Writing for Lay Audiences - Volume 24, Issue

Pleasing the reader by pleasing the eye—Part 1 The role of format and design in readability - Volume 21, Issue

Whoever writes wants to be read. Yet, even if we succeed in creating an informative, logically structured, and adequately worded text tailored to our target audience, i.e., text we consider to have an adequate level of readability, our documents may…

Social media, communication challenges, and the role of a scientific writer in standing up for science - Volume 30, Issue

Social media and other communication technologies are great tools to raise awareness regarding public health challenges and measures to overcome them. At the same time, these modern technologies are used to spread misinformation and conspiracy…

The Webscout - Volume 24, Issue

Are we aware how different from each other presentations for lay audiences and those for professional experts are, even if they cover the same subject? Check these publications on pirfenidone, a drug against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Lingua Franca and Beyond - Volume 24, Issue

Knowing that the main theme of this issue of Medical Writing is writing for the lay audience, I was thinking hard about what would be the most relevant topic to discuss in the Lingua Franca and Beyond section. My thoughts went to a topic that…

Medical Journalism - Volume 21, Issue

The majority of medical writers (either in the pharmaceutical industry, CROs, or as freelancers) provide documents for regulatory authorities. A smaller proportion works in the medical and health communication field writing texts for either…

Gained in Translation - Volume 24, Issue

Editorial Welcome to the Translation Section editorial! What we call ‘lay-friendliness’ is a key characteristic of Patient Information Sheets (PIS), which are tightly regulated on a European level to guarantee a comprehensible document that…

Landscaping the terminology of accessible language document types - Volume 31, Issue

There are three main types of accessible language documents that medical writers and medical publications professionals may work on. These are regulatory lay summaries, publication-associated plain language summaries (PLS), and standalone plain…

Protecting the rights of clinical trial patients through disclosure: The significance of plain language - Volume 27, Issue

Taking a step back to understand the history of clinical trial regulation triggers a broader perspective on the work we do or the work we will do. As regulatory medical writers, our role is often limited to the more technicalsubmission-level…

Medical journalism in a new era - Volume 30, Issue

We are living at a time when the general public is increasingly interested in scientific and medical advances. Medical journalism is therefore becoming more important to medical writers, although it is a subject that few of us are familiar with. To…