Writing Conferences

Here's a list of some upcoming conferences of interest to medical writers.

American Public Health Association
Annual Meeting and Exposition
October 25-29, 2008
San Diego, CA
Contact: American Public Health Association
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 777-2742; fax: (202) 777-2534
www.apha.org
annualmeeting@apha.org

Drug Information Association (DIA)
www.diahome.org
Annual Meeting
June 22-26, 2008
Boston, MA
Contact: Cheryl Buckage
Drug Information Association
Horsham, PA
(215) 442-6194; fax: (215)442-6199
Cheryl.Buckage@diahome.org

Society for Technical Communication (STC)
Technical Communication Summit -- Annual Meeting
June 1-4, 2008, Philadelphia, PA
Contact: STC
Arlington, VA
(703) 522-4114; fax: (703) 522-2075
www.stc.org

Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS)
Annual Conference & Exhibition
September 14-17, 2008
Boston, MA
Contact: RAPS
Rockville, MD
(301) 770-2920; fax: (301) 770-2924
www.raps.org/ac

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
International Conference
October 25-28, 2008
Detroit, MI
Contact: PRSA
New York, NY
(212) 995-2230; fax: (212) 995-0757
www.prsa.org

Editors' Association of Canada
Conference
June 6-8, 2008
Edmonton, ALB
Contact: Conference Committee
(416) 975-1379
www.editors.ca
communications@editors.ca

Online Medical Writing Courses

Every week I receive emails asking about online courses for medical writers. The fact is, there are very few options right now.

If you want to get serious with your training, then there's the USP Biomedical Writing Program, which can be taken online. You can earn a master's degree. Read here about one student's experience with this program.

Of course, there is my new site, MedicalWritingTraining.com, which is currently offering two online courses: Epidemiology and Biostatistics for Medical Writers, and Consumer Health Writing. Soon we will have a new course on creating CME materials and later this year, an introductory course on Regulatory Writing. You'll receive certificates of completion for every course at MedicalWritingTraining.com.

AMWA's certificates are the best in the field, but they must be taken on-site (at chapter or annual conferences). They offer just a few self-study workshops.

If you surf around the web, you may find other on-site courses in London, Pennsylvania and California.

Health Statistics

I just found this interesting site, called STATS. They sort of check statistics claims in the media to see how accurate they are.

They have this great guide on how to evaluate health risks. Check it out.

Writing for Consumer Health Magazines

If you want to test the salability of an article idea you want to submit to a consumer health magazine, ask these questions:

• Does the topic, idea or theme fit into a particular magazine or other publication's editorial requirements?
• Does the topic, idea or theme strongly appeal to a specific readership?
• What does the topic, idea or theme tell the reader to do or believe?
• How does the topic, idea or theme benefit potential readers?
• Does the topic, idea or theme tie into a current area of market interest or a calendar topic?
• Does the topic, idea or theme have a new angle?
• How does the topic, idea or theme let the readership know it is fresh?
• Can you provide enough factual information to create an article?
• Are you able to get more information about the topic, idea or theme?

Note: This is an excerpt from the online Consumer Health Writing Course.

Aligning Subjects and Verbs

By David Bowman (Guest blogger)

Overview of the problem

Perhaps you’ve seen this mistake: “Walking down the street, the stroller lost a wheel.” This sentence implies that the stroller is walking down the street, which would be a very interesting sight, indeed. The problem is that the implied subject of the introductory phrase does not match the grammatical subject of the main sentence, the stroller. The writer knows what he/she means, but the reader may be confused. (Isn’t grammar fun?). Editing this sentence will help the reader understand what you are trying to say, which is the purpose of editing.

The problem in this sample sentence is rather easy to spot and easy to edit. Sample revisions include: “[Mary] was pushing the stroller down the street when it lost a wheel.” “The stroller lost a wheel when [Mary] was walking down the street.” “The stroller lost a wheel when being pushed down the street.” “The stroller lost a wheel.” (This assumes that the writer has already established that Mary was pushing it down the street. On second thought, why would Mary be pushing a stroller in a street and not on the sidewalk? This seems a bit dangerous to us.)

