Writing medical papers

Lessons from the masters

Why should we write?

Words are things, and a small

drop of ink, falling like dew

upon a thought produces that

which makes thousands,

perhaps millions think.

Lord Byron 1788 - 1824

Why should you record your findings in print?

In questions of science, the

authority of a thousand is not

worth the humble reasoning

of a single individual.

Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

1564 - 1642

Skill

The skill of writing is to

create a context in which

other people can think.

Edwin Schlossberg, designer 1945 -

Travails when writing a paper

• Travail: painful or laborious effort

• From medieval Latin trepalium: instrument

of torture

Travails when writing a paper

‘Writing is easy. All you

have to do is stare at a

blank sheet of paper

until drops of blood form

on your forehead.’Gene Fowler, author 1890 - 1960

Travails…

Churchill’s recipe, more

comprehensive than that offered

by Gene Fowler, can be used to

advantage when writing a paper:

‘… blood, toil, tears and

sweat…’Winston Churchill, 13 May 1940

A test for good writing

Our admiration for fine writing will always be

in proportion to its real difficulty and its

apparent ease.

Charles Caleb Colton, clergyman and author 1780-1832

Creativity

Making the simple complicated is

commonplace. Making the

complicated simple,

awesomely simple, that’s

creativity.

Charles Mingus, jazz artist 1922 - 1979

Basic principles

If words are to enter men’s

minds and bear fruit, they

must be the right words,

shaped cunningly to pass

men’s defences and explode

silently and effectively in

their minds.J. B. Phillips 1906-1982, famed for making the Bible

come ‘extraordinarily alive’

Basic principles

That writer of merit is praiseworthy whose

words, free from the bias of likes and

dislikes, are firmly established in the

narration of things as they happened.

Kalhana in Rajatarangini (around 1148 AD)

Basic principles

‘Begin at the beginning’,

the King said gravely,

‘and go on till you come

to the end. Then stop.’

Lewis Carroll (Alice’s adventures in wonderland)

Clarity of thought

If any man wishes to write in a clear

style, let him first be clear in his

thoughts and if any would write in a

noble style, let him first possess a

noble soul.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet

and scientist, 1749 - 1832

Brevity

It is with words as with

sunbeams - the more they

are condensed, the

deeper they burn.

Robert Southey, British Poet Laureate, 1744 -

1843

Brevity

It does not require many

words to speak the truth.

Chief Joseph, American Indian leader 1840 - 1904

Brevity

Do not display diarrhoea of the pen and

constipation of the mind.

Anonymous

Simplicity

He has never been known to use

a word that may send the

reader to the dictionary.

William Faulkner (1897 - 1962) on Ernest

Hemingway (1899 - 1961)

Simplicity

I am a bear of little brain

and long words bother

me.

A. A. Milne in ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’

Style

People think I can teach them style. What stuff it all is!

Have something to say and say it clearly.

That is the only secret of style.

Mathew Arnold 1822 - 1888

Style

The most perfect technique is

that which is not noticed at

all.

Pablo Casals, cellist 1876 - 1973

Style

An author knows that he nears

perfection not when there is

nothing left to add but when

there is nothing left to take

away. Antoine St. Exupery, French aviator and author

1900 - 1944

Misuse of statistics

• Statistics can be used to prove anything -

even the truth. - Anonymous

• He uses statistics as a drunken man uses

lamp-posts - for support rather than

illumination. - Andrew Lang 1844 - 1912

• There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned

lies and statistics! - Benjamin Disraeli

Masking untruth• The only ‘ism’ some medical authors believe in is

plagiarism. - Anonymous

• To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism, to do so from many is research. - Anonymous

• That’s not a lie - it’s a terminological inexactitude. - Alexander Haig, US Secretary of State

• Most authors regard truth as their most cherished possession and are therefore most economical in their use of it. - Mark Twain

Beautiful writing

We ascribe beauty to that which is

simple, which has no

superfluous parts, which exactly

answers its ends, which stands

related to all things and is the

mean of many extremes.Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803 - 1882

Captivating writing

His writing is lucid because language

almost disappears. What remains is

the idea. I think that is the height of

good writing - to express creatively

without the weight of English

literature imposing itself.

R. K. Laxman on R. K. Narayan’s prose

Humour

My method is to take

the utmost trouble to

find the right thing

to say, and then to

say it with the

utmost levity.- George Bernard Shaw

Humour

Richard Asher 1912 - 1969

Some of Dr. Richard Asher’s

papers:

• Why are medical journals so

dull? (BMJ 23 August 1958)

•A woman with the stiff-man

syndrome. (BMJ 1 February 1958)

• The dangers of going to bed. (BMJ 13 December 1947)

• Collected papers:

Asher R: Talking Sense London: Pitman

Medical 1972

‘He has published 2000 papers!’

• ‘His work is not so much the product of

fecundity as of incontinence.’

A reviewer in Le Monde commenting on an author who had published a

large number of papers

• ‘The dust of dead words clings to thee. Wash

thy soul in silence.’

Rabindranath Tagore in Stray birds

Sound advice

So perhaps, after all, it’s as well to

be quiet

If you’ve nothing you think is

worth saying in prose,

Than to furnish a meal of their

cannibal diet

To the critics, by publishing, as

you propose.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1809 - 1894

Summing up

A writer should represent the embodiment of a rishi - one

who celebrates virtue and intelligence, remains steadfastly

aloof from the temptations of a celebrity-driven society,

regards clarity and elegance of expression as attributes of a

neat and robust mind and who strives to treat readers with

the respect they so richly deserve.

From tribute to Sham Lal by Dileep Padgaonkar