From Alzheimer’s to Zebrafish: Eclectic Science and Regulatory Stories 52
In an article we co-authored several years ago, Marcia Arentz and I mentioned how
important writing proficiency is for regulatory professionals.1 Well-organized, scientifi-
cally sound, accurate, clear and complete submissions are crucial in gaining approval from
the US Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory body. For this reason, we
suggested that prospective and current regulatory employees be thoroughly evaluated
for their communication skills during the interview or performance appraisal process.
Employees could be asked whether they have submitted articles for publication and if
they are, or would like to become, members of the American Medical Writers Association.
They should be encouraged to do both. Interviewers should also review prospective
employees’ writing samples and ask which authors the person finds most interesting and
worth emulating.
Most experts agree that to learn to write well you must write often and read selec-
tively from respected authors. It is imperative that those of us in regulatory work on
our writing skills. In his recent book, The Clinician’s Guide to Medical Writing, Dr. Robert
B. Taylor notes that all writers must read if they are to be any good at medical writing.2
Writers should read diverse items and for various reasons: for information, for ideas, for a
sense of history and for style.
Many books relate directly to style. The list includes, The Elements of Style,3 Style,4
On Writing Well5 and Why Not Say it Clearly.6 Countless books focus on the rudiments of
punctuation and grammar—important elements of good writing. Many are fun to read,
including, Eats, Shoots &Leaves,7 Medical English Usage and Abusage,8 The Well Tempered
Sentence,9 The Suspended Sentence10 and Fumble-Rules.11 For some strange reason, considering
the topic, Eats, Shoots and Leaves was a runaway best seller in Great Britain and appeared
on the most popular book list in the US. More than 500,000 copies of the book are in print
in England.
In addition to the fine writers in the books mentioned above, there are a number of
medical writers, past and present, whose work is both enlightening and entertaining.
Three of my favorites are Lewis Thomas, Sherwin Nuland and Natalie Angier. I would
recommend that anyone, especially regulatory professionals, consider perusing their
books and essays. These authors express their thoughts with eloquence, simplicity and
grace.
Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas is perhaps the best-known and most-quoted medical essayist of the 20th
century. He was a physician and biologist, widely known as the author of The Lives of a
Cell,12 The Medusa and the Snail,13 Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Last Symphony14
and The Fragile Species.15 These books are all treatises on biology as philosophy, and the
work of a scrupulously observant, appreciative, self-deprecating and drily funny mind.
Beginning in the early 1970s, a series of his essays appeared in the New England Journal
of Medicine with the modest title “Notes of a Biology Watcher.” They were made avail-
able to the general public in two of his first books. In The Fragile Species, his last book,
Thomas contributed to an understanding of some of the great medical puzzles of our era,
including AIDS, drug abuse, aging and cancer. (He wrote about the latter from personal
experience after he was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma in 1988.) Thomas disclosed
that aging is not universal in nature nor is it common. “Aging, real aging—the continua-
tion of living throughout a long period of senescence—is a human invention and perhaps
a recent one at that. It took us a long time and a reasonably working economy to recognize
that healthy, intelligent old human beings are an asset to the evolution of human culture.”
His essays demonstrate the basic principles of a great writer’s art: brevity, clarity, simplic-
ity and humanity. Finding a contemporary who writes as well and could be deemed his
successor would appear unlikely. There are, however, a few potential candidates.
In an article we co-authored several years ago, Marcia Arentz and I mentioned how
important writing proficiency is for regulatory professionals.1 Well-organized, scientifi-
cally sound, accurate, clear and complete submissions are crucial in gaining approval from
the US Food and Drug Administration or any other regulatory body. For this reason, we
suggested that prospective and current regulatory employees be thoroughly evaluated
for their communication skills during the interview or performance appraisal process.
Employees could be asked whether they have submitted articles for publication and if
they are, or would like to become, members of the American Medical Writers Association.
They should be encouraged to do both. Interviewers should also review prospective
employees’ writing samples and ask which authors the person finds most interesting and
worth emulating.
Most experts agree that to learn to write well you must write often and read selec-
tively from respected authors. It is imperative that those of us in regulatory work on
our writing skills. In his recent book, The Clinician’s Guide to Medical Writing, Dr. Robert
B. Taylor notes that all writers must read if they are to be any good at medical writing.2
Writers should read diverse items and for various reasons: for information, for ideas, for a
sense of history and for style.
Many books relate directly to style. The list includes, The Elements of Style,3 Style,4
On Writing Well5 and Why Not Say it Clearly.6 Countless books focus on the rudiments of
punctuation and grammar—important elements of good writing. Many are fun to read,
including, Eats, Shoots &Leaves,7 Medical English Usage and Abusage,8 The Well Tempered
Sentence,9 The Suspended Sentence10 and Fumble-Rules.11 For some strange reason, considering
the topic, Eats, Shoots and Leaves was a runaway best seller in Great Britain and appeared
on the most popular book list in the US. More than 500,000 copies of the book are in print
in England.
In addition to the fine writers in the books mentioned above, there are a number of
medical writers, past and present, whose work is both enlightening and entertaining.
Three of my favorites are Lewis Thomas, Sherwin Nuland and Natalie Angier. I would
recommend that anyone, especially regulatory professionals, consider perusing their
books and essays. These authors express their thoughts with eloquence, simplicity and
grace.
Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas is perhaps the best-known and most-quoted medical essayist of the 20th
century. He was a physician and biologist, widely known as the author of The Lives of a
Cell,12 The Medusa and the Snail,13 Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Last Symphony14
and The Fragile Species.15 These books are all treatises on biology as philosophy, and the
work of a scrupulously observant, appreciative, self-deprecating and drily funny mind.
Beginning in the early 1970s, a series of his essays appeared in the New England Journal
of Medicine with the modest title “Notes of a Biology Watcher.” They were made avail-
able to the general public in two of his first books. In The Fragile Species, his last book,
Thomas contributed to an understanding of some of the great medical puzzles of our era,
including AIDS, drug abuse, aging and cancer. (He wrote about the latter from personal
experience after he was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma in 1988.) Thomas disclosed
that aging is not universal in nature nor is it common. “Aging, real aging—the continua-
tion of living throughout a long period of senescence—is a human invention and perhaps
a recent one at that. It took us a long time and a reasonably working economy to recognize
that healthy, intelligent old human beings are an asset to the evolution of human culture.”
His essays demonstrate the basic principles of a great writer’s art: brevity, clarity, simplic-
ity and humanity. Finding a contemporary who writes as well and could be deemed his
successor would appear unlikely. There are, however, a few potential candidates.