- A medical writer spends a workday much like many other freelance writers. The main difference is the amount of research required to write a factual medical related article. Many medical articles contain complex medical lingo and facts, which both require the writer to have basic medical knowledge.
- At the start of the workday, a medical writer will check her email or other correspondence for revision requests by her clients. If there are any that need to be done, she will usually take care of those before she starts a new article or project. Once any revisions are completed, she will edit articles written the previous day.
- Once she has taken care of revision requests, she will begin working on a new article. This process normally begins with researching the topic. She must find reputable sources with up-to-date information, usually dated within the past 3 years. This process is in-depth and involves checking the source of the information, the author's qualifications and the interest the person has on the topic. For example, there is a plethora of information about prescription medications on the Internet. An article on a prescription drug written by a drug manufacturer may contain credible information but, in truth, facts may be missing that may take away the positive marketing effect the manufacturer needs to portray. If the writer is unable to find credible information on the Internet, she may have to make calls to doctors, nurses or other contacts she has in the medical community. Additionally, she may go to a local medical student teaching facility to peruse reference books to learn the information she needs for her article.
- After locating the credible sources she will use for her article, she must outline the article. This is vital when writing a medical article because a lot of information overlaps within a topic. Writing a detailed outline about the article prevents the writer from repeating facts within the article. Once this outline is finished, the medical writer will write the article. While doing this, she must be sure to double check the facts for accuracy. When writing a medical topic, it is easy to misconstrue information unintentionally. Annotating the article as she writes is one way to make fact checking easier.
- Upon finishing the article, she will do an initial edit on it. This is to simply check for spelling and grammatical errors. After finishing that, she will usually set the article aside and begin a new article. Most medical writers will leave written articles alone until the day after it is written. This enables her to do a final edit on the article with a clear head.
