Sunday, August 30, 2009

Medical blogging as a bridge to medical writing


I know several physicians who began their professional medical writing career as bloggers. They were simply keeping an online journal and writing about personal (and sometimes professional) stories. What began as a hobby blossomed into a career for some of these extremely talented physicians.

If you enjoy writing, perhaps you may want to start a blog (or contribute to some blogs). This way, you can test the waters and experience what it's like to be a writer. Of course, you won't go from a blogger to a professional medical writer overnight, but blogging may be a reasonable stepping stone to help you make that transition. If you find that you really enjoy writing (via blogging), then you may wish to explore some serious career transitions into the world of medical writing.

The world of professional medical writing is so broad, but one area shares many similarities with blogs. That area is this: consumer health education/writing. Here, you have to write using ordinary language. You can't use technical jargon. You must keep your sentences simple and stick to words that don't have too many syllables. If you enjoy aspects of patient education, then you may really enjoy consumer health writing.

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