Essential Steps to Writing for Medical Marketing

chillibreeze writer — Micky Cushion

Want to be a medical writer? : The essential steps to writing for Medical Marketing

Medical writing pertaining to the pharmaceutical industry can be broadly classified into:

a) Regulatory writing
b) Marketing writing

Regulatory writers write about the life-cycle of the drug – its development and approval process; whereas marketing writers deal with product launch, promotional material along with educational material for physicians, pharmacists and consumers.

Marketing writing includes inputs like:

i) product monographs
ii) patient information leaflets
iii) product information brochures
iv) abstracts
v) posters
vi) manuscripts
vii) press releases
viii) publication and query management related documents.

Though the work remains the same, guidelines for writing each of these inputs are specific.

There are four basic steps to help you write effectively:

1) Understanding
2) Researching
3) Writing
4) Revising

You can create your own methodology by repeating each step, or combining two or more steps.

1) Understanding

Usually you start with a topic, which has been suggested by your client. Familiarize yourself with the topic and do some groundwork. Collect general information about the topic. This preliminary research will allow you to measure the depth of knowledge that you want to explore. Locate one central idea, which will be keystone of your piece. Keep jotting down every thought that comes to your mind don’t edit just put it down on paper. After you have accomplished this, relax. Let the ideas percolate. Know your readers. Find out who will be reading your article. At this point you should be aware of the dangers of plagiarism and how to avoid it.

2) Researching

You have your topic and your central idea. Now you need to support it with evidence. Study all the references that have been provided to you or that you have gathered. Understand the types of reference. Critically read and evaluate those references and take relevant notes. The ideas generated by this activity will allow you to make an outline for your article. Club the ideas generated from the previous step. You can segregate and organise these ideas using various subtopics and headings. Read through it. Do you get the flow of ideas? If not, reshuffle and rearrange the sequence till you get the perfect flow of thought. An outline is like a pencil sketch that is later filled in with colours to make a beautiful painting.

3) Writing

Now you are ready to write your first draft. Sit down peacefully fill in, and elaborate on all the points you’ve outlined in the previous step. Don’t worry if your piece looks a little shaky. Not even the best writers can write a perfect piece at the first go. Don’t forget to reference your work.

4) Revising

The process of writing includes deleting, adding and replacing the content, as much as you want. Be a stern critic. If you feel that you cannot do this, ask a competent person to be a critic of your work.

Proof read

This is when you add the finishing touches to your masterpiece. Look for grammatical errors, punctuation, quotation marks, commas, semicolons and spelling. This is nitpicking time, so take a sharp look at your work. By the end of this step you will be ready with your article.

Polish and perfect your work before submitting it for publishing.

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—About our writer:

Micky writes for chillibreeze.

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