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| Bette Frick
The Text Doctor®
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| Quote of the Month |
Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
Mark Twain
1835-1910
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The Text Doctor's Diagnosis
December 2009
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Greetings!
The best of the holiday season to you! And I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year ahead.
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Check! The value of checklists in aviation, medicine, and writing
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The holidays are probably a good time to function by checklist: "Present for Aunt Tillie: Check!; Holiday stamps from the post office: Check!" (It's still not too late, of course, to start your holiday checklist...)
Many industries use checklists. For example, it's comforting to know that every flight crew operates by checklist. Before you board, your first officer has checked off 20 or 30 inspection items (Engine master switch OFF? Engine start selector NORM?). Checklists provide consistent operations when inevitable surprises happen. On a recent flight I was on, a medical emergency had the cabin crew huddling over a passenger lying in the aisle. I was grateful to know that the crew, from pilot to flight attendant, had standard checklists for emergencies like this.
Ironically, had the ailing passenger been transported to the nearest intensive care unit (ICU) after we landed, her medical team would probably have had no checklist to guide their actions. If she had gone into surgery, again her team would likely not operate by checklist, but rather by memory alone.
This startling state of affairs is well chronicled by Atul Gawande in his article "The Checklist" in The New Yorker (December 10, 2007). Gawande explains that checklists establish a "higher standard of baseline performance" by helping with memory recall in dramatic medical events and "making explicit the minimum, expected steps in complex processes." When checklists were implemented in ICUs in Michigan, infection rates decreased by 66%. In 18 months, Michigan hospitals saved an estimated $175,000,000 in costs and more than 1500 lives. Successes were sustained for almost 4 years.
That's why the World Health Organization (WHO) proposes a 22-item checklist for surgeons throughout the world.
Wondering if checklists might likewise help technical and business writers, I searched Google to find nearly 8 million hits (search words: checklist writing). According to the links I located on Google, experts recommend using a checklist before, during, and after writing, even though your tasks may be nowhere near as dramatic as Chesley Sullenberger's landing in the Hudson, an ICU physician treating three critically injured patients, or a surgeon operating on a tiny baby.
Consider a checklist to assess who might be all the potential readers for your document and what their needs are. Or you might use an e-mail checklist before you hit "Send" on important e-mails. Visit www.textdoctor.com/resources.html to see these and other checklists.
If wedding planners and window installers and airline captains and ICU physicians and surgeons use checklists, why not writers?
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Tour de style manuals: The American Chemical Society Style Guide (ACS)
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 This style guide, a key resource for writers working in science, technology, and medicine, has been required reading in at least one of the writing courses I've taught. The ACS Style Guide includes guidelines for electronic manuscript submissions, publishing online, and international scientific publishing. The 3rd edition (2006) includes a new chapter on ethics in scientific publishing.
This guide is best for contributors to ACS journals, chemical industry professionals, and those in other sciences, engineering, and medicine who write for publication.
Chapter 1 of The ACS is available through the publisher's website.
You can learn more about this manual and how it compares to other manuals by downloading our handy matrix of style manuals.
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For fun: The review process during the holidays!
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These are a few of my favorite things: Scriblink
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While on a webinar, a colleague demonstrated Scriblink by writing several mathematical equations. The Scriblink website describes the product as "... a free digital whiteboard that users can share online in real-time. Sorta like pen and paper, minus the dead trees, plastic, and the inconvenience of being at the same place at the same time." I found that once I practiced a bit, the whiteboard was very usable, and it can be saved and shared. (And now you know why I don't teach Art!)  |
Thanks for reading! I'm looking for a few more editing and teaching clients. How might I help you and your writing team?
Sincerely,
Elizabeth (Bette) Frick
The Text Doctor®
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