Querying basics: Clinical articles

If your idea is to teach other nurses what you know about a content area, a query to the editor an absolute must. First make sure the content fits the publication and that they have not recently covered your topic; if you don’t subscribe to the journal or paper, find it online or at your local library and peruse the past year’s issues. Nursing information does change rapidly, but most journals want their information to be as fresh as possible, and they do not like to repeat content within a year or so. Clinical articles take the most time to write, and if you have the right journal for your content and the editor responds with interest, you can be pretty sure it is going to be published, although you may be asked for revisions after it goes through the peer-review process.

After you have done this preliminary work, write a letter asking the editor whether they are interested in your topic. Include a brief statement about why you are qualified to write the article, such as, “I am a certified diabetes educator, who implemented…..[fill in the blank].”  The query should not be more than one typed page, and you can attach it via e-mail with your resume, which provides further evidence of your expertise. A sentence or two describing your interest in writing an article and telling the editor you have attached a cover letter and resume should go into the body of the e-mail message.  Here is a sample e-mail note you can tailor to your liking:

Dear [Editor’s Name],

I would like to write an article for [name of journal] on [topic and brief description] and have attached a cover letter describing my idea as well as my resume for your review. I am a nurse and [other certification or degrees]. My current position is [title] at [name of institution]. Thank you in advance for considering my idea. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

[Address]

[Contact information]

Querying basics: POV articles

If you are investing time in a point-of-view (POV) essay, make sure the publication you are aiming for has a column devoted to opinion. Some do not. Once you know your targeted venue has such a column, it’s best to query the editor about your idea. First, though, take a look through several past issues of the magazine or newspaper and make sure someone hasn’t written about a similar topic recently. 

There are lots of books out there that will tell you how to write snappy query letters, but, as an editor who reads a lot of e-mail, I suggest you make it short and to the point, just like your writing should be. And use your spell check; nothing turns an editor off to your pitch like one with typos. For POVs, which are generally 1 to 2 typed pages in length, you should be able to describe your idea in a sentence or two. These queries can also be sent via e-mail in the text of the message, without an attachment, much like your letter to the editor. Remember to include your name and contact information.

Aside: If you don’t have one, create a professional sounding e-mail address when you write to an editor. Names that you think sound cute with friends, like “Iamaslug@xxx.com,” will just end up in the trash or in the editor’s spam mailbox. And they certainly don't lend themselves to a good first impression!

Querying basics: letters to the editor

If you have decided to write a letter to the editor, just go ahead and do so; no preliminary queries are needed. My advice on writing any correspondence to a newspaper or a nursing journal/newspaper is to do a little research first. Most publications will tell you where, and sometimes to whom, you can send letters. The contact information is usually near the masthead of the publication or on the page where letters appear. My local newspaper includes contact information at the bottom of almost every article written by a staffer and by authors with syndicated columns. If they give you a name, use it. In general, you can type your comments into the e-mail message itself, without attaching a separate document. Make sure your letter is brief, to the point, and free of typos. Include your name, address, and contact information, as some publications will want to verify your comments with you before publishing. And this could be your first step down that publication road!

A good example of an op-ed piece by an educator

This is an example of a well-written POV article published in my local newspaper. Read it for structure. Even if you don't agree with her premise, she makes her point clearly and well. It's a good model to follow.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/commentary/article_16379aa4-1b7e-591d-8556-ad0f60ffb85a.html

Your story—permission to write badly (at first) & some questions to ask as you write

It’s pretty common to start writing and then get stuck. You put a paragraph or two down and then think, “What do I do now?” It’s a good question. First, don’t interrupt yourself by criticizing what you have, which will only discourage you and put a stop to your effort. There will be time to edit later. (And you will edit heavily, I promise.)

But your idea does need an audience, so the next questions are “Who do I want to talk to?” and “Where do they read their information?” If you aren’t sure yet, here are some ideas:

A letter to the editor: You’ve read something you like or disagree with or have found a content error you want to point out. These letters should be short (about one-half page or 250 words), courteous, and to the point. Newspapers, magazines, and professional journals all love to get reader feedback, and, if your letter is accepted, this may be your first published piece.

A point-of-view (POV) article: You want to share your perspective on a health care or nursing issue with the public (newspapers or magazines) or colleagues (nursing trade newspapers or journals). These articles should state your POV clearly, and then support it with evidence. That evidence can be experiential or reference based, but make sure that what you provide is accurate. Never, ever, take anything from a printed source or the Internet without attribution. And anything you do use should be very short, using direct quotation marks as needed to respect any copyright restrictions. This type of article usually runs about one typed page in length, or 500 to 600 words.

