Transcript Writing medical papers

Writing medical papers
Lessons from the masters
Why should we write?
Words are things, and a small
drop of ink, falling like dew
upon a thought produces that
which makes thousands,
perhaps millions think.
Lord Byron 1788 - 1824
Why should you record your
findings in print?
In questions of science, the
authority of a thousand is not
worth the humble reasoning
of a single individual.
Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer
1564 - 1642
Skill
The skill of writing is to
create a context in which
other people can think.
Edwin Schlossberg, designer 1945 -
Travails when writing a paper
• Travail: painful or laborious effort
• From medieval Latin trepalium: instrument
of torture
Travails when writing a paper
‘Writing is easy. All you
have to do is stare at a
blank sheet of paper
until drops of blood form
on your forehead.’
Gene Fowler, author 1890 - 1960
Travails…
Churchill’s recipe, more
comprehensive than that offered
by Gene Fowler, can be used to
advantage when writing a paper:
‘… blood, toil, tears and
sweat…’
Winston Churchill, 13 May 1940
A test for good writing
Our admiration for fine writing will always be
in proportion to its real difficulty and its
apparent ease.
Charles Caleb Colton, clergyman and author 1780-1832
Creativity
Making the simple complicated is
commonplace. Making the
complicated simple,
awesomely simple, that’s
creativity.
Charles Mingus, jazz artist 1922 - 1979
Basic principles
If words are to enter men’s
minds and bear fruit, they
must be the right words,
shaped cunningly to pass
men’s defences and explode
silently and effectively in
their minds.
J. B. Phillips 1906-1982, famed for making the Bible
come ‘extraordinarily alive’
Basic principles
That writer of merit is praiseworthy whose
words, free from the bias of likes and
dislikes, are firmly established in the
narration of things as they happened.
Kalhana in Rajatarangini (around 1148 AD)
Basic principles
‘Begin at the beginning’,
the King said gravely,
‘and go on till you come
to the end. Then stop.’
Lewis Carroll (Alice’s adventures in wonderland)
Clarity of thought
If any man wishes to write in a clear
style, let him first be clear in his
thoughts and if any would write in a
noble style, let him first possess a
noble soul.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet
and scientist, 1749 - 1832
Brevity
It is with words as with
sunbeams - the more they
are condensed, the
deeper they burn.
Robert Southey, British Poet Laureate, 1744 1843
Brevity
It does not require many
words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph, American Indian leader 1840 - 1904
Brevity
Do not display diarrhoea of the pen and
constipation of the mind.
Anonymous
Simplicity
He has never been known to use
a word that may send the
reader to the dictionary.
William Faulkner (1897 - 1962) on Ernest
Hemingway (1899 - 1961)
Simplicity
I am a bear of little brain
and long words bother
me.
A. A. Milne in ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’
Style
People think I can teach
them style. What stuff it
all is!
Have something to say and
say it clearly.
That is the only secret of
style.
Mathew Arnold 1822 - 1888
Style
The most perfect technique is
that which is not noticed at
all.
Pablo Casals, cellist 1876 - 1973
Style
An author knows that he nears
perfection not when there is
nothing left to add but when
there is nothing left to take
away.
Antoine St. Exupery, French aviator and author
1900 - 1944
Misuse of statistics
• Statistics can be used to prove anything even the truth. - Anonymous
• He uses statistics as a drunken man uses
lamp-posts - for support rather than
illumination. - Andrew Lang 1844 - 1912
• There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned
lies and statistics! - Benjamin Disraeli
Masking untruth
• The only ‘ism’ some medical authors believe in is
plagiarism. - Anonymous
• To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to do
so from many is research. - Anonymous
• That’s not a lie - it’s a terminological inexactitude.
- Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State
• Most authors regard truth as their most cherished
possession and are therefore most economical in
their use of it. - Mark Twain
Beautiful writing
We ascribe beauty to that which is
simple, which has no
superfluous parts, which exactly
answers its ends, which stands
related to all things and is the
mean of many extremes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882
Captivating writing
His writing is lucid because language
almost disappears. What remains is
the idea. I think that is the height of
good writing - to express creatively
without the weight of English
literature imposing itself.
R. K. Laxman on R. K. Narayan’s prose
Humour
My method is to take
the utmost trouble to
find the right thing
to say, and then to
say it with the
utmost levity.
- George Bernard Shaw
Humour
Some of Dr. Richard Asher’s
papers:
• Why are medical journals so
dull? (BMJ 23 August 1958)
•A woman with the stiff-man
syndrome. (BMJ 1 February 1958)
• The dangers of going to bed.
(BMJ 13 December 1947)
• Collected papers:
Richard Asher 1912 - 1969
Asher R: Talking Sense London: Pitman
Medical 1972
‘He has published 2000
papers!’
• ‘His work is not so much the product of
fecundity as of incontinence.’
A reviewer in Le Monde commenting on an author who had published a
large number of papers
• ‘The dust of dead words clings to thee. Wash
thy soul in silence.’
Rabindranath Tagore in Stray birds
Sound advice
So perhaps, after all, it’s as well to
be quiet
If you’ve nothing you think is
worth saying in prose,
Than to furnish a meal of their
cannibal diet
To the critics, by publishing, as
you propose.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1809 - 1894
Summing up
A writer should represent the embodiment of a rishi - one
who celebrates virtue and intelligence, remains steadfastly
aloof from the temptations of a celebrity-driven society,
regards clarity and elegance of expression as attributes of a
neat and robust mind and who strives to treat readers with
the respect they so richly deserve.
From tribute to Sham Lal by Dileep Padgaonkar