

sons—all competing for limited space in print. In regard to

the “Where will it be published?” question, I am pleased that
this book is published by Springer Publishers, the world’s
leading publisher of scientific books and journals, with whom
I have had an author–publisher relationship since 1976.
As a clinician and/or perhaps a medical educator or clinical
investigator, you have a tremendous source for writing
ideas—the patients, students, or research subjects you see
each day. Think about the possible significance of a cluster of
uncommon problems you have observed recently, the unlikely
manifestation of a common disease, your curricular innova-
tion that others could implement, or the extraordinary cour-
age displayed by one of your patients or study participants.
Perhaps you have found a new way to use an old remedy, have
your own thoughts about a recently published study, or even
have a pile of data from a clinical investigation you recently
completed. This book is about helping you recognize the
reportable idea, organize your information, and write it up.
Happy writing!

Virginia Beach, VA Robert B. Taylor

About This Book

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.
English Poet Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

Together we are embarking on a journey through the ins

and outs of writing in general and of medical writing in par-
ticular, with all its idiosyncrasies. This short introduction tells
a little about the book’s organization and its own peculiari-
ties, including word use, reference styles, and the examples
and allusions you will encounter. In the end, our common
goal is to find some true ease in writing, through consider-
ation of both current theory and samples from the literature
and by looking at what constitutes excellent and not-so-good
writing.
The book progresses from the theoretical to the practical.
It begins with basic writing topics and skills. Next comes a
consideration of the various models for medical writing, from
the review article to the report of a research study. There are
chapters on writing a research protocol, how to get grant fund-
ing for your research (or other project), and how to write a
report of a research study. The final chapter discusses how to
get your work into print, longer in this third edition because
of the recent emergence of new models of publication and
perils for the author. The appendix has some handy tools that
may help you along the way, including a glossary of medical
writing terms, proofreaders’ marks, commonly used abbrevia-
tions that you may use in your own writing, and definitions of
methodological and statistical terms used in research reports.
xi
xii About This Book

In the early chapters on basic writing skills, I use the word

article, even though later in the book the principles of
­authorship described will also apply to editorials, letters to
the editor, research protocols, grant proposals, and research
reports.
Within chapters, you will also note some shorthand refer-
ence citations, presented in parentheses. These identify arti-
cles and books used as examples to illustrate enviable (and
sometimes deplorable) titles, organizational structure, and
prose. Although I believe few readers would actually want to
consult these writings, I have provided abbreviated citations,
just in case. With the information provided, you could find
most of the articles on the Web. This third edition presents
some newer examples of good and bad medical writing and
also retains a few classic gems.
At the end of each chapter are references to sources per-
tinent to ideas described in the text. These are presented in
the style of the “Recommendations for the Conduct,
Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in
Medical Journals,” a very useful guide that will be discussed
in later chapters. Using this reference style for the book mod-
els the way you will generally prepare citations for your
medical articles.
I have done my best to make this book a pleasure to read.
This includes using short, strong words and, at times, colorful
images. I have included allusions to medical history, classical
writing, mystery novels, opera, sports figures, comics, and a
few very odd creatures. We will visit Hippocrates and Frau
Roentgen, Shakespeare and Hemingway, Princess Turandot
and Pogo, and zombies and clones. As you read along, you
will also learn some medical information, such as whether or
not the use of probiotics can reduce crying episodes in infant
colic and the relationship between the exposure to aircraft
noise and cardiovascular mortality. All the examples in the
book help illustrate points about medical writing that I con-
sider important.
I hope that what follows will help you master the art of
writing, to “move easiest” by learning—not really new dance
 About This Book xiii

steps—but some guidance on how to walk the path from idea

to print. I wish that I could promise that having read this
book, your next writing effort will be so inspired and lumi-
nous that everything else in print will seem drab by compari-
son. In fact, this is unlikely to occur. But I do earnestly believe
that, as stated in the Preface, using the principles and tips
presented here will make you a better medical writer.
Contents

