Interesting Book for Medical Writers About Complementary Medicine

A couple of days ago, a colleague lent me a book he thought I would enjoy, Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine by R. Barker Bausell.

I've never been interested in alternative medicine and have always been quick to dismiss it. But since some extended relatives and acquaintances keep asking me about it (for some reason, we medical writers are often regarded as "physicians" by our friends), I thought it would be a good idea to read the book. Good decision.

Bausell is a biostatistician from the University of Maryland, formerly involved in clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture and other treatments. In his book he makes the case that complementary medicine treatments are not more effective than any other placebo.

The book's logic is enlightening and the prose engaging. Bausell's criteria for what makes a good clinical trial and his notes on publication bias are particularly useful for those involved in medical writing. Check it out.

2008 Medical Writing Resolutions

Every December, my wife and I write our "next year's project" with the goals we want to achieve in every area of our life (spiritual, family, career, and personal). The 2008 project, I confess, hasn't been written (we just got back to the country yesterday). But we'll get to write it soon.

Now, all this made me think about my medical writing goals for 2008. Looking back at the 2007 project, I did meet the goals of leading some sessions at the AMWA Annual Conference and writing a book. While I think about my goals for 2008, I want to encourage you to write your own medical writing resolutions for this year and to review them every once in a while. Below are some "sample resolutions" that you can fit to your needs.

• Publish 5-10 health-related articles in consumer health publications
• Attend the AMWA Annual Conference (or a chapter conference)
• Enroll in a medical writing certificate or graduate program
• Submit my CV to medical writing recruiters
• Write a book in my area of expertise (or collaborate with an expert)
• Increase my number of freelance clients by 20%
• Leave my job and become a freelancer (or vice versa)
• Create my own Web site and market my writing/editing services
• Start a blog on my area of expertise
• Go to medical school (not recommended for everyone!)
• Increase my rates (for freelancers)
• Obtain a salary raise (check out this article about getting a bigger raise)

If you are up to it, I suggest you add completion dates in advance to every goal and write down specific actions you need to take to accomplish them. Finally, share your goals with people that can help you achieve them. This will boost your success chances greatly.

P.S. May I suggest a great book to start your 2008 project? Read  The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.

Title Capitalization In The English Language

By Carsten Cumbrowski (Guest blogger)

Titles of blog posts and web pages are very important. It important to make the title appealing and interesting at the same time, because it is usually the first thing people notice when people see your post or web page in the search results of search engines, feed readers (blogs) and news aggregations.

Interesting about titles in the English language is also the fact that they follow different capitalization rules for the words used in the title compared to the capitalization rules of regular content.

A simplified but wrong rule is to capitalize every single word in the title. It does look awkward in most cases, independent of the fact that it is just wrong to do it that way.

Using gut feeling is one way a lot of people do it, but following the specific rules that state which word needs to be capitalized and which word does not is probably a better way of doing it.

Most people probably heart about these rules and had them as subject at one point in time at school. The people who had it in school can consider this information a "refresher", especially if it has been a while since you learned it.

The Rules

In titles of songs or albums and band names, blog posts or articles, the standard rule in the English language is to capitalize words that:

1. Are the first or the last word in the title

2. Are not conjunctions ("and", "but", "or", "nor"), adpositions ("to", "over"), articles ("an", "a", "the"), or the "to" in infinitives.

Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions which work together to coordinate two items. English examples include for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so, both ... and, either ... or, neither ... nor, and not (only) ... but (... also).

Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators, are conjunctions that introduce a dependent clause; English examples include after, although, if, unless, and because. Another way for remembering is the mnemonic "BISAWAWE": "because", "if", "so that", "after", "when", "although", "while", and "even though".

Adposition

An adposition is an element that combines syntactically with a phrase and indicates how that phrase should be interpreted in the surrounding context. "Adposition" is a general term that includes the more specific labels preposition, postposition, and circumposition, which indicate the position of the adposition with respect to its complement phrase. Adpositions are among the most frequently occurring words in languages that have them. Examples: of, to, in, for, on, with, as, by, at, from

Articles

The words: the, a and an

Infinitives

The infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to. Therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives.

Conclusion

There are always border line cases so I would not worry about it too much, but it helps with the decision if or if not a word in the title should be capitalized if your guts took time off right at the time when you are finalizing a great post or article for your blog or website.

Carsten Cumbrowski is an author of articles about numerous different subjects, but writes primarily about internet marketing. He is also a blogger who writes for ReveNews.com and SearchEngineJournal.com. More Articles by Carsten Cumbrowski can be found at his website Cumbrowski.com. Article Source here.

Note on Blog Posts and Upcoming Materials

I'm getting ready to hop on a plane and go visit my folks in South America. I'll be there for the rest of 2007, so the blog activity may be reduced. I'm pretty sure you won't miss my posts during the holidays, though (you'll probably be busy drinking eggnog and eating ham). 

