Interlude: Keywords, Feelings, and Conscious Writing
A couple of weeks ago, I attended my first in-person conference since the pandemic started. I had a fantastic time connecting with medical writers and editors from all over the country. And I came back energized with new knowledge and ideas that I can't wait to share with you when they're ready.
Now onto my latest curated round-up of the best tips, tools, and resources on scientific and medical writing.
💌 Round-up
🎉 Featured
Conscious Writing
I'm so delighted to share that the AMWA Journal invited me to be a regular contributor in a column I titled "Conscious Writing." In every issue, I will share tips to help medical writers and other authors bring awareness and intention to their craft. The winter issue comes out next month, so keep your eyes out for my first article in the series.
💻 From My Desk
How to Choose the Best Keywords for Your Research Manuscript
Keywords are important for indexing manuscripts and making them easier to retrieve with search engines. To help people find your article—and to make the greatest impact—follow these 7 tips for choosing the best keywords for your manuscript.
📆 Upcoming
Writing Journal Club – November 30, 2022, 11 am Pacific
Join fellow scientists, clinicians, and trainees as we explore the strengths and weaknesses of scientific and medical manuscripts.
👓 Reading
Science’s no-fee public-access policy will take effect in 2023
"The publisher of the prestigious journal Science will soon allow the authors of its research papers to make public an almost-final version of their manuscript in a repository of their choice immediately on publication, without paying any fees."
Journal seeks to upend scientific publishing by only reviewing—not accepting—manuscripts
"eLife—a nonprofit, selective, online-only journal that focuses on the life and medical sciences—announced it will cease accepting or rejecting manuscripts for publication, instead offering only peer reviews of manuscripts."
Authorship climate: A new tool for studying ethical issues in authorship
"We found that individuals who tend to have more power on science teams perceived authorship climate to be more positive than those who tend to have less power...Individuals with more marginalized identities also tended to perceive authorship climate more negatively than those with no marginalized identities."
🧰 Tools
TextExpander
TextExpander has been a huge timesaver for me. I tend to write similar emails to clients or the same comments in writing projects I am editing. To streamline the process, I created templated text for emails, comments, and more in TextExpander. I highly recommend this software if you find yourself writing the same things over and over again.
💬 Quote
“It’s more important to influence people than to impress them.” –Adrian Rogers
💭 Thoughts
Facts don’t persuade. They inform.
Feelings persuade. They spark emotions that influence thoughts and actions.
The best way to tap into those feelings is to tell a story.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