1 Getting Started in Medical Writing����������������������������    1

2 Basic Writing Skills�������������������������������������������������������   33
3 Medical Writing: Getting Started
and Getting Finished����������������������������������������������������   69
4 Technical Issues in Medical Writing���������������������������   97
5 What’s Special About Medical Writing?������������������� 123
6 How to Write a Review Article���������������������������������� 153
7 Case Reports, Editorials, Letters to the Editor,
Book Reviews, and Other Publication Models��������� 173
8 Writing Book Chapters and Books���������������������������� 207
9 How to Write a Research Protocol���������������������������� 239
10 How to Write a Grant Proposal��������������������������������� 261
11 How to Write a Report of a Research Study������������ 289
12 Getting Your Writing Published��������������������������������� 317
Appendix A: Glossary of Medical Writing Words
and Phrases�������������������������������������������������������������������� 369
Appendix B: Proofreader’s Marks������������������������������������� 379
Appendix C: Commonly Used Medical
Abbreviations���������������������������������������������������������������� 381

xv
xvi Contents

Appendix D: Methodological and Statistical

Terms Used in Research Studies�������������������������������� 385
Acknowledgments���������������������������������������������������������������� 395
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 397
Chapter 1
Getting Started in Medical
Writing

[W]ords are things, and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think
British poet Lord Byron (1788–1824), Don Juan

Does being a clinician or holding a faculty appointment make

you or me a capable medical writer? No, it doesn’t, any more
than being a physician or even an inspiring educator qualifies
me to be a good stock picker, business manager, or even vaca-
tion planner. It only means that I have medical knowledge
and skills and am trained to care for patients or perhaps have
some gift for teaching or research. On the other hand, just
because you are a clinician who sees patients daily or a
researcher concerned with protocols and statistical signifi-
cance does not mean that you cannot become a capable, even
great, writer. And, yes, even the classroom or bedside teacher
can learn to write well. Being that great writer requires
knowledge, practice, experience, the capacity to endure rejec-
tion, and a strong will to succeed.

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 1

R.B. Taylor, Medical Writing,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70126-4_1
2 1. Getting Started in Medical Writing

The knowledge part includes both medical and “writing”

knowledge. Let us assume that, by virtue of your clinical prac-
tice, you have the medical knowledge. Then what you must
master are the body of information and the technical skills
that can help you become a great writer. You must know how
to assemble and use basic writing resources. You also need to
understand key issues in medical writing such as how to get
started and how to get finished, the various models of medi-
cal writing, how to prepare a manuscript, and how to get your
work published. Acquiring this knowledge is no small task,
but it can be done.
Writing for the medical literature has its own special con-
siderations. Composing vibrant prose is not usually the key
issue and at times may appear to be disadvantageous. By that
I mean that editors of scientific journals tend to favor densely
written articles that put specificity ahead of clarity. Rew has
written, “A fog has settled on scientific English. Well-written
English effortlessly communicates the writer’s intent to the
reader. Unfortunately, far too often, science is written in a
form that renders the content hard to understand, and which
makes unreasonable demands on the reader” [1]. It seems
that many medical articles, notably reports of clinical research
studies, are written chiefly to be published and cited, and
readability is a minor consideration. I hope that you and I can
aspire to a level of literacy acceptable to your editors and that
readers will appreciate the enhanced readability of our work.
The ability to endure rejection is a must. I began medical
writing in the early 1970s while in a small-town private prac-
tice. I had some early success in conducting clinical studies
and seeing the results in print in respected journals. I also
wrote some articles for controlled circulation, advertiser-
supported journals, such as Medical Economics. Not every-
thing I wrote was published. I also began writing health
books for nonmedical people, what the editors call the “lay
audience.” Here I collected so many rejection letters that I
could have wallpapered a room with them. Only when I
began writing and editing medical books did my acceptance
rate become favorable. However, after 40 years of medical
 Why We Write 3

writing experience, I still receive rejections for clinical papers,

editorials, and book proposals. And, yes, it still hurts.
If you aspire to be a medical writer, you will need determi-
nation. Being a writer takes a lot of effort, and you really
need to want to see your work in print. But if you develop the
itch to write, it can only be relieved by the scratch of the
pen—or today by the click of the computer keyboard. If you
begin to see yourself as a writer working on a project, as I am
working on this book today, then you will think about the
project whenever you have a spare moment, and as ideas
occur, you will capture them on a scrap of paper, index card,
or smartphone. There is tale, perhaps apocryphal, that Scottish
poet Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), while once struggling with
a sentence, went hunting. The ideal wording popped into
head. Scott quickly shot a crow, plucked a feather, and used
the bird’s blood to record the prose before it faded. Some of
my best thoughts have been scribbled on paper napkins. You
will log the concept or phrase when and where you can, just
so it doesn’t get away, because that is what writers do.

