Category Archives: Web Writing

Happy Holidays 2022

A festive holiday screenshot of Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Vanessa Saunders, and Rebecca Fein. Text reads Happy Holidays 2022 and A Flock of Scientists, LLC.

A festive holiday screenshot of Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Vanessa Saunders, and Rebecca Fein. Text reads Happy Holidays 2022 and A Flock of Scientists, LLC.

Season’s greetings from A Flock of Scientists, LLC! Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Vanessa Saunders, and Rebecca Fein wish you a joyful and safe holiday season. And here’s to 2023.

#AFlockOfScientists #HappyHolidays #EmpoweredScience #MedicalCommunication

Enabling People With Disabilities: Creating Accessible Electronic Documents

The cover of Medical Writing is shown with a decorative image. The text reads Volume 31, Issue 4 - Open Science and Open Pharma. Enabling people with disabilities: Creating accessible electronic documents. Author: Jeffry Ricker.

The cover of Medical Writing is shown with a decorative image. The text reads Volume 31, Issue 4 – Open Science and Open Pharma. Enabling people with disabilities: Creating accessible electronic documents. Author: Jeffry Ricker.

We at A Flock of Scientists, LLC, are pleased to share with you that our colleague Dr. Jeff Ricker wrote an informative article that was published in “Medical Writing,” the Journal of the European Medical Writers Association.

It is titled Enabling people with disabilities: Creating accessible electronic documents. https://lnkd.in/gnbKh5wv

You can download a pdf of this article at https://lnkd.in/gcVwpn9b

Congratulations Jeff!

#Accessibility #DisabilityAwareness #EMWA #MedicalWriting #OpenScienceAndOpenPharma

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Embraces Accessibility

The American Medical Writers Association Journal Cover: Volume 37 Number 3 / Fall 2022. The resource for medical communicators. Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The American Medical Writers Association Journal Cover: Volume 37 Number 3 / Fall 2022. The resource for medical communicators. Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We at A Flock of Scientists, LLC, are honored to have our article published in this issue of the AMWA Journal. It’s titled Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Embraces Accessibility. The authors are Dean Colston, PhD, MA; Dr. Rebecca A. Fein; Killian Kleffner, PhD; and Vanessa Saunders, PhD.

We also want to congratulate the other authors and look forward to reading their manuscripts.

Read them here: https://hubs.ly/Q01m4qLl0

The AMWA Journal is a nationally circulated, peer-reviewed publication of the American Medical Writers Association that aims to be the authoritative, comprehensive source of information about knowledge, skills, and opportunities in the field of medical communication worldwide.

#DiversityEquityInclusionBelonging #MedicalWriters #MedicalEditors #HealthCommunicators #MedComm

We are A Flock of Scientists, LLC.

We are A Flock of Scientists, LLC.

Having a passion for bringing science to everyone, we are a group of doctoral-level scientists, educators, and medical communicators. As a team, we have nearly a century of scientific expertise in psychology, clinical science, neuroscience, informatics, immunology, and more.

Find out how A Flock of Scientists is different and how we can help you with your medical communication needs.

Explore our website at flockofscientists.com.

Video Description: Man typing on laptop with biotechnology and DNA helix hologram screen over keyboard. The video concludes with A Flock of Scientists, LLC logo. Upbeat background music was added to enhance the video’s quality and appeal to set the mood.

#MedicalWriting #MedicalEditing #HealthCommunication #MedicalCommunicationCoaching #AFlockOfScientists

Season’s Greetings 2021

A screenshot of Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Rebecca Fein, and Vanessa Saunders. All four are smiling for the camera.

A screenshot of Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Rebecca Fein, and Vanessa Saunders. All four are smiling for the camera.

Season’s greetings from A Flock of Scientists, LLC! Drs. Killian Kleffner, Dean Colston, Rebecca Fein, and Vanessa Saunders wish you a joyful, festive, and safe holiday season. And here’s to 2022.

#AFlockOfScientists #HappyHolidays #EmpoweredScience #MedicalCommunication

Web Accessibility and Social Media Workshop

Word WEB ACCESSIBILITY with long shadow surrounded by related flat icons.

Word WEB ACCESSIBILITY with long shadow surrounded by related flat icons.

A Flock of Scientists’ Dr. Dean Colston presented at the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) Southwest Chapter Virtual Conference on April 24, 2021. The title of his presentation was Elevate Your Social Media And Health Communication Strategies By Leveraging Accessibility Best Practices.

Participants learned why medical communicators on social media should make web accessibility a top priority. They also learned about accessibility best practices and how these guidelines can enhance their healthcare social media content and web interactions for users with disabilities. Finally, Dr. Dean discussed how web accessibility best practices can boost your search engine optimization (SEO), broaden your audience, and amplify your message.

Writing for Web Accessibility: Tip #1

Business man sitting at white table with a white laptop on white background

Business man sitting at white table with a white laptop on white background

I recommend liberal use of white space (or negative space) for your websites, apps, and online manuals.

It is not only important for web design, but it helps individuals with vision impairments to process the text more efficiently. It also directs them to important information.

You can use white space around headings, margins, indentations, and columns.

I think there is a lot of elegance and power in white space. Plus, it ensures that we are following a website accessibility guideline, which ultimately benefits all of us.

Thoughts?

Creative Storytelling and The Web

Autumn: Oboe and Colorful Leaves on Music Page. © [AardLumens] / Adobe Stock

Autumn: Oboe and Colorful Leaves on Music Page. © [AardLumens] / Adobe Stock

Creative storytelling is a way to invite readers into your content. For many types of websites, this is a powerful tool. To demonstrate this concept, I designed a website telling a story with visuals and written text. My goal was to show, not just tell.

