Interlude: Excavating Language, Text Expanders, and Communicating Medical Numbers
Earlier this week, I came across a reel that struck me. In the reel, author Megha Majumdar shared her thoughts on how writing is difficult because you fail a lot.
"You fail because. . . you can’t find the right words. . . you can't find the words that are true. You start up here, and you have to excavate the language until you get to the truest layer."
Wow! 🤯
I love this idea of excavating language to find the truest layer. That writing is difficult because you have to do the hard work of carefully and systematically unearthing the meaning you intend.
What a fantastic verb choice! This is one for the books.
Now onto this week's round-up...
💌 Round-up
🎉 Featured
Clarity by Design*
I am delighted to share that my colleague, Kelly Schrank, just published a fantastic book about creating comprehensive checklists in medical communication. After attending one of Kelly's seminars in 2019, I was instantly sold of the value of checklists, and I became one of her biggest fans. And I was thrilled when she asked me to be a case study in her book. I highly recommend adding this book to your bookshelf. Get the book*
(*By making a purchase through an affiliate link, I receive a very small commission at no cost to you.)
💻 From My Desk
How to Write Faster with Text Expansion Tools
Do you find yourself writing the same sentences or feedback comments over and over again? When you’re emailing colleagues or editing projects, those repetitive tasks can really add up and waste precious time. In this video, you’ll discover how I write faster and stay consistent using TextExpander (my favorite writing tool!) to save hours every week — and how you can use it to speed up your writing workflow, too.
👓 Reading
The vital role of inclusive publishing in advancing science
"Inclusive journals value null results, preliminary data, and experimental design papers, which promote reproducibility and can hasten innovation. Unlike selective journals, which prioritise ‘high impact’ discoveries, inclusive journals recognise that research does not need to be ground-breaking to be an advancement. . . 50% of research is unpublished. Rather than lacking scientific rigour, most rejections occur because journal editors consider the research to lack significance. A study prepared for the European Commission estimated that in 2018, €26 billion was wasted on duplicated research in Europe alone."
Practice of data sharing plans in clinical trial registrations and concordance between registered and published data sharing plans: a cross-sectional study
". . . more than half of trials published in high-profile journals did not plan to share data in registration, and over 40% were discordant between registration and publication plans. Trials with an intervention of drug were associated with increased odds of registered plans to share data, while COVID-19-related trials were related to lower odds of concordance. Additionally, significant discordance was consistently found for specific data sharing contents, including statistical analysis plans, study protocols, analytic codes, and individual participant data."
🎧 Listening
Five Things to Do When Communicating Medical Numbers – JAMA Clinical Reviews
In this podcast episode, Angela Fagerlin shares how the way you provide numerical information can be helpful for shared decision-making with patients. I especially appreciated her distinction between writing to inform and writing to persuade. You can also read her JAMA Insights article on the topic.
Thank you so much for reading.
Warmly,
Crystal