Sample problem

This type of error can be hard to spot and edit, but doing so reduces potential readers’ confusion and makes your sentences more direct, more cohesive, and, ultimately, stronger. Consider this sentence: Mary spoke about nothing but her childhood experiences for more than an hour, but when finally winding down, Bob realized that he was bored to tears. The implied subject of finally winding down is Mary, but this sentence ties it to Bob, the grammatical subject of the independent clause that follows. These are not aligned properly and give the reader an incorrect interpretation. In this case, revising isn’t too hard.


The solution

We have two main strategies for editing this type of grammar error: 1) Break the sentence and attach the phrase to the correct subject. (“for more than an hour before winding down. Bob finally realized that he...”) 2) Modify the introductory phrase so that the implied subject refers to the grammatical subject of the sentence. (“and seeing that she was finally winding down, Bob realized...”)

In a nutshell, what you are doing is making sure that the verbs of the sentences fit their grammatical subjects and that phrases introducing clauses refer to the subjects of those clauses. When you are writing your own sentences, consider how your verbs and subjects are aligned.

One last sample By the way, the most humorous error of this type that we have seen is (paraphrased): “Swimming happily along the shore, the corpse floated by his head.” We leave it up to you to determine why this is so funny to us.

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit (http://PreciseEdit.com), a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.

AMWA’S "Dear Edie Live!" Webinar

From the AMWA Update newsletter:

Dear Edie is going high tech! The highly anticipated Webinar featuring Edie Schwager will take place on May 29, 2008, at 2:00 PM (EDT). Edie Schwager is the author of the “Dear Edie” column in the AMWA Journal, and is known and loved for her instructional and highly entertaining columns and workshops on English usage and abusage, as well as the special problems of medical writing and editing. Information about registration is posted on AMWA’s Web site.

P.S. I've been to her workshops and they are very good.

How Science Works (5): Study Bias

Study bias refers to a significant flaw in a study design or data collection that makes it more likely that the results will turn out a certain way. It is important to identify all possible sources of bias and address them in the interpretation of study results. There are two major types of study bias in epidemiology studies: selection and information.

Selection bias refers to the unintentional (or intentional) selection of study participants that would preferentially include or exclude certain results. For example, suppose a researcher was interested in determining whether income is associated with adverse health, and the researcher decided to recruit participants through primary care providers in private hospitals. Recruitment in private hospitals would yield a fairly homogenous study sample, without many low-income patients. The study may be biased from the start towards having a null result, if income’s affects on health are only evident at the lowest income levels.

Information bias refers to errors in measuring either the exposures or cases. In selection bias, suppose a researcher wants to determine whether income is associated with adverse health, and she decides to recruit participants through primary care providers in private hospitals. Recruitment in private hospitals would yield a fairly homogeneous study sample, without many low-income patients. The study may be biased from the start toward having a null result, if income's effects on health are only evident at the lowest income levels.

Suppose a researcher seeks to determine new risk factors for autism that occur during pregnancy. To measure various prenatal risk factors, she interviews mothers with and without autistic children. The mothers of autistic children would be motivated to find out what caused their child's condition and would attempt to recall every detail of their pregnancy. The mothers without autistic children might not be as motivated. Their motive for participating in the study might be economic; therefore, they might not think to mention certain of their behaviors during pregnancy. This could result in the mothers of the autistic children identifying what appear to be unique risk factors, even though the other mothers may also have been exposed to the same factors but failed to report them.


Note: This is an excerpt from my online course Epidemiology and Biostatistics for Medical Writers.

Do Vaccines Cause That?!

Writing a book is hard work, especially about controversial scientific topics. Well, my new book on vaccine safety (co-authored with Dr. Martin Myers) is finally coming out next month.

We tackle the most common concerns about the safety of vaccines and explain what the current science says about them.

