Writing medical pieces doesn’t have to be stringent and boring! Today’s medical facilities and health care practitioners look for content that is engaging and informative. This helps keep their current and future clients wanting to visit their website, read their content, and follow them on social media. As a writer, it’s up to you to provide a clear, concise document, filled with all the information needed while catering to your audience. Each piece should have its own purpose — if it’s for the medical community, using medical jargon and adding in some humor when you can will be useful and help position your client as an expert in their field. If the piece is for a standard reader, keeping the terms simple and easy to understand should be the top priority.
Good organization when putting together the document is the first step that will take you through the entire writing process, making your good post great. Make sure your title is catchy — yes, even medical pieces can have interesting titles and start strong. Keep the content conversational when you can and, when needed, create a great call to action. Even if one is not required, challenging the reader to do something that is relevant to the content works well and gives them a reason to interact with the facility or practitioner.
When becoming a medical writer, keep a few things in mind:
- Present practical problems and solutions.
- Diversify your writing styles.
- Write so the reader can achieve a mindset change.
- Depending on the content, examples are good.
- Be thorough.
- Back up your information with facts.
Researching the topics to achieve a high level of understanding is important when writing medical pieces, and speaking with the facility or practitioner to find out what they want to convey is a good start. Although writing for the medical field is more technical than a standard article or blog post, the intended outcome is usually the same. Good medical writers have the ability to extract information and present it in various formats that will fully explain the issues, concerns and pose any questions that the readers may want to ask.
Becoming a medical writer is just like writing any other piece. Your intent should be to keep your document flowing smoothly and moving at a good pace — medically, that is. If you’re unsure about any terms, it is important to find out what they mean. In medicine, using the wrong terminology can alter the piece and create a backlash for your client, putting your professional writing skills into question. Once you’ve mastered this technique, writing medical pieces should be a breeze. After all, you’re a professional — you’re paid to keep it moving!
Allaire W is a freelance content marketing writer with a love for the written word and a sweet tooth that turned a hobby into a business. You can frequently find her “cooking” up assignments while covered in flour or cake batter.
