Welcome

This website, writingmedicine.net, is dedicated to exploring medical writing: how to make it better, more readable, more productive–and sometimes even pleasurable.

The postings that follow were originally written as part of my consultation to doctors and scientists at the MDAnderson Cancer Center, and seem to have been quite useful.  What my online writing clients taught me in return has  also enriched the short essays that follow.

I’ve learned many of the strategies you’ll read below from years of teaching writing, creating two university writing centers, and working with many stuck dissertation writers.  (The last of these led to Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day, a book I wrote for writers I couldn’t meet in person.)  This website translates the strategies for working on dissertations to the different kinds of writing that medical publications require.

I’ll begin with a few postings that will introduce you to some different approaches to your writing that you may wish to experiment with; I’ll add others as we go along.  I’d like to hear from you both about the sorts of writing issues you’d like me to address, and any comments or questions you might have about the postings. You can use the Feedback link at the right of the screen for that.

The postings focus on the process of writing; you’re the experts on the content of what you write.  I hope that this new approach will not only give you more tools, but also help you to put your writing out in the world, get you published, and bring you abundant grants.

Cheers,

Joan Bolker