Whether drafting regulatory documents, patient education materials, scientific manuscripts, or your own portfolio, being concise ensures that key information is accessible and impactful.
Last week, we talked about how writing concisely can enhance both our work and career as medical communicators.
This week, we’re highlighting three strategies medical communicators can implement to make their content more concise and easier to understand.
Here are a few ways to consider:
Prioritize Essential Information
Concise writing begins with understanding what truly matters. This strategy focuses on identifying and emphasizing the most critical data, findings, or messages, while eliminating anything that doesn’t directly support the document’s objective. For example, when you write the background section of a science article, provide context but don’t include a detailed historical account or cite studies that do not directly inform the specific topic or research question.
Use Precise Language
Medical writing demands accuracy, but that doesn’t mean that more words are better. Choosing the most specific and appropriate words helps reduce redundancy and avoids ambiguity, leading to sharper, more direct communication. Always make sure that any medical, scientific, and technical terms are defined or properly explained in a way that can be understood by non-expert audiences.
Minimize Structural Clutter
This specific approach involves streamlining the organization of content, so that clarity doesn’t get lost in overly complex sentence structures. This may mean simplifying sentence construction, tightening paragraphs, or structuring documents to flow more logically.
Concise medical writing respects the reader by improving comprehension, especially when the content is technical or complex. These strategies provide a foundation for writers and editors to deliver information that’s brief but also clear, precise, and efficient.
As an important reminder, being concise should never come before person-first language. For example, always say patient with cancer, NOT cancer patient.
Are there any approaches you use to declutter text while maintaining clarity and person-first language?
Want to learn how it’s done?
Sign up for Introduction to Health Writing, a self-paced course that includes lessons, tips, and tricks to learn how to write clearly and concisely.
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