Fine-tuning medical writing Pitfalls and strategies

While slips of the pen do not necessarily prevent readers from understanding the contents of a text, they can label authors as outsiders, as not fully-fledged members of the discourse community to which they seek entry. Although healthcare writing belongs to the realm of “scientific literature”, it should be harmonic, fine-tuned, mutatis mutandis, like a well-conducted symphony orchestra, where a false note, even that of a single badly-played instrument, can compromise its overall harmony and excellence of performance. This book is the outcome of a series of reflections concerning some of the major difficulties Italian healthcare researchers and students often encounter when writing academic articles in English. The contents of the volume are informed by an interdisciplinary approach based mainly on the PICO model, a mnemonic expedient used in Evidence-Based Medicine and referring to the four elements typical of clinical inquiry (Patient/Problem, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome) and the possible harbinger of recovery.