PORTRAYING THE BEAUTY OF AN EQUATION: ADVICE FOR WRITING PROFESSIONAL PAPERS

Sometimes we write professional papers motivated by external pressure to publish, but more often we are excited to present our work or ideas. Deep in our hearts we know what we have to say is important and useful, and we want readers to understand what we are writing and how important it can be to them or to our field. To do this we have to keep readers—whether they are peers, editors, students, or the public—from losing interest. This can be especially difficult in interdisciplinary fields such as Medical Geology. Readers can lose interest for a variety of reasons including our word usage or grammar, the structure of the document, our use of technical details, a confusing organization, or our failure to effectively connect our interdisciplinary idea to the reader's discipline, interest, or habits of mind. This presentation offers practical advice on developing and preparing papers, focusing tailored or constructed topics for medical geology. We will discuss and offer advice and “tips” on writing with focus on the intended audience, writing accurately, effectively, efficiently, and concisely; and on preparing papers for publication, especially for very demanding editors.