Writing for Today’s Healthcare Audiences

Home » Products » Writing and Composition » Handbooks and Writing Guides » Writing for Today’s Healthcare Audiences

Written by: Robert J. Bonk

Publication Date: February 4, 2015
ISBN: 9781554811496 / 155481149X
192 pages; 6½" x 9"

Primarily designed for students seeking careers in healthcare communication, this book also serves as a useful guide for nascent practitioners. Healthcare writing audiences are diversifying, from traditional physicians and patients to administrators in government and insurance groups as well as technical practitioners. Writing for these increasingly diverse healthcare audiences is the focus of this book, which has just enough theory to lay groundwork, plentiful examples to illustrate how theory is practiced, summaries that highlight key points, and realistic practice exercises.

In addition to the emphasis on diverse audiences, the book stresses the importance of the writing process, from pre-writing to final editing. The book includes writing checklists for completeness and accuracy, and it incorporates many helpful real-world examples of healthcare documentation.

Comments

“Robert J. Bonk, the noted authority on writing in the pharmaceutical industry, provides highly useful and sensible coverage of what writers need to know to craft texts within a range of healthcare professions. In concise chapters that make good use of sample documents from many medical contexts, Bonk relies on a solid rhetorical underpinning to encourage writers to be alert to the importance of purpose, audience, and genre in designing medical documents. He covers the practicalities of researching and writing from medical sources, and he offers advice on designing both documents and their accompanying visuals. Bonk’s book should prove popular on many campuses in the growing number of undergraduate courses in healthcare communication.” — Stephen A. Bernhardt, University of Delaware

“I particularly value Bonk’s attention to the different kinds of potential audiences for healthcare information, the purposes the writing might need to serve, and the ethics involved in presenting such material. Putting ethics right up front, then showing how those ethics apply (even at the beginning of the process when you are selecting sources of information), is an essential part of becoming an effective healthcare writer. This book is also notable for how well it integrates the mechanics of clear communication with real-world examples of texts healthcare writers need to produce.” — Lili Fox Vélez, Scientific Writer and Editor

List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface

CHAPTER 1: PRELIMINARIES OF HEALTHCARE WRITING

Chapter Objectives
Thinking as Readers, Not Writers
Overview of the Writing Process
Inputs and Outputs of Healthcare Writing
Typical Documents for Healthcare Writers
Ethical Responsibilities of Healthcare Writers

Social Contract of Professionals
Ethics, Respect, and Sensitivity
Healthcare Writers as Advocates

Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 2: AUDIENCES FOR HEALTHCARE INFORMATION

Chapter Objectives
Primary and Secondary Audiences
Categorization by Knowledge Level
Writing Techniques for Audience Groups
- Layperson-Focused Example
  Administrator-Focused Example
  Practitioner-Focused Example
  Researcher-Focused Example
Focus on Non-Researcher Audiences
Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 3: SIMPLE STRATEGIES BY PURPOSE AND CONTEXT

Chapter Objectives
Audience, Purpose, and Context
Input Conditions into Output Parameters
Simple Strategies for Simple Situations

Spatiality
Chronology
Specificity
Importance

Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 4: COMPLEX AND NESTED STRATEGIES

Chapter Objectives
Complex Strategies for Complex Situations

Problem, Method, Solution
Classification and Partition
Comparison and Contrast

Nested Strategies and Signposting
Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 5: RELIABLE SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Chapter Objectives
Accessing and Assessing Healthcare Sources
Traditional Sources in Hard-Copy Format
Expansive Sources in Electronic Format
Expeditious Searches for Information
Effective Selection of Search Engines
Substantiation of Document Content
Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 6: EVIDENCE THROUGH TEXT ARGUMENTATION

Chapter Objectives
Evidence as Building Blocks

Classical Rhetoric for Persuasion
Induction and Deduction
Cause and Effect

Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 7: EVIDENCE THROUGH VISUAL DISPLAYS

Chapter Objectives
Evidence Built with Graphics
Tables for Data Compilation
Figures for Data Portrayals

Line Graphs
Column Graphs
Pie Charts
Other Visuals

Additional Notes on Visuals
Chapter Summary
Exercises for Practice

CHAPTER 8: WRITING MECHANICS FOR HEALTHCARE

Chapter Objectives
The Power of Writing Mechanics
Building Blocks of Syntax
Hierarchy of Sentence Structure
Avoidable Problems with Syntax

Restrictive Sense of Relative Clauses
Misplaced and Meaningless Phrases
Active, Passive, and Nominalized Verbs
Pronouns, Expletives, and Other Foibles