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 Process Planning Audience Analysis Outline/ Brainstorm Writing Objectives Research - OAs -.gov - Associations First Draft time Revision/ Rewrite New angle? no yes time Final Review Client Review submit Revisions/ queries Revisions Annotation Client Final Review 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 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