By Elizabeth (Bette) Frick | Associate Fellow
This column explores the joys and challenges of managing your own technical communication business. Please share your experience and ideas. Contact Bette Frick at efrick@textdoctor.com.
As The Text Doctor®, I “doctor” (edit) texts. I am unable to “doctor” humans, because I have always been queasy in the presence of blood. In light of this career-limiting defect, I’m glad that I was eventually able to migrate into medical editing after years of teaching technical writing in medical manufacturing firms.
It was relatively easy to transfer my knowledge of technical writing into the medical field; after all, writing is writing, design is design, regardless of the subject. What wasn’t easy was learning the new facts, principles, and concepts about medicine that form the basis of knowledge in the medical field. However, I found many exciting opportunities to learn more in this and related fields.
Shortly after I began editing medical documents, I joined the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA, www.amwa.org). AMWA resembles STC in many ways by providing listservs, online resources, publications, an annual conference, and educational opportunities. I enrolled in the AMWA Essential Skills (ES) certificate program, which consists of eight rigorous, graded courses (most of this certificate can be completed by self-study). I completed the ES certificate in November 2010 and will continue studying for advanced certificates at annual conferences.
I also studied and passed the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences examination (BELS, www.bels.org) to formalize and extend my knowledge of medical editing. Studying for both the AMWA certificate and the BELS certification revealed a vast pool of “unknown unknowns,” and I spent about a year learning facts and concepts that now inform my editing. (In addition to my great avoidance of blood, I had always shunned numbers, statistics, and scientific study—the very basis of medical writing and editing. I had a lot to learn!)
For me, the benefits of launching into the medical field have been a steady source of excellent clients; medicine is expanding, growing, and changing all the time. The documents that I edit are fascinating and, ultimately, life-saving. Potential work can be found in pharmaceutical companies, medical manufacturing companies, scientific and medical communication agencies, medical education and communications companies, clinical research organizations, universities and medical schools, hospitals and clinics, and associations, publishers, and journals.
Could you, or should you, look into medical writing and editing as an independent consultant or contractor? If you like reading consumer materials about health, perhaps you could explore writing health-related articles. From there, you might market your skills to the many contract research organizations and consulting firms I listed above. Then you might begin to market yourself as an independent to individual clients within companies.
Visit a local AMWA chapter meeting if you can. Consider attending the AMWA annual conference to learn more about writing and editing in this field. I think you’ll find the basic principles of technical writing you’ve already learned from membership in STC will be supported and enhanced by membership and participation in both organizations.
I chose medical editing as opposed to writing because I wanted to remain a generalist rather than a specialist in a field (such as oncology, cardiovascular, or pharmacology); writers seem to specialize more than editors. In the past week, I’ve edited five articles for a private database for cost and quality managers, a proposal to offer counseling services to the federal government, and pages for a medical manufacturing website. Next week, I might be editing a clinical submission. No two projects, documents, or clients are the same, and I’m constantly stretching my brain to learn new technologies and terminology. If you like learning and are excited about helping people through your work, consider consulting and contracting in the medical field. Let me know how I can help you.
Elizabeth (Bette) Frick, the Text Doctor® (efrick@textdoctor.com), teaches technical and business writing in companies and organizations nationally and edits medical documents. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Minnesota and is board-certified as a medical editor by the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences.
