Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Melnick on Writing: An Anthology of Columns from the American Medical Writers Association Journal
    Melnick on Writing: An Anthology of Columns from the American Medical Writers Association Journal
    Melnick on Writing: An Anthology of Columns from the American Medical Writers Association Journal
    Ebook160 pages2 hours

    Melnick on Writing: An Anthology of Columns from the American Medical Writers Association Journal

    By Arnold Melnick DO MSc DHL (Hon.) FACOP

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Melnick on Writing is a collection of the first ten years of columns published in the American Medical Writers Association Journal under that eponymous title -- forty in total. They represent the authors comments on all phases of writing. The columns range from serious commentaries about grammar and usages, to writings about writing, to humorous commentaries, to managing writers block, to just plain cute thoughts -- most all with medical slants.

    The columns are all practical and written in a flowing, colloquial style.

    In a way, this anthology is a commentary on present-day medical writing by showing the problems, solutions and differing ideas on the state of medical writing (and sometimes on writing in general).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateNov 20, 2012
    ISBN9781477289884
    Melnick on Writing: An Anthology of Columns from the American Medical Writers Association Journal
    Author

    Arnold Melnick DO MSc DHL (Hon.) FACOP

    ARNOLD MELNICK, DO is a pediatrician with a life-long interest in writing and in medical communication. He has kept immersed in medical communication throughout a stellar medical career. After 30 years of pediatric practice, he became Founding Dean of the Southeastern College of Osteopathic Medicine and, after its phenomenal growth (six health schools and a merger), he became the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost (now retired) of the Health Professions Division of Nova Southeastern University. He is a past president of the American Medical Writers Association and of its Delaware Valley Chapter. He has been president or chairman of 13 professional organizations, in some of them also serving as editor of a group’s publication. He holds 5 Fellowship degrees and has been the recipient of 18 distinguished service awards from professional groups. A prolific writer, he has had 9 books and 3 monographs published, as well as more than 220 professional articles.

    Related authors

    Related to Melnick on Writing

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      All About The Pitch

      Feb 15, 2021

      Whether you are a budding, intermediate, or advanced writer, a good pitch letter with a great spin on a topic, timely element, newsy connection, or unusual personal experience is a great first step toward getting that assignment and building that rel

      5 min read

    • Article

      Writing Your First Article

      Sep 18, 2019

      After all your hard work and writing the perfect query, you now have an article writing assignment. The editor has detailed the word count, deadline, the rights, and the payment, and now it’s time to write the article. Keep in mind everything you kno

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Good Ending

      Apr 10, 2023

      A Good Ending
      7 min read

    • Article

      Back To School

      Nov 20, 2019

      Back To School
      1 min read

    • Article

      Words Matter

      Apr 14, 2021

      Words Matter
      9 min read

    • Article

      Bookish

      Sep 10, 2019

      “Learning how to shape your ideas into well-crafted pieces of writing is essentially learning how to think critically and creatively at the same time,” Tara Mokhtari writes in the introduction of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing, now i

      1 min read

    • Article

      Funny You Should Ask

      Mar 16, 2020

      Someone in my writing group has had three rather successful books published by a major publisher, but then, she had two proposals rejected by her publisher, and her third proposal, her agent rejected, saying it wasn’t at the level needed for submissi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Star Letter

      Feb 4, 2021

      What a shame Allie Reynolds felt the need to validate her article The First Five Pages (WM, Feb) with the disclaimer that she was ‘no writing coach’. She then further validates it by saying she was ‘lucky’ her novel went to auction. Imposter Syndrome

      6 min read

    • Article

      On Writing About Books

      Aug 17, 2022

      SO YOU want to write book criticism. Me too. Ever since college, when I realized that writing English papers was the best way to take ownership of a text, to imbibe the words of authors I admire and hold them living inside my imagination, I’ve writte

      8 min read

    • Article

      Reviewers & Critics

      Apr 3, 2018

      Reviewers & Critics
      5 min read

    • Article

      Reviewers & Critics

      Aug 14, 2019

      ONE of the most prominent and liveliest contemporary critics in the United States, Daniel Mendelsohn began contributing reviews, op-eds, and essays to a variety of publications, including Out, the New York Times, the Nation, and the Village Voice, wh

      5 min read

    • Article

      Why We Read and Why We Write

      Aug 2, 2017

      What we gain by reading is what we often strive for in life when we’re actually thinking about what we want. The post Why We Read and Why We Write appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Why “Self-Promotion” Is Bullshit

      Jan 16, 2019

      Promote your book. Share what you’re comfortable sharing with potential readers, but please, let’s abolish that terribly ill-fitting word: self-promotion. The post Why “Self-Promotion” Is Bullshit appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Reviewers & Critics

      Apr 12, 2017

      PARUL Sehgal is a senior editor and columnist at the New York Times Book Review. Previously she was books editor at NPR and a senior editor at Publishers Weekly. She grew up in Washington, D.C., Delhi, Manila, Budapest, and Montreal, where she studie

