: lessons from the masters - Journal of Postgraduate … · Downloaded from a site hosted by...
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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