A clinical article in your specialty area: You want to discuss a nursing approach that you or you and your team have developed or provide an update on content you have become expert in, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, public health nursing, etc. These articles are the longest and can run from 1000 words to upwards of 5000, depending on the journal’s guidelines (more posts on guidelines will be upcoming). They require some literature research savvy, which I will also blog about in an upcoming post, and strong referencing, with citations and references formatted according to journal requirements. I recommend querying the journal or magazine editor before starting an article like this.

An interview with an expert: Both lay and professional magazines often feature interviews. You likely know more experts than you think, and nurse experts tend to be generous with their time on issues they are passionate about. But you need to be well prepared with several cogent questions that can be answered in the amount of time the interviewee can spend with you, which is usually 30 minutes or less. (I’ll post a separate entry on interview techniques in the upcoming weeks.)

Now that you know who your audience is, you can go back to writing for them.

Brief time-out: Some helpful books to read as you begin writing

At the risk of enabling your procrastination, I want to take a step back and share some books I found really helpful when I first started to write. Fledgling writers and editors typically think of writing reference books as the style manuals they used in their high school or college term-paper days; manuals like Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, which is really a student’s version of The Chicago Manual of Style. Granted, the latter is widely used in academia and publishing, and you do need to pay attention to the publication’s style—eventually—but I suggest you wait until you are finished writing your story and use those manuals to polish it for submission. (Making an effort to match the style of your target publication makes acceptance much more realistic.)

So here is a short review of and links to my favorite books on writing (I will have more later). Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, is an easy, delightful read that taught me a big lesson: good writing needs practice. The book is full of ideas on how to “jump in and write,” and a selection of these ideas is available online.

Another outstanding book is by William Zinsser, titled On Writing Well. This book is all about nonfiction writing characterized by brevity, clarity, and simplicity, things that are sorely lacking in most journal writing today. Early in the book, he says, “A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.” From that point on, I was hooked. As a bonus, he devotes a whole chapter to science and technology, which will make you feel right at home. You can hear an NPR interview with Zinsser here or look for a CD of the book, read by the author, to listen to your car.

If you feel insecure about grammar, go to Woe is I, by Patricia T. O’Connor, a great little book that eased my fears and will ease yours as well. She also has a Web site with sections on myths about grammar, other links on language usage, and a blog with lots of Q&A.

If you are sincerely aiming at medical and nursing journals, go to AMA stat for an overview of the key things you need to know from the new 10th edition (which runs on more than 1000 pages and takes some getting used to). I am forever grateful to the guy who put this together, Abel Scribe, PhD (I’m not sure if this name is a joke, but if so, it’s a good one).

Last (for tonight, anyway; it’s getting late) is one of my favorite references for nurses who want to write nursing articles: Medical English Usage and Abusage by Edith Schwager, who also writes a great column in Q&A format for the American Medical Writers Association's AMWA Journal. You can read a sample of that column here.

Okay, now get back to your idea!

Getting started—your story

Once you have your idea, write it down or type it up. Don’t worry about grammar or usage—yet—just get your idea on paper and you can deal with polishing the writing later. Writers often get started in various ways: some like to begin with an outline, others do not. If you aren’t sure where to begin, start anywhere—even at the end—which is the point you’ll want to bring the reader to anyway. It helps to pretend you are having a conversation with your best friend or you are filling in a colleague who was off the day your story happened, and then “talk” on paper. This is what will give the writing its distinct voice—yours. There is no wrong or right way to start. The important thing is to get started. Do it now, even if it's only a few sentences. 

Getting started—a personal story

I became a nurse before I became a writer, so how did that transition happen?

A colleague and I were working as clinical specialists in a small NJ city hospital where the staff was somewhat resistant to our efforts to improve the quality of nursing and patient care. Granted, inroads were made, but progress was achieved at what we considered a snail’s pace. To cope with a particularly frustrating day, we came up with a question for ourselves that turned into an idea for a presentation—“What to do while you’re waiting for change”—and pitched it to the Colorado Nurses Association conference, Chautaugua ’77. At the same time, my colleague had written a letter to the C.V. Mosby Company (now a division of Elsevier) suggesting some topics for publication. A rep called her, she told him about our presentation, and he met us in Vail to better understand what we were talking about. Then he asked us to write a book.

Writing something that length sounded intimidating and time consuming, but we thought we could at least write the intro and a chapter each, plus a chapter together that put our presentation into print. Then we rounded up nurse colleagues we respected and asked them to write chapters for the book as well.

The process from concept to publication took almost 2 years, and then Mosby decided to cancel the series. For all our work, we had a lovely bound book to our credit, but one that didn’t sell widely. Yet we also had a terrific experience that taught us the lesson I mentioned yesterday: nurses have great stories and ought to share them. And, although it can be hard work, it can also be rewarding, fun, and perhaps a leg up on a new career.

I’m not telling you to start with a book—that was a fortuitous event for us—but what started it was an idea. So what is your idea?