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The top 10
� Be prepared
� Be systematic
� Be simple
� Be fluent
� Be accurate
� Be visually aware� Be simple
� Be clear
� Be concise
� Be visually aware
� Be correct
� Be consistent
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Be prepared
“Success depends upon previous
preparation, and without such without such
preparation there is sure to be failure”
Confucius
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Be prepared – the ‘big picture’
� Purpose
� People
� Product� Product
� Process
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Be systematic
“If a man
can group his ideas,
then he is a writer”then he is a writer”
Robert Louis Stevenson
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Reading strategies
� Preselecting papers
� Skimming headings
� Skimming hotspots� Skimming hotspots
� Whole thing (rarely)
� Grouping refs by category
� Extracting/recording
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Useful tools
Thinking
� Six key questions
� Brainstorming
Organizing
� Mind-mapping
� Post-it notes� Brainstorming
� Talking it through
� Incubation
� Post-it notes
� Outlining
� Heaps of paper
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Six key questions
� Meaning?
� Why?
� Why not?� Why not?
� Like what?
� Based on what evidence?
� So what?
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Be simple
“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well
enough”enough”
Albert Einstein
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Writing Skills for Medical Communications
Top 10 tips
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Be simple
� Have a good structure
� Make structure clear to reader
� Manage structure and length of:� Manage structure and length of:
� sentences
� paragraphs
� lists
� Choose appropriate words
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Concept/length
Since behavioral factors, such as poor compliance with treatment, frequently contribute to exacerbations of heart failure, a contribute to exacerbations of heart failure, a prospective, randomized trial of the effect of a nurse-directed, multidisciplinary intervention on rates of readmission within 90 days of hospital discharge, quality of life, and costs of care for high-risk patients 70 years of age or older who were hospitalized with congestive heart failure was conducted by Deng et al.
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Be clear
“Good prose is like a window pane”
George Orwell
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Sentence order
Every step of the procedure, including the criteria for selecting patients, the surgical approach, the intraoperative surgical approach, the intraoperative technique, and the postoperative nursing care, was evaluated.
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Don’t be unclear
� “Women dream about food ten times more often than men.”
� “Weight loss is an independent � “Weight loss is an independent prognostic marker for poor survival in complicated heart failure, and therapies directed at improving weight loss may improve outcomes.”
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Be concise
“...plain, simple language, short words and brief
sentences. That is sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the
modern way and the best way”
Mark Twain
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Five principles for conciseness
� Delete words that mean little or nothing
� Delete words that repeat meaning of other wordsother words
� Delete words implied by other words
� Replace a phrase by a word
� Change negatives to positives
J Williams
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Words that can often be deleted
� Actually
� Really
� Rather
� Basically
� Generally
� Somewhat� Rather � Somewhat
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Redundancies
� Basic fundamentals
� Various different
� Consensus of opinion� Consensus of opinion
� Future events
� Period of time
� Red in colour
� At a rapid speed
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Words implied by other words
� The last point to make is…
� Have been determined to have…
� This section introduces…� This section introduces…
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Phrases into words
� Despite the fact that…
� In a situation in which…
� Concerning the matter of…� Concerning the matter of…
� A greater number of…
� Performed an investigation into…
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Negatives into positives
� Not allow…
� Not include…
� Not stop…� Not stop…
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“I’m of the opinion that this manuscript of yours may well benefit from a modicum of judicious editing.”
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Be fluent
“Writing stopped being fun when I
discovered the difference between difference between
good writing and bad”
Truman Capote
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Organization for fluency
Traditional clinical review articles differ from systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Traditional reviews are often highly selective in the literature they discuss and may reflect the author’s personal opinion. Non-quantitative reflect the author’s personal opinion. Non-quantitative systematic reviews comprehensively examine the medical literature, seeking to identify and synthesize all relevant information to formulate the best approach to diagnosis ortreatment. Meta-analyses (quantitative systematic reviews) seek to answer a focused clinical question,using rigorous statistical analysis of pooled research studies.
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Repetition for fluency
In a coherent paragraph, each sentence relates clearlyto the topic sentence or controlling idea. However, there is more to coherence than sentence meaning. If a is more to coherence than sentence meaning. If a paragraph is coherent, each sentence flows clearly to thenext without obvious shifts or jumps. A coherent paragraph also creates ties between old and new information to make the structure of ideas or argumentsclear to the reader.
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Adding fluency
Type 2 diabetes is an increasingly common condition. There exist over a million diagnosed cases in the UK. A further million cases are cases in the UK. A further million cases are believed to be undiagnosed. This illness has devastating complications. Examples include coronary heart disease, nephropathy, stroke, retinopathy and heart failure. Three-quarters of patients with this condition die of cardiovascular causes.
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Be accurate
“Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything”
Xenophon
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Missing out a couple of words could alter meaning
Incorrect
� …and ≥2 unscheduled medical visits during the past year were required for enrollment
CorrectCorrect
� …and ≥2 unscheduled medical visits for asthma during the past year were required for enrollment
Example: Steve Cook
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Is this an accurate statement?
In the first 10 years after erythropoiesis-stimulating agents were introduced, only
four cases of pure red cell aplasia occurred.four cases of pure red cell aplasia occurred.
Example: Nigel Eastmond
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Be visually aware
“The soul cannot think without a picture”
Aristotle
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Favourite hot drinks among postdoctoral researchers at three UK universities (based on a questionnaire study)
Favourite drink
Oxford (n=92)
Cambridge (n=150)
Manchester (n=88)
Coffee 45 77 25
Tea 24 54 25Tea 24 54 25
Chocolate* 15 13 34
Other† 8 6 4
*including cocoa
†including Horlicks, Ovaltine, milk (from any animal) and hot water
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Rice et al. Pain 94 (2001) 215–224
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Be correct
“Life is tons of discipline. Your first
discipline is your vocabulary, then vocabulary, then
your grammar and your punctuation.”
Robert Frost
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Adopt/adaptAssure/ensureDefinite/definitive
Commonly misused words
Varying/variousAccuracy/precisionEffect/affect Definite/definitive
Dose/dosageEffect/affectInfer/imply
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A painful procedure?
…when documented weight loss is used as a criterion to dichotomise patients with chronic heart failure…with chronic heart failure…
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Be consistent
“Consistency is the last refuge of the
unimaginative”
Oscar Wilde
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A few consistency issues…
� Technical terms
� Spelling
� Abbreviations
� Lists
� Symbols in graphs
� Special characters
� Dashes, hyphens, etc
� Digits vs words for numbers� Lists
� Capitalization
� Heading style
� Digits vs words for numbers
� Units
� Brackets and parentheses
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The top 10
� Be prepared
� Be systematic
� Be simple
� Be fluent
� Be accurate
� Be visually aware� Be simple
� Be clear
� Be concise
� Be visually aware
� Be correct
� Be consistent
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The last word
“What is written without effort is in
general read without general read without pleasure”
Samuel Johnson