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Writing medical papers

: lessons from the masters

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.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

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.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

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.Skill

The skill of writing is to

create a context in

which other people

can think.

Edwin Schlossberg, designer

1945 -

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.Travails when writing a paper

• Travail: painful or laborious effort

• From medieval Latin trepalium: instrument

of torture

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.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

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.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

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.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

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.Creativity

Making the simple complicated is

commonplace. Making the

complicated simple,

awesomely simple, that’s

creativity.

Charles Mingus, jazz artist 1922 -

1979

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.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. Philips

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.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)

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.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)

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.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

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.Brevity

It is with words as with

sunbeams - the more they are

condensed, the deeper they

burn.

Robert Southey, British Poet

Laureate, 1744 - 1843

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.Brevity

It does not require many

words to speak the truth.

Chief Joseph, American Indian leader 1840 - 1904

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.Brevity

Do not display diarrhoea of the pen and

constipation of the mind.

Anonymous

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.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)

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.Simplicity

I am a bear of little brain

and long words bother

me.

A. A. Milne in ‘Winnie-the-

Pooh’

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.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

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.Style

The most perfect technique is

that which is not noticed at

all.

Pablo Casals, cellist 1876 - 1973

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.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

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.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

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.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

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.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

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.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

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.‘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

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.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

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.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