An excellent series of articles on the writer’s craft from Lorelei Lingard in the magazine Perspectives in Medical Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are lots of mediocre articles about writing, but fewer excellent ones. An article by Lorelei Lingard in Perspectives in Medical Education on April 8, 2015 (Volume 4, Number 2, pages 79 and 80) is titled The writer’s craft and introduces a series. She has a PhD in rhetoric and is a professor. Articles in the series cover topics ranging from titles, to verbs, to sentences to paragraphs.

 

One on April 9, 2015 Volume 4 Number 2, pages 53 and 54 is titled Enlisting the power of the verb. A second on January 26, 2016 (Volume 5 Number 1, pages 39 to 41) is titled Get control of your commas. A third on May 23, 2016 Volume 5 Number 3, pages 179 to 181 is titled Bonfire red titles. A fourth on December 8, 2016 (Volume 6, Number 1, pages 51 to 53) is titled Mastering the Sentence. A fifth on April 10, 2019 Volume 10 Number 2, pages 98 to 100 is titled From semi-conscious to strategic paragraphing. A sixth on December 18, 2019 (Volume 18, Number 9, pages 57 to 59) is titled Pace, pause & silence: Creating emphasis & suspense in your writing. A seventh on November 3, 2021 (Volume 10, Number 6, pages 347 to 351) is titled When English clashes with other languages: Insights and cautions from the Writer’s Craft series. And an eighth on March 8, 2022 (Volume 11, Number 4, pages 228 to 231) is titled Writing for the reader: Using reader expectation principles to maximize clarity.

 

For example, in Bonfire red titles Lorelei says:

 

“….A title is like a front door: it serves as advertising for what’s inside your research paper. Have a look at the last title you wrote for an academic manuscript. Is it a red door or a white one? Does it draw readers into your work or encourage them to walk by?

 

Titles must achieve two goals: quickly grab the reader and faithfully describe the paper. This likely explains our common addiction to the ‘colon title,’ in which what precedes the colon is meant to be catchy and what follows is meant to be descriptive.”

 

The image of a writer was adapted from one at the Library of Congress.