Okay. So, what's coming up? I have invited a student in USP's Master Program in Biomedical Writing to tell us about her experience taking the classes online.

Early next year, I will publish the updated second edition of Becoming a Medical Writer, with an exciting new bonus for those of you interested in Technical Writing.

Happy holidays!

Kindle, the new e-book reader by Amazon

No, my ebook is not available for Kindle. In fact, from the reviews I've read, it seems you can't read a PDF in this reader without first converting the file to MOBI (a format supported by Kindle).

So what is Kindle (1) and why am I talking about it here (2)?

1. Kindle is a little machine that can store up to 200 books, and uses an "electronic-paper" technology. It is supposed to look like real paper.
2. I love books, e-books and electronic stuff. I just couldn't resist!

However, because I haven't used it yet, I won't try to do a review here. Just check out the video on Amazon's Kindle page, and see what you think. If you like it, let me know!

Are You an Angry, Frustrated Freelance Writer?

By Yuwanda Black (Guest blogger)

Do You Recognize Yourself in These Signs?

As a freelance writer, it's very easy to become discouraged. Discouragement can lead to anger and frustration, which can stall your career - without you even realizing it. Following are signs to look for, and specific things you can do to get back on track.

1. Expending Negative Energy: Most freelancers surf the net looking for assignments. As you read job ad after job ad paying little to nothing, you boil over.

"Don't they realize I'm a professional, I have a family to feed, my skills are worth more than that?" So, what do you do?

You start to leave nasty comments and before you know it, you've spent two hours doing this. After logging off in disgust, you decide to take some time off because you're so mad you can't even focus.

Look at what this has cost you? Precious marketing time; not to mention focus.

Solution: Accept that there will always be jobs that don't pay enough. This is freelance writing after all. And while we should all earn a decent wage, there should also be world peace, enough food to feed the hungry and free medicine for those who can't afford it.

Not to make light of the situation, but focusing on what you can't change won't help. By NOT accepting low-paying assignments, you are sending a very powerful message. So, move on - if a job does not pay what you want, spend your time looking for ones that do, not sending nasty messages to job posters who offer low-paying assignments.

After all, the reason they're probably looking for help is they're where you want to be - a busy, working freelancer.

2. Output: As in, you haven't been doing any lately. Are you depressed over lack of work; not motivated because you are bored with work; and/or frustrated at the type of work you're doing?

Whatever your reasoning, as a freelance writer, you should always be producing - unless you are on vacation.

Many freelancers make the mistake of not working when there is no client project on their desk. Just because you are not working for a client doesn't mean that you don't put in 8, 9 or 10 hours a day.

Solution: This is one of the reasons I like article marketing - it forces me to constantly write, stay motivated and fresh. I may write about a new diet drug one day, or a new type of mortgage the next day, because as a freelance writer, my job is to write.

To this end, I keep my portfolio bulging with various samples; am always working on a new e-book or planning a new e-course.

Getting up and "going to work" every day is what I do - whether it's a client project or a "Yuwanda project," produce I must and produce I do.

3. Organization: As in, is your work hampered by your lack of organization - not only of the thoughts and tools you need to work with, but organization for the future of your business. Do you wonder, "Where will this freelance thing take me? Will I ever make enough to survive on this alone?"

Solution: If you find yourself thinking along these lines, then perhaps it's time you make a real plan for your future beyond just banging out the next client project.

Like any business, if you want freelance writing to be your full-time job, then you must plan for it - eg, create a full-fledged business plan. Target a niche, create an advertising budget and come up with a marketing plan.

In conclusion, frustration is the ever-present enemy of all who have a desire, but encounter obstacles. Embracing the obstacles and creating a plan to thwart them is the key; not expending negative energy railing against them.

Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business ofLaunch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less - Guaranteed! freelancing, and more! Article Source here.

Staying Creative with Fiction Writing

I can't believe it's Thursday already and I haven't posted anything this week (in fact, this month). Well, but I have an excuse. November is the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Well, I took the challenge and have written more than 12,000 words so far. I've always wanted to write fiction but medical writing has consumed most of my time. (I did write a novel in high school, but that doesn't really count!). And since I'm the kind of guy that works better under the pressure of a deadline, NaNoWriMo was the perfect opportunity to get creative and write down a novel.

Perhaps you are not as passionate as me for novel writing, but you like poetry or theater (or even stand-up comedy). Well, there you go. Why don't you try writing a few verses or lines of dialog every now and then? You'll see that when you go back to your medical writing projects, you'll feel more creative and inspired. Perhaps you'll write even better.

Oh, and don't worry. I won't be posting excerpts of my novel here!