by Kelly Reed
Medical writing can expand both your job opportunities, as well as your paycheck. A person who is skilled in technical writing and research, and also has the ability to understand complex jargon, will also find this an excellent way to expand their portfolio.
If you're able to carve out a space for yourself in the field, you stand to establish a strong career that is a perfect mix of art and science. But this unique mix also brings about its own set of challenges.
A medical writer must have the scientific background necessary in order to be able to identify a credible source of information. This scientific background is what's going to allow you to make sense of the plethora of medical concepts and weed out the misleading information that's available on the internet.
At the same time, a medical writer needs to be able to effectively convey what knowledge they have, and to be able to tailor their message to suit their target audience. A medical writer needs both the scientific knowledge from which ideas can be drawn from, as well as a literary prowess so that the writer is able to represent and share this knowledge in a manner that is compelling to their readers.
So, with that said, how can you ensure that your medical writing skills are up to par?
If you don't have time to read, then you don't have time to write. Whichever you're lacking, be it scientific knowledge or literary prowess, you have to be able to compensate for that particular area.
A good way to immerse yourself in the material that you want to write is to read medicine-related publications. This can be everything from case studies to consumer-grade medical magazines. Each of these has a different tone and these different fields also have different approaches to how their publications interact with their audience.
For example, an article on silent reflux may be written in a less foreboding manner. There are many examples like here that illustrate this. However, this doesn't mean that you can write in a manner that makes a reader feel nervous and fearful for their lives when writing about more serious illnesses.
A good way to structure your medical article in such a way that it holds value is to keep user intent in mind. You need to structure your medical article in a manner that answers a reader's questions, moving from the general to the more specific. This approach will make your content easy enough to follow and keep your audience interested through to the end.
A basis for this is to check whether or not your article includes information that answers what an illness is, what causes it, and what are the treatments and remedies that can help a patient cope with the illness.
This is especially important, both from a reader's perspective and for helping you better organize the flow of your content. You have to be able to provide valuable information to your readers, and you don't necessarily have to write in a manner that is full of flair. As long as you're able to provide the information that a reader needs, then you're doing well enough.
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