Writing skills

Writing is creative

Creative tasks can be both

 Challenging

 Rewarding
Writing skills
What is your topic?
For whom are you writing?
Creating structure
Achieving clarity
Technical correctness
Practical aids
Writing as an ethical act
References
What is your topic / theme?
This must be clear in your mind, in order
to
 Identify relevant background material

 Organise text

 Convey meaning
Tease out
 Main story / topic / theme

 Sub stories / topics /themes

Prune away
 less relevant material
A thesis is NOT an essay

Writing down
everything you know about X
is inappropriate

(Because it weakens the central story)

Take the following topic:

'The value of screening for raised blood

cholesterol concentration in primary care'
What are the relevant sub-
topics which you need to
cover in the introduction?
What are the main components
of this topic?

Disease-specific component
 cholesterol and IHD

Analytic / generic component

 evaluation of screening
Some traps
 ‘Disease-based’ thinking

 ‘Snowing’
Throwing in everything that might be
relevant
For whom are you writing?
Writing for an unidentified reader is like
speaking to an unknown listener.

Intended reader will vary with setting and

purpose

 Academic settings
 Service settings
 General public
Implications
 Academic settings
 Respect for academic norms

 Service settings
 Respect for service norms

 General public
 Getting the language level right
Creating structure - 1

The attentive researcher soon discovers

that facts and ideas in disorder cannot
be conveyed to another's mind without
loss and are hardly likely to carry
meaning very long even for the
possessor.
Creating structure - 2
Most written work should have
 a beginning
 a middle, and
 an end

Think about your piece as a ‘working

construction’
Ask what work each part needs to do in
relation to the whole
Creating structure - 3
Beginnings
 Should establish starting point and orient the reader to
the journey ahead

Middles
 Demonstrate what has been investigated and how

Ends
 What have we learnt?
 Are we sure?
 What does it mean?
Struggling with the ‘linearity’ of text
to achieve a ‘continuous whole’
Use (visual) outlines

Think about
The work that each component needs to do;
Where it needs to take the reader (its
intended destination)
Struggling with the ‘linearity’ of text

When you need to introduce an idea but can’t afford to

develop it fully until later
(because to do so would disrupt flow at this point)

Try, for example,

‘To anticipate a point to be more fully developed below

(section x) recent findings show that …’
Achieving clarity
Use simple, active prose

Be strict about signpost words

eg however, while

Picture all images

read your text to yourself
Don’t write like a politician
‘So, let me make it clear that, in future,
the engine of public health delivery will
be at the front line around the primary
care trust.’
‘So in delivering on aims which are difficult
and require long term effort, it is vital that
action is based on research and best
knowledge of what works. Hard headed
decisions about where to prioritise our efforts
will be essential. Good intentions need to be
underpinned by a clear focus on effective
action and on an unsentimental approach to
old ways of approaching health which have
not delivered the progress that is needed….’
Achieving clarity - 2

Avoid loose, empty thought-saving words

Eg ‘Adverbial dressing gowns’ (Gower)

seriously consider
fully recognise
Achieving clarity - 3
Jargon
(technical terms, defensible)

Versus

Pseudo-jargon
(pretensions of technicality, indefensible)
Jargon or pseudo-jargon?

incidence
vision statement
motivation
confounding
focus (on)
action, progress (as verbs)
end result
stratification
Technical correctness - 1
Be crystal clear about your study
population

What sort of a population is it? (closed?

open?)
Who is in and why? who is out and why?
What is its relationship to its source?
Tables and Graphs
Presenting quantitative evidence is a core skill in public
health

Do NOT just paste tables and graphs from MS Word and

Excel
Especially if they have ‘default’ formatting

Look at journals with high reputations

eg Am J Epidemiol, JAMA, Lancet
 'Self-sufficiency' of captions (eg incl source population and
observation period)
 No vertical lines in tables
Is writing an ethical act?

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

George Orwell, 1946

…to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that might
slumber unobtrusively within them - isn't this, after all, the true
vocation of the intellectual?
....Responsibility for and towards words is a task which is
intrinsically ethical
Vaclav Havel, 1989

Language is the sheath in which the sword of the spirit is kept

Martin Luther, c16
Writing: some useful references

Day RA. How to write and publish a scientific paper. London: Cambridge
University Press; 1998. (5th edition)
Covers different types of written work, not just papers.

Barzun J, Graff HF. The modern researcher. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich; 1992. (5th edition)
My favorite in its ability to explain what it is about bad writing that is bad.

Williams R. Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. London:

Fontana; 1976.
Gives histories of many of the most contentious terms of social and political
discourse - from a scholarly (but left-wing) viewpoint.

Manser MH. Bloomsbury good word guide, London: Bloomsbury, 2000

Very useful eg for common confusions, variant spellings, permissive.
Orwell, George, Politics and the English language, 1946 www
Especially
Part II:
Writing, Speaking, And
Publishing.
Organizing: Paragraph,
Chapter, And Part.
Plain Words: The War
on Jargon and Cliches.
Clear Sentences:
Emphasis, Tone, And
Rhythm.
Practical aids
Exploit the real advantages of word-
processors

 What are they?

‘Automated consistency’
 spell check

 automatic reference numbering

 Consistent heading styles

 (linked to outlining)