USEFUL READING LIST

EMWA is looking for someone who would be willing to update our current useful reading list that dates from 1995! If you would like to get involved in creating this valuable resource for medical writers, editors and translators, please contact Shanida ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The following information is given for reference with the understanding that the list does not include texts published more recently than 1995, but does, nevertheless, still include some pivotal and valuable texts still of use to medical writers in the 21st century.

The AMWA core curriculum course 'Punctuation for clarity and style' was held at the Fourth EMWA Annual Meeting in Bruges in 1995. It was led by Phyllis Minick, a past president of AMWA. Phyllis asked participants to list reference books that they used regularly or had consulted when completing the pre-course assignment. These books are listed below.

• A Grammar of the English Language by G.O. Curme.
• AMA Manual of Style Biomedical Communication: Selected AMWA Workshops. Punctuation for Clarity and Style by M.E. Knatterud. AMWA Press.
• Butterworths Medical Dictionary. 2nd ed. Butterworth.
• CBE Style Manual, 5th ed. [6th now available - see below] Council of Biology Editors.
• Chambers' Twentieth Century Dictionary, Chambers Publishing.
• Clinical Medicine by Bailliere Tindall.
• Collin's Dictionary and Thesaurus [UK English.]
• Complete Plain Words by E. Gower.
• Copy-editing. The Cambridge Handbook, 3rd ed. J. Butcher. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
• Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary: Editing Technical Writing by D.J. Sampson Jr.
• Fowler's Modern English Usage, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press.
• How to Copyedit Scientific Books and Journals by M. O'Connor. iSi Press.
• King's English, Oxford University Press.
• Medical English Usage and Abusage by E. Schwager. Oryx Press.
• Medical Journalism by T. Albert. RMP.
• Medical Style and Format by E. Huth. iSi Press, 1987.
• Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors. Oxford University Press, 1991.
• Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. Oxford University Press.
• Oxford Reference Medical Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
• Roget's Thesaurus, Penguin edition.
• Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Pergamon.
• Dictionary of Perfect Spelling. Maxwell Publishers.
• Webster's Compact Writers Guide. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary [US English.]

Tim Albert, who presented the workshop 'The Process of Writing' at the EMWA meeting in Berlin, suggests the following.

Effective writing

• Newsman's English by H. Evans. Heinemann, 1972.
• The Complete Plain Words, 3rd ed. E, Gowers. London: HMSO, 1986.
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, New York: Macmillan, 1979.
• Medical Journalism: The Writer's Guide by T. Albert. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press, 1992.
• Medical Writing: a Prescription for Clarity by N.W. Goodman, M.B. Edwards. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
• Writing on Both Sides of the Brain by H. Klauser. San Francisco: Harper, 1987.
• English for Journalists by W. Hicks. Routledge, 1993.

Feature writing

• Writing Feature Articles, 2nd ed. B. Hennessy. Oxford: Heinemann, 1989.

Science writing

• Writing Successfully in Science by M. O'Connor. London: Harper Collins Academic, 1991.
• How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by R.A. Day. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
• Communicating Science by M. Shortland, J. Gregory. Harlow: Longman Scientific and Technical, 1991.

Some other recommended reference books are:

• A Dictionary of Pharmacology and Allied Topics by Laurence D R and Carpenter J R, 2nd Edition, published by Elsevier Science BV, Amsterdam, 1998. ISBN 0 444 50050 2.
• How to Write and Publish Papers in the Medical Sciences, 2nd ed. E J. Huth. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1990.
• Mind the Stop. A Brief Guide to Punctuation by G.V. Carey. London: Penguin Books, 1976.
• Plain English. A User's Guide by P.D. Roberts. London: Penguin Books, 1988.
• Scientific Style and Format. The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers, 6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
• The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.