When my brother and I were young, both of our parents had high expectations of our academic performances, and in order to accomplish this, they taught us the importance of learning, instilled a love of reading, and.... were very difficult graders and editors. I can remember working on a paper, needing to have someone proofread it before I printed or submitted it, and trying to avoid having my Mom read it because I knew she would be so tough. I can remember my Mom handing my papers back- there was always something I had done wrong!
This was not just a one-sided attack. When I was in the fifth grade, I asked my dad for help with my math homework. He was appalled at how sloppy my work was and said that he wouldn't help me until I cleaned it up. (Throughout the rest of middle school and on into high school and college, I meticulously wrote out all of the steps to a problem, no matter how elementary it may have seemed.)
Now that I am a resident, I am the editor-in-chief of a nationally circulated newsletter designed for pharmacist education; I also contribute to our company-wide newsletter at least bi-monthly. I have two part-time interns that work one shift per week for the clinical services department that do quite a bit of drug information and professional writing. At this point, they are either a) used to my complete overhaul of their work or b) have such precise grammar and sentence structure that I barely touch their articles. I also have sixth year pharmacy students on rotation with me for six weeks at a time, and I don't want to know what they really think about me. On the first two days of the rotation, I have them take a plagiarism test, review a grammar handbook, brush up on their drug information skills, and edit a sample paragraph to assess their overall writing ability. (I don't think you should receive a doctorate if you cannot figure out how to properly use apostrophes, commas, capitalization, and punctuation.) The rotation students also have to present three journal clubs during the course of their stay at the office. I think I was a bit harsh on my student this week, but at the same time, this student had not done his homework (or at least enough of it- if you are going to present a topic, you had better know the meaning and significance of every single word, abbreviation, and value that you use in your presentation).
I think the most popular mistake students make is writing exactly how they would talk in a conversation. (I know you're thinking, she's such a hypocrite- that is exactly what she is doing now! Trust me- it is possible to have more than one writing style. My drug information work is very different at the office than what you read on my blog.) I often wonder how students get through pharmacy school without acquiring better writing skills, but I think I already know the answer... Most students (at least in my class, anyways) did not enjoy their drug information class during pharmacy school and did as little as possible to get by. I, on the other hand, did not miss a drug info class (unlike some of the other classes that I was more of a guest than a regular- sorry to disappoint Mom and Dad!) and thought what we were learning was useful (even if it was a little dry). My friend Tony and I would joke that we would both do residencies one day- his in pharmacokinetics and mine in drug information.
Even though my residency is not technically a PGY2 drug information residency, evaluating clinical information is a large part of what I do. In fact, there is something about diving deep into available literature to provide someone with a thorough, yet concise, answer to a clinical question that is very rewarding. (Wow, what a nerd...) That being said, I am still not wild about all of the statistical tests performed in clinical trials or calculations used to figure out ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion) values (thank goodness that is not a part of my job). I'll call Tony (or Chelsea) if I need help with kinetics.
In the long run, my parents' efforts have paid off in full. I have better writing and organizational skills than I ever would have developed on my own, and best of all, I am not afraid to use a red pen.
Click here to view everyday examples of poor grammar.
*This title comes from the name of a Facebook group I've been in since 2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment