Planning & Research Methods

Today’s Class• PubMed Training• Review Personal Essay• Planning and Process

– Writing objectives– Audience analysis– Outlines and brainstorming

• Research Sources– Print and on-line– Primary and secondary– Annotation preparation

• This week’s homework

Personal Essay - What Worked

• Personal tone– “It all started when I was 25 and in search of rent money.”

• Intriguing openings– “I stood at the back of the amphitheater, which was constructed out of large cement blocks, strewn with bits of odd trash.”

• Simple, effective language– “I did, however, love to write. And I loved to help people.”

• Leads that tied with conclusions

Personal Essay - Be Careful

• Complex and long sentences– Internal punctuation is a clue!

• “Which” versus “that”• Lofty and extra words

– “have a great appreciation for”

Planning and Process

Planning• Find out when the assignment is due and devise a plan of action.

• Do preparation tasks to allow you to be more productive and organized when you sit down to write.– Objectives, audience analysis, outline/brainstorming

• Schedule several blocks of time to devote to your writing.

• Build in time to take a break and come back later to make changes and revisions with a fresh mind.

A Writing ProcessPlanning

AudienceAnalysis

Outline/Brainstorm

WritingObjectives

Research- OAs- .gov

- Associations

First Draft

time

Revision/Rewrite

New angle?

no

yes

time

FinalReview

ClientReview

submit

Revisions/queries

Revisions

Annotation

Client FinalReview

Publish!

Writing Objectives• What do you want to accomplish? What is the purpose for writing your piece?

• What is the focus of the piece?

• What format is best?• Who is your audience?

Audience Analysis*• Who is the audience I want to reach?• Who is most likely to be interested in the

research I am doing?• What is it about my topic that interests the

audience I have selected?• If the audience I am writing for is not

particularly interested in my topic, what should I do to pique its interest?

• Will each member of the broadly conceived audience agree with what I have to say?– If not what counter-arguments should I be

prepared to answer?

*Purdue Online Writing Lab

Audience Analysis• Age• Education• Knowledge level• Interests• Culture• Myths and Misconceptions

• Tone• Style• Jargon• Examples• Grade level

Outlines

• Traditional alphanumeric, full-sentence, or decimal outlines

• Tree outlines• Idea mapping

Brainstorming• Jot down everything that seems relevant to your piece. Don’t censor or evaluate.

• As more ideas come to mind, include them.

• Try summarizing your idea in three or four sentences.

Research Methods

Sources• Primary sources

– Original, first-hand account of an event or time period• Original research, interviews, speeches, official records

• Secondary sources– interprets and analyzes primary sources– are one or more steps removed from the event• Magazine articles, newspaper articles, commentaries

Sources (continued)• Tertiary sources

– consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources• Encyclopedias• Textbooks• Dictionaries

Hierarchy of Sources

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Red Light:• news websites• newspapers and magazines• hospital websites• consumer health sites, such as WebMd

Yellow Light:• Physician and disease associations

Green Light:• U.S. federal gov’t websites• Primary sources

What kind of light? Red, yellow, or green?

• Pfizer website• New England Journal of Medicine

• Mayo Clinic web site• American Academy of Pediatrics web site

• American Academy of Neurology conference proceedings

• Patients• Stedman’s Medical Dictionary

• Blogs• FDA press release• MGH press release• Interviews• The Merck Manual of Medical Information

• Self Magazine• New York Times • American Heart Association website

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website

Head’s Up!Annotation Preparation

• As you write content, indicate the material that you use.

• As a last step in the editorial process, you will annotate your work for fact checking.

Homework• Reading assignment:

– Gastel ch. 8

• Writing assignment: – Write a one-page fact sheet about the condition of your choice

– Use .gov sources or national well-known disease-specific organizations, such as AHA & ADA

– Include a reference list– Indicate your audience, writing objective, and Flesch-Kincaid grade level

– Use plain language principles– due Feb. 10 at 5:30 pm by email