Why We Write
For years I have periodically conducted writing workshops
for clinicians and medical educators. Presenting writing work-
shops, of course, guarantees an audience that is self-selected
to be more interested in writing than those in competing
workshops on how to perform a no-scalpel vasectomy or
ways to code office visits to receive maximum reimburse-
ment. Generally, most of the participants are previously pub-
lished medical authors, at least to some degree. Each of these
workshops begins with the same question: Why do we write?
The answers, while diverse, tend to be the same in each work-
shop and are listed in Table 1.1. I am going to discuss a few of
these.
First, let’s consider and dismiss the final entry on the list—
earn income. Medical writing is not lucrative. Advertiser-­
supported publications (more about them later) often pay a
4 1. Getting Started in Medical Writing

Table 1.1 Reasons why we write

Gain intellectual stimulation
Share ideas
Report research
Express an opinion
Generate discussion
Advance one’s discipline
Assert “ownership” of a topic
Attain promotion/tenure
Report a case
Enhance one’s personal reputation
Achieve some small measure of immortality by publishing our ideas
Earn income

few hundred dollars for an article. Book royalties are generally

meager compared to what a health professional earns in his
or her “day job.” Book chapters, editorials, and research
reports pay little or nothing and are written for reasons other
than financial gain. If your goal is wealth, you should add
more clinical hours to your schedule or buy stocks that go
up—something other than medical writing.
What about the other reasons we write? For those in aca-
demic medicine, promotion and tenure are very important,
and publications are the key to success. As medical schools
become increasingly dependent on clinicians seeing patients
for economic survival, it would seem that this clinical effort
would be rewarded with the carrots of career achievement—
promotion to the next rank and, where applicable, tenured
faculty positions. This, however, is not the case. In 1988, a
study at Johns Hopkins Medical School reported, “Those
who were promoted had had about twice as many articles
published in peer-­reviewed journals as those who were not
promoted” [2]. I have not seen a recent similar study, but I
don’t believe that anything has changed, and an academic
faculty member who bets his or her career on advancement
without publications is taking a dangerous path.
I tell young faculty members that, as a broad generaliza-
tion, it takes at least two publications a year to be considered
 Why We Write 5

as “satisfactory” in scholarly activity when it comes time for

promotion. Some can be clinical reviews or case reports, but
others must be research reports published in refereed jour-
nals. Also, you must be the first author on your share of the
papers, not always second or third author. Faculty members
who chiefly see patients often do not get this message.
Beasley and Wright surveyed faculty in 80 medical schools in
35 states. They differentiated between clinician investigators
(the research faculty) and clinician educators (the patient
care faculty) and concluded, “Clinician educators are less
familiar with promotion guidelines, meet less often with supe-
riors for performance review, and have less protected time
than clinician investigator colleagues” [3].
Another benefit of medical writing is the in-depth knowl-
edge it brings. Think of it as a self-education program. If you
or I plan to conduct research (which requires various phases
of writing such as the research protocol, grant application,
and ultimately the research report) or develop a clinical
review or book chapter on a topic such as hyperthyroidism or
ovarian cancer, then we will necessarily learn a lot about the
topic during the process. In academic medicine, the way to
really get to know a field is to contribute to it, and those who
contribute by means of publication need current, evidence-
based knowledge if their writing is to be credible.
In my opinion the most enduring reason to be a medical
writer is the intellectual stimulation. Medical writers have a
lot of fun learning about their topics, rummaging in their
imaginations for the best way to present material and finding
just the right words to say what is important. And what you
write can stimulate discussion. For example, I published an
article on leadership with the premise that leadership skills
can be learned. A reader disagreed, stating that my article
had “missed the mark” and that the top leaders have inher-
ited abilities and character traits. I had an enjoyable time
composing my reply.
There is also the pleasant side effect of getting known.
As an editor of a number of medical reference books, I have
had the heartwarming experience of visiting clinics in Asia,
6 1. Getting Started in Medical Writing