      5 min read

    • Article

      Reviewers & Critics

      Oct 10, 2018

      PARUL Sehgal is a senior editor and columnist at the New York Times Book Review. Previously she was books editor at NPR and a senior editor at Publishers Weekly. She grew up in Washington, D.C., Delhi, Manila, Budapest, and Montreal, where she studie

      5 min read

    • Article

      Becoming a MULTIGENRE MASTER

      Jun 19, 2019

      Becoming a MULTIGENRE MASTER
      7 min read

    • Article

      Culture Shock: Reassessing the Workshop

      Aug 15, 2022

      The writing workshop is an American invention. The post Culture Shock: Reassessing the Workshop appeared first on The Millions.

      9 min read

    • Article

      THE LITERARY Life

      Dec 11, 2019

      WRITER’S block, I have always maintained, is not real. It is an invention. A self-inflicted wound. A chimera. After all, every time we fall asleep we write stories in our dreams. And yet whenever I give a talk to young writers, eventually a hand goes

      9 min read

    • Article

      Why Simple Is Smart

      Jan 31, 2022

      Why Simple Is Smart
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Melnick on Writing

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Melnick on Writing - Arnold Melnick DO MSc DHL (Hon.) FACOP

      © 2012 by Arnold Melnick, DO. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 11/15/2012

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-8989-1 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4772-8988-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012921728

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Other Books by the Author

      Foreword

      Preface

      KYOS—Five Easy Questions to Erase Your Writer’s Block

      An Editor’s Headaches, and also Fun

      Say, What Kind of Dr. Are You, Anyway?

      New Technology, New Problems

      Looking Back on AMWA

      New Technology, New Problems—A Sequel

      This Time, It’s Dear Arnold (Not Dear Edie)

      Words I Love

      Wouldn’t You Like to Improve Your Writing?

      Great Communicators: Commencement Speeches I Have Heard

      Anecdotes Redux

      Accuracy vs. Grammar: Journalistic Dilemma

      I Despair!

      Netspeak or Not-Speak

      Give Up Some of Your Habits

      Whence, forsooth?

      Firsts Among Equals

      Newsletter Notes

      Are Medical Journals Doing a Complete Job?

      What Is the Future of Medical Writing?

      Here’s What They Said

      But Do You Know Who They Were?

      The co- Challenge

      Writing with Suspenders This: ( ), That:—, and The Other Things: , ,

      Buzzwords: Truth? Or Consequences?

      It’s . . . Its

      Where Shall I Submit This Article?

      Some Random Thoughts on Ghostwriting

      Have You Ever Seen . . . the Singular?

      Change and Medical Writing

      A Look at Opposites

      Diagnosis and Treatment

      More Words (Medical) I Love

      The Students Appreciate Me Editing Their Work

      Scanning the Proclivities of E-mails

      Grammar for Writers

      Readership . . . by Impulse

      Bad Grammar Ain’t No Sin

      Spelling and Writing . . . and Reading

      Tell Me They Didn’t Say That! A Collection of Misspeaks by Physicians

      Paraprosdokian

      The Physician-Pharmacist Team

      Osler Aphorisms

      Acknowledgements

      I want to recognize two individuals who were instrumental in producing my columns.

      Lynn M. Alperin, who was President

      of AMWA in 2001, first suggested to me that I write a

      column for the AMWA Journal and encouraged me,

      and

      Lori Alexander, Editor of the Journal

      for the past ten years,

      under whose watchful eye, I was able to

      produce more than 40 columns on time and

      in readable form.

      Thank you, Lynn and Lori

      Other Books by the Author

      Pediatrics: Some Uncommon Views on Some

      Common Problems

      Professionally Speaking: Public Speaking for

      Health Professionals

      Oratoria Para Professionales de la Salud

      Medical Writing 101: A Primer for Health Professionals

      Parenthood: Laugh and Understand Your Child

      Ethical Problems in Pediatrics: A Dozen Dilemmas

      Effective Medical Communication:

      An Anthology of Columns

      Looking Back . . . at SECOM

      Practicing for Practice

      Monographs

      So, You’ve Been Asked to Speak . . .

      Sandy, We Love You

      (with Anita Melnick)

      Who Will I Tell?

      Foreword

      For more than a decade, Arnold Melnick has delighted AMWA Journal readers with his column, Melnick on Writing. His columns feature his musings on all aspects of writing, from favorite words to grammar pet peeves to publication practices. Drawing on his storied experiences, Arnold also offers historical perspectives on medicine, writing, and the American Medical Writers Association, an organization to which he has been devoted for more than 50 years. His columns are infused with wit, intelligence, and a keen eye on the words that surround us every day, and it has been my pleasure to be Arnold’s editor for his work published in the AMWA Journal.

      This collection of his columns is sure to appeal to writers, editors, and those who simply love language.