Although the release date for the book is June 30, 2008, we have made the e-book version available at DoVaccinesCauseThat.com. Also, people can pre-order the book at Amazon.com and receive a 5% discount.

"Who" vs. "Whom"

By David Bowman (Guest blogger)

Do you remember Johnnie Cochran, the powerful lawyer who lead OJ Simpson's defense team? He was good, really good. And he used good grammar.

One of his more powerful statements, actually a rhetorical question to the jury, was, "Who is kidding whom?" I admit to cheering when I heard him say that.

"Whom" is starting to drop out of the English language, I suspect, because many people don't know what it means or how to use it. Those who do are sometimes considered snooty by those who don't, like wearing a suit and tie to a ball game might be considered snooty by those who are dressed in shorts. Using "whom" isn't snooty; it's correct. Let's look at "who" and "whom," what they mean, and how they are used.

1. Using "Who"

"Who" is a subject pronoun. This means that "who" does something. "Who" has an action and is followed by a verb.". One way to check whether or not "who" is the right word is to replace it (temporarily) with the word "He" or "She," which are also subject pronouns.

Examples:
"There is the man who stole my cookie!" ("Who" is the subject of "stole"; "he stole.")
"Who wants to buy me another cookie?" ("Who" is the subject of "wants"; "he wants.")

2. Using "Whom"

"Whom" is an object pronoun. This means that "Whom" is the recipient of an action or completes a prepositional phrase. One way to check whether or not "whom" is the right word is to replace it (temporarily) with the word "him" or "her," which are also object pronouns.

Examples:
"Officer, my cookie was stolen, but I don't know by whom." ("Whom" is the object of the preposition "by"; "by him.")
"I'm looking for the cookie thief whom you didn't see." ("Whom is the object of "you didn't see"; "you didn't see him.")

3. Where this gets tricky

The "who/whom" can start a clause that serves as an object. For example, consider this sentence: "I gave my cookie to the man who/whom wore a red tie." "The man who/whom wore a red tie" is an object of "to." So which do you choose? Actually the answer is pretty simple. Find the verbs in the sentence first, and then locate their subjects. The subject of the verb "wore" is "who/whom." Because we need a subject here, we use the subject pronoun "Who." Thus, we have "I gave my cookie to the man who wore a red tie."

Another way to decide is to identify the clauses in a sentence. This sentence has the clause "I gave my cookie to the man" and "Who wore a red tie." The first clause has the subject-verb combination of "I gave," and the second has the subject-verb combination "who wore." Again, we see that "Who" is the subject of the clause, so we need the subject pronoun. This also gets tricky when the Subject-verb-object order is disrupted, such as when revising sentences so they don't end in prepositions. For example, consider this sentence: "To whom shall I give my cookie?" "Whom" seems to be in the subject position as the subject of "shall." However, "whom" is the object of the preposition "to." Another way to write this sentence (poorly) is "I shall give my cookie to whom?" Now, the selection of "who" and "whom" seems pretty obvious.

On the other hand, in the sentence "Who shall buy my cookie?" "who" is serving as the subject of "shall buy," which is why we use "who" and not "whom." In this sentence, as in the previous examples, finding the verbs will help you decide which to use.


4. Quick summary

Who: Subject, can be replaced by other subject pronouns, such as "he" and "her"
Whom: Object, can be replaced by other object pronouns, such as "him" and "her"

5. One final note

We sometimes get questions about "whomever" and "whoever." These two words follow the same rules as "who" and "whom." You can correctly write, "Whoever has the cookie can give it to whomever he chooses." "Whoever" is the subject of "has," and "whomever" is the object of "chooses" (as in, "he chooses whomever").

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit (http://PreciseEdit.com), a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.

Hawaii, here I come!

Aloha! I'm speaking at the Pediatric Academic Societies conference in Honolulu this weekend on the role of the media in enhancing misinformation about vaccine safety. Of course, I'm staying in the island a few more days with my wife. That means I won't be posting to the blog during the next week. Mahalo!