As you will see, I used a visual as my hook. In this particular case, my story is about Ms. Georgia Gallo, a principal oboist and private instructor, and her business.

Enjoy!

Accessibility Best Practices for People with Low Vision

ACCESSIBILITY - Red text on typography background - 3D. © [Chris Titze Imaging] / Adobe Stock

ACCESSIBILITY – Red text on typography background – 3D. © [Chris Titze Imaging] / Adobe Stock

In recent years, technical communicators have become increasingly interested in accessibility best practices. Serving as a guide, this blog aims to educate and provide equal access ideas to technical and scientific communicators.

For more information on how to enhance your content and web interaction for users with vision impairments, please visit my website titled Viewing Web Content Through my Eyes: A Blog for Technical Communicators.

Micro-learning Lesson #2: Powerful Verbs for Scientific Papers

Scientific reviewing. © [Tomas Skopal] / Adobe Stock

Scientific reviewing. © [Tomas Skopal] / Adobe Stock

Are you looking for the perfect verbs to use in your scientific papers? As most researchers know, specific action words are critical for your research manuscripts. As you join the community of scientists, you will gain an understanding of the commonly used conventions in scientific discourse. Remember, your writing goals are to be clear, concise, and informative.

To support your writing endeavors, I created a list of meaningful verbs that are useful in scientific writing.

Adapted
Addressed
Argued
Asserted

Clarified
Collaborated
Collected
Compared
Comprised
Conducted

Decreased
Defined
Demonstrated
Determined
Developed
Displayed
Disputed

Emphasized
Evaluated
Examined
Explained
Explored

Focused
Found

Hypothesized

Identified
Improved
Increased
Indicated
Introduced
Investigated

Linked

Measured

Noted

Observed

Predicted
Proposed

Reported
Researched
Revealed
Reviewed

Solved
Speculated
Stressed
Studied
Suggested
Summarized
Surveyed

Tested

Validated

Micro-learning Lesson #1: Pronouns in the Subjective and Objective Case

Pronouns, English language sign series for writing & teaching. © [EdwardSamuel] / Adobe Stock

Pronouns, English language sign series for writing & teaching. © [EdwardSamuel] / Adobe Stock

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection, noun, and pronoun. Many students find some aspects of pronouns tricky. As you may already know, pronouns take the position of nouns and function as nouns do.

A pronoun that functions as the subject of a clause or sentence is in the subjective case. Case refers to the form of a word that indicates its use in a sentence as the subject of a verb, the object of a preposition, etc.

The subjective case includes I, we, he, she, it, you, they, who. The subjective case is also used when the pronoun follows a linking verb, which is a verb that relates the subject to the subject complement. For example, words commonly used as linking verbs are become, seem, feel, appear, taste, look, smell, sound, and the forms of the verb be. To apply this concept in a more traditional sense, I have presented three examples of the subjective case:

He is my teacher. (subject of verb)
My teacher is she. (subject complement)
The only ones on stage were Kevin and she. (subject complement)

A pronoun that functions as the object of a verb or preposition is in the objective case (me, us, him, her, it, you, them, whom). I have noted two examples for your review as follows:

Dr. Smith hired Susan and me. (object of verb)
Between you and me, he’s wrong. (object of preposition)

Tips on Becoming a Better Web Writer

Free Web Design Logo. WebSource: pixabay.com through Google Advanced Image Search

Free Web Design Logo. WebSource: pixabay.com through Google Advanced Image Search

You’ve been promoted in your organization and now are responsible for creating web content. You’re an excellent writer, but you’ve learned that writing for the web is different than print. But exactly what should you be aware of to help ensure that your readers have a positive experience.

According to Felder (2012), here are some tips to help you become a more effective web writer:

  • Write succinctly. Your goal is to get to the point and highlight the important elements. Remember, online readers tend to raid for information.
  • Keep sentences and paragraphs short.
  • Use a conversational style.
  • Use precise terms. Keep verbs active and use concrete nouns.
  • Use plain terms. Plain writing focuses on accuracy and clarity. So, it is recommended to avoid idioms (expressions or phrases in good use that are characteristic of or peculiar to a language). If taken literally, they may appear illogical. For example, “a penny for your thoughts” would be a common idiom. “Add insult to injury” would be another one. Next, be sure to spell out acronyms. These are words made up of the first letter or two of a series of words, such as Cosmic Ray Effects on MicroElectronics (CREME).
  • Break up tangled nouns. These are commonly seen in newspapers. They confuse readers and should be revised to ensure that the sentence is readable.
  • Use foreign phrases and trendy terms  sparingly.
  • List items. Use bullets for laundry lists and use numbers for sequences.
  • Chunk information. Most readers won’t read long text, so break it up in readable and manageable sections.
  • Use titles and subtitles. Headings can help readers as they scan your document for information they need. It also helps with organization.
  • Organize for your audience and set the right tone (pp. 14-28).

Nielsen (1997) advised web writers to “use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages” (para. #1). Simply put, this technique helps you chunk your information into specific topics through text with hyperlinks.

Finally, I recommend that web writers use graphics to help make their web content more readable and visually appealing. As a general rule, graphics are welcome in all media.

Most of all, don’t be afraid of white space. It serves three key purposes: it aids readability, improves design, and draws in your readers.

References

Felder, L. (2012). Writing for the web: Creating compelling web content using words, pictures and sound. Berkeley: New Riders.

Nielsen, J. (1997). Be succinct! (Writing for the Web). Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/be-succinct-writing-for-the-web/