      Lori L. Alexander, MTPW, ELS

      Editor Emeritus, AMWA Journal

      Preface

      For more than 10 years, I have been privileged to produce, issue after issue, a column for the AMWA Journal. I was allowed the freedom to include just about anything related to writing—sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes technical, sometimes almost free association and sometimes just cute.

      I have had fun!

      As a 50+year member of AMWA, it’s an organization I love and have enjoyed working in and for most of those years. I have been around long enough to watch it grow from 300 or 400 members to nearly 5000. That’s success.

      The impetus for this book was the suggestion that it might be good for all the columns to be found in one place—for review or for reference or just for re-reading.

      So here it is.

      THE COLUMNS

      as published in the

      American Medical Writers Association Journal

      (These columns are in the sequence of their appearance and in no particular subject-matter order)

      KYOS—Five Easy Questions to Erase Your Writer’s Block

      Because Writer’s Block continues to plague some experienced writers and arises anew in novice writers, it is always appropriate to reexamine this perplexing problem. After all, only you can solve your Writer’s Block.

      Just how prevalent is our age-old bugaboo? I recently had the opportunity to question 20 experienced writers. Their answers revealed that about half of them have experienced Writer’s Block sufficiently to be bothered by it, only two or three felt that they had not encountered, or had rarely encountered, this phenomenon, and the remainder were somewhere in between. So, like it or not, it is still with us.

      Many years ago, the famous radio comedian Fred Allen submitted a script for his program to the network. It was returned with a number of deletions, several additions, and a list of comments. Upon reviewing it, he returned it to the network with a note attached saying, Where were you when this was an empty sheet of paper? How appropriate!

      All those who suffer this old virus ask the same question: How can I get rid of my Writer’s Block? Perhaps the most lucid answer was given by the famous Yale writing teacher William Zinsser, who said in On Writing Well that there are as many kinds of Writer’s Block as there are writers. On the basis of his theory and personal observation, I have come to the conclusion that the real treatment of Writer’s Block lies in KYOS—Know Your Own Style—not in pursuing some gimmicky approach.

      I have chosen to capitalize Writer’s Block because it is specific to our craft. Put an electrician in front of a computer and ask him or her to write: Any failure would not be Writer’s Block, because that is something specific to people who are already writers. Thus, my definition of Writer’s Block is the temporary inability by a writer to put words on a page.

      KYOS is an exercise in which you consider five simple questions to erase this dreaded affliction. Answering them accurately and intelligently provides an easy answer to your Writer’s Block.

      1. Are you one of those writers (particularly new writers) who struggle vainly to write something instead of communicating information or ideas to the reader?

      Author Joel Saltzman suggests that it is easier to write than not to write. He feels that the search for perfection by a writer leads to paralysis, and that leads to procrastination. His explanation is based on his own suffering with Writer’s Block and, in that suffering, discovering the appropriate title for his book: If You Can Talk, You Can Write. He suggests that, instead of saying to yourself, I’ll never get this right or This is not the way I wanted it, you write anything, as though you are talking to a friend. Write whatever words might be associated with your article—without pausing to criticize or edit. Intersperse it with whatever random thoughts come to your mind. Then, he says, edit and edit carefully.

      Reinforcing this comment of writing and editing are two pertinent lines written in Sleeping Dogs Don’t Lay by authors Richard Lederer and Richard Davis:

      The best writers are the writers who have the discipline to revise and revise and revise.

      Anyone who is satisfied with first-draft writing is either extraordinarily talented or has low standards.

      How clear are these authors’ recommendations. All this ties in with Melnick’s theory, an adage kept in the back of my mind for the past 30 years: Good writing is good editing. Very few writers can get their desired effect in the first draft. For most of us, then, how we edit determines whether the writing is good or not. I have long felt that any quality in my writing gets there through editing, not by first-draft genius. And I know many good writers who feel the same way.

      2. Do you know your own patterns of creativity?

      A writer wants to work under the most favorable conditions, favorable meaning those conditions which enhance his or her creativity. Do you write best early in the morning or very late at night? Do you do better work with a dish of candy next to your computer or while abstaining from sweets? Do you create better when you are riding in your car or when you are trying to fall asleep at 3 AM? Do you work better alone or with people nearby? To get the most out of our writing, we must observe—and respect—our own personal idiosyncrasies. They guide our creativity—or at least they don’t block it.

      Once again, it is a question of KYOS: Know Your Own Style. If you work against what is your normal style or natural rhythm or psychologic mindset, your creativity will run into all kinds of obstacles, one of which may be Writer’s Block.

      3. Do you work best with notes or without notes?

      All of us work in different patterns. Some of us do better with copious notes, others with outlines, others with sketchy notes, and others without any notes at all. In some cases, writers do better using notes for factual articles (as in writing news) and without notes for less concrete material (as in features or fiction)—or vice versa. Some of us have different patterns of behavior for different types of articles.

      In any

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1