Interlude: Most-Read Articles, Citations, and The Feynman Technique
Here's my latest curated round-up of the best tips, tools, and resources on scientific and medical writing.
💌 Round-up
🎉 Featured
Secondary review reduced inpatient MRI orders and avoidable hospital days
I am excited to share my latest writing collaboration with researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. Precis: "A standardized workflow and automation platform encouraged a second review of inpatient MRI orders to reduce inappropriate orders, avoidable hospital days, and hospital costs."
Elected Board Member for AMWA Northern California Chapter
I am delighted to share that I was recently elected as a Board Member and the Communications Committee Chair for the AMWA Northern California Chapter. I am looking forward to working with a great organization to help them enhance their communication efforts in the upcoming year.
💻 From My Desk
10 Most-Read Scientific and Medical Writing Articles in 2021
A few years ago, I started writing articles about scientific and medical writing. My goal has been to give researchers bite-sized guidance and helpful tools on a variety of topics related to writing. As I looked at the most-read articles in 2021, I thought I would gather the top 10 in one place so that you can easily find them when you need them.
5 Helpful Books to Boost Your Writing Productivity
Many of us are obsessed with productivity. But to be more productive, we need to focus less on time management and more on attention management. How can you focus your attention during the writing process? Check out these books to learn how to design processes and fuel your motivation to maximize your writing productivity.
📆 Upcoming
Scientific Writing Masterclass - Starts in February
I created this course to help scientific and medical researchers master the craft of writing effectively. In this course, you will learn key skills that will help you transform your writing into clear, concise, and compelling stories.
👓 Reading
The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything
"Richard Feynman was a Nobel prize-winning physicist. His real superpower, however, was his ability to explain complicated subjects to others in simple terms. He realized that jargon, vague words, and complexity reveal a lack of understanding....The most successful people in the world can take complicated subjects and explain them simply (and memorably) to an audience."
Reducing tensions and expediting manuscript submission via an authorship agreement for early-career researchers: A pilot study
"Authorship can be a source of tension [that can] disrupt professional relationships and damage careers...The authors implemented an Authorship Agreement for use when collaborating on a manuscript."
I, we and they: A linguistic and narrative exploration of the authorship process
"Descriptive statistics suggested that female participants used we subjects and material verbs (of doing) more than men and that full professors used relational verbs (of being and having) more than assistant and associate. Three broad types of agency were narrated: distributed..., focusing on how resources and work were spread across team members; individual..., focusing on the first author's action; and collaborative..., focusing on group actions."
Citation rules through the eyes of biomedical journal editors
"Our results show that publishers, authors of standard styles and editors all agree that references should be uncomplicated and concise. A reduction in the number of various styles used might be attainable but would require an agreement between the publishers and authors of the standard styles, which would incorporate the preferences of journal editors."
🖥️ Watching
A Copyediting Carol
This fun video explores where a comma should go in a traditional Christmas carol. I found the video both informative and entertaining.
🧰 Tools
Otter.ai
Do you need to transcribe interviews for a research project? Or maybe you want to dictate part of your manuscript to help you write the first draft? Otter.ai instantly transcribes audio so that you can capture and find what you need.
💬 Quote
"If you’re trying to be more productive, don’t analyze how you spend your time. Pay attention to what consumes your attention." – Adam Grant
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