Europe, and South America and having young doctors exclaim,

“Doctor Taylor, I have read your book.” On a practical level,
if you are a referral physician who specializes in, for example,
refractive surgery of the eye or the management of Parkinson’s
disease, publishing articles on these topics helps assure
referrals.
In the end, however, when the going gets tough and your
paper has been rejected again, what will sustain you is not the
discussion with readers, the occasional recognition, or the
clinical referrals. It is the simple joy of writing.

Why We Don’t Write

If writing is such a joy, why don’t we write? And for those in
academic medicine and whose career advancement depends
on publications, isn’t it curious that so many resist writing?
In my workshops on medical writing, the second discussion
question is “Why don’t we write?” Table 1.2 lists some of the
answers received over the years.
What about the resource issues cited in the list? Time to
write is always mentioned early in the discussion. No one in
private practice has revenue-generating time that is allocated
to writing. Those in academic practice soon find that they
don’t either. For academicians, time to do research and to

Table 1.2 Reasons given for not writing

Not enough time
Nothing to write about
No one to work with in writing
Shortage of secretarial support
Lack of knowledge as to how to research information
No mentor for writing activities
No motivation
No self-confidence
Don’t know how to start
“I hate writing!”
 Why We Don’t Write 7

write must be “bought” by obtaining funding (which is why

grant proposal writing is important). For the rest of us, writing
time is going to be carved out of personal time. When I was
in private solo practice, my writing time was in the early
morning, before breakfast and when my family was asleep.
For others, the time will be weekend mornings or late at
night. In workshops, sometimes I have encountered vocal—
sometimes even angry—disagreement with my “writing on
your own time” beliefs, but most experienced medical writers
and editors will tell you this is the way it is.
Whatever time you designate as writing time must be vig-
orously protected. In practice, patients will get sick and call;
this is the virtue of writing in the early morning or late-night
hours when the telephone is quiet. In academic medicine, you
may need to close the door while writing or go to the library
to prevent colleagues from coming to discuss problem resi-
dents, curriculum changes, or patient referrals—anything but
writing.
How about the lack of ideas, lack of secretarial support,
absence of like-minded colleagues, and so forth? Any clinician
seeing 15–25 patients a day encounters a wide variety of clini-
cal phenomena that could present the idea for an article: com-
mon causes of pelvic pain, ways to manage the patient with a
low back strain, an unusual manifestation of lupus erythemato-
sus, herbal therapy in the treatment of depression, and much
more. The variety you see depends on your specialty. Your
writing ideas will come from your clinical experience. This is as
it should be, because it brings immediacy to your writing and
provides the credibility you need to write on the topic. Later in
the book, we will discuss how to develop clinical observations
into writing topics, outlines, and articles.
In my opinion, laments about lack of secretarial help, col-
legial support, and research access are not as valid as they
once were. Why? Because of the computer and the Internet.
Not too many years ago, I was highly dependent on secre-
tarial support; I dictated my articles and made corrections by
hand to be changed on computer by my typist. Today I use the
Microsoft Word program on my computer, doing the typing
8 1. Getting Started in Medical Writing

myself; the computer’s efficiency has led me to change my

writing methods. With e-mail, coauthors are also readily
available. In fact, I can pass documents back and forth with
colleagues across the country by e-mail just as readily as with
those down the hall.
The World Wide Web has revolutionized research, making
information needed for writing readily available to anyone
with a computer and Internet access. Because knowing how
to use the available resources is so important to medical writ-
ers, we will shortly spend time learning about what is online
and how to use it. Basically, you can learn just about anything
you need to know while sitting at your desk, if only you learn
how to do it.
The lack of self-confidence is quickly overcome after a few
publications, which may also help to spark motivation.
Regarding the last entry on Table 1.2, I can’t do much for
those who really hate to write.

Random Thoughts About Medical Writing

Writing as History

In 1912 the citizens of the village of Caledonia, New York,

placed a large boulder as a monument commemorating the
historic treaty between Chief Ganaiodia, representing the
Native Americans in the area, and the local villagers and
farmers. As a civic leader, my grandmother had an idea. She
dispatched my mother, then aged 9, to the grocery store to
buy a tin of cookies. Yes, those were the days that cookies
came in tin boxes, and one could safely send a 9-year-old
child alone to the grocery store. When my mother returned,
grandmother removed the cookies, which I am sure were put
to good use. What she wanted was the metal box, into which
she placed several items, including a copy of the village’s
weekly newspaper. The box was then buried beneath the
boulder as a time capsule. I believe that it is still there
beneath the boulder.
 Random Thoughts About Medical Writing 9

Your writing is a time capsule. It shows what you and your

colleagues think today about important issues such as diag-
nosis, treatment, prevention, prognosis, clinical correlations,
health policy, practice management, and much more. As read-
ers, we use medical writing to look back in history.
Think about the historic figures in medicine. Who comes to
mind? Hippocrates, Galen, Maimonides, Paracelsus, Vesalius,
Harvey, Osler, and more (I am sure that, in choosing just a
few to discuss briefly, I have omitted many favorites, but I am
going to try to make a point). Three centuries before the
Common Era (CE), the words of Hippocrates were recorded
in On Hemorrhoids, On Fractures, On Ulcers, On the Surgery,
On the Sacred Disease, and the Book of Aphorisms. Galen,
writing in Rome during the second-century CE, compiled the
medical knowledge of the day into an encyclopedic work that
endured as an authoritative reference for centuries.
Maimonides wrote on diet, reptile poisoning, and asthma dur-
ing the twelfth-century CE. Later, during the Renaissance,
Paracelsus described Meniere’s disease and the treatment of
syphilis with mercurials; he gave us the guiding principle of
toxicology: “The dose makes the poison.” We know this
because Paracelsus wrote it. Vesalius produced drawings of
the body that greatly advanced the study of anatomy. Harvey,
in the 1600s, wrote describing the circulation of blood in the
body, and later Sir William Osler’s book The Principles and
Practice of Medicine defined the practice of medicine in the
late nineteenth century [4].
Do you notice the common theme above? Is my point
becoming clear? While all were undoubtedly outstanding
physicians of their day, they are remembered because they
wrote. They recorded their observations and their thoughts.
In doing so, they literally helped shape the history of healing.
And by writing, they created the building blocks upon which
today’s house of medicine stands.
You and I can do a little of this, too. At this time, none of
us is likely to become the “father of medicine” or the “father
of anatomy.” Hippocrates and Vesalius hold those titles. But
we can add small twenty-first-century contributions to the
10 1. Getting Started in Medical Writing

house of medicine while metaphorically tucking some of our

work away in today’s time capsule for someone in the future
to ponder.

Writing and Reading

Reading goes with writing like ice cream goes with apple
pie—one just makes the other better. All writers must read if
they are to be any good at medical writing, and you should
read diverse items and for various reasons: for information,
for ideas, for structure, for style, and for a sense of history.
All clinicians need to read the medical literature regularly
to stay up-to-date in their specialties; this is part of being a
good healer (later, in Chap. 3, I will describe how clinicians
read the literature). Educators and researchers must read
constantly to know the latest advances in their areas of inter-
est. Your journal reading will help build bridges to your own
experience.
Writers also read to seek information. For example, when
writing the section above, I needed to reread parts of
Sebastian’s excellent reference book A Dictionary of the
History of Medicine [4] to learn about Hippocrates, Galen,
and Harvey. No, I did not have all the information in my head.
Right now I have promised to write a book on the great inno-
vations in medicine, and as I revise this third edition of
Medical Writing, I am searching for information on the next
topic I will cover.
In addition, writers read to seek general knowledge and,
perhaps, to troll for ideas. Some clinical interest topics I have
encountered recently include the merits of vitamin D, atypi-
cal fractures with bisphosphonate therapy, the role of alterna-
tive medicine, and new drugs for diabetes.
There is also reading for structure. By this I mean consid-
ering articles analytically. When you read an article that you
like—because of the writing, not the topic or statistics—go
back and reread the article looking at how the author put it
together. How was the title composed? How was the abstract