Interlude: Past-Year Reviews, Misused Words, and Deep Reading
The end of the year is near! In the final days of each year, I like to do a year-end review. For this process, I follow Tim Ferriss' advice on "past-year reviews," but I add my own twist.
When I review my calendar, I also include the time I block to work on projects. That way, I not only review what people and activities nourish me, but also what projects motivate and inspire me. This process has helped me identify what drains me and what motivates me so that I can focus on what I am most passionate about—helping you to be the best writer you can be.
So at the end of this year, I encourage you to do a past-year review. And in the new year, commit to doing less of what drains you and more of what nourishes you.
"When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life." – Jean Shinoda Bolen
Now onto my latest curated round-up of the best tips, tools, and resources on scientific and medical writing.
💌 Round-up
🎉 Featured
The 5 Most Commonly Misused Words in Medical Writing (According to an Editor)
I am delighted to share my latest publication in the AMWA Journal. In the article, I describe how ambiguous, inaccurate, or imprecise words encourage ambiguous, inaccurate, and imprecise thinking in readers. And I clarify how to effectively use the five words that I believe are the most commonly misused words in scientific and medical writing.
💻 From My Desk
10 Most-Read Scientific and Medical Writing Articles of 2022
At the end of each year, I like to do a year-end review to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Part of this process involves reviewing which of my articles were most read during the past year. These 10 articles were the most read in 2022.
📆 Upcoming
Scientific Writing Masterclass – Starts January 30, 2023
Do you want to master the craft of writing in the new year? Join my masterclass to transform you writing into clear, concise, and compelling stories. Space is limited. Registration closes January 23, 2022, or when the class is full.
👓 Reading
These are the top 10 most passive-aggressive phrases you’re probably using in email
"Unfortunately, the human brain naturally skews toward the negative. Your message may come across as aggressive, condescending, or just plain rude, when that was never your intent."
Before you click “submit,” be your own first reviewer
"For various reasons...manuscripts may be rushed to submission while lacking consistency. This article provides a clear outline of the final round of checks for section consistency, subsection consistency, and overall coherence that a scientific manuscript should undergo before submission."
Retracted papers originating from paper mills: cross sectional study
"The rise of paper mills is a new ethical problem in research and, more specifically, in publication ethics. Not only does this issue entail the sale of authorship, but these types of papers have also been observed to contain fabricated and manipulated data and images, thus disseminating false results in scientific literature. "
🎧 Listening
This is your brain on 'deep reading.' It's pretty magnificent.
As our world has become more digitized, we consume information in different ways. And how we consume information affects how we process and retain that information. In this podcast, Maryanne Wolf talks about the act of reading, how our brains process information that we read digitally versus in print, and how the abundance of information we process is rewiring our brains.
💭 Thoughts
Editors are essentialists. They subtract everything that is not needed to add vitality to the ideas and the story.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
