Health writing skills

Daniel Sokol, lawyer and medical ethicist, has just been shortlisted for the ‘Best Columnist of the Year (Consumer Media)’ award at the PPA Awards 2018 (“the Oscars of the UK publishing industry”).  In 2015, Daniel won ‘Best Column’ at the UK Medical Journalists’ Association Awards.  In this article, he gives aspiring medical columnist some tips for success.

Had The Lancet not published their now retracted article, “Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children” by Andrew Wakefield et al. in 1998, perhaps we wouldn’t be facing one of the most significant public health challenges of our time.

Producing clear, accurate and engaging health content for a lay or consumer audience can seem extremely daunting. My clear health writing checklist helps you break down the art and science of clear health writing.

There’s no denying that assessing your writing is a daunting, confusing task. Luckily, there are quite a few ways to evaluate your skills so you can develop your writing abilities with confidence.

As health writers, we focus a lot of our energy on knowledge. We write ‘how to’ articles about eating better, exercising more, breaking bad habits, making healthy choices and reducing risk factors. We offer knowledge – but, we rarely sell the desire to change.

This is a question that comes up often in my course groups. And, it’s reasonable and natural to worry about time. Time is money. The less time you spend writing, the more money you make. The more time you spend researching, writing, reviewing and refining, the more your hourly rate drops.

You can read hundreds of blog posts full of tips on how to improve your writing, but this post is about getting real with practical exercises.

Wising up is about helping your readers to understand why they should care.

Adding more detail is a small yet significant tweak that helps to improve the quality of your writing.

If we want our readers to not only understand our content but also act on it, then we need to know more about how behaviour change works.

Here’s how to find the most useful apps for recording audio or video interviews.

As health writers, we must know the most effective tactics that help to correct misinformation in order to inspire behaviour change.

Here’s how to write high-quality, socially responsible blogs that help your readers make better decisions about their health and wellbeing.

Here’s how to tell a legitimate guest post request from a fake one – and how to deal with those annoying spammers once and for all.

Not all medical breakthroughs are truly breakthroughs. Does that mean they’re not worthy of being reported on?