For Prospective Medical Writers
Are you interested in becoming a medical writer but don’t know how to get started? Here are some tips based on my experience that may help.
- Need clips?
- If you're a graduate student, postdoc, or medical student, contact the office of media relations at your university or college. Reach out to the public information officer of science or medicine, and ask if you can help out by covering science/medical articles for them.
- Consider writing a by-lined article for free.
- If you're a graduate student, postdoc, or medical student, contact the office of media relations at your university or college. Reach out to the public information officer of science or medicine, and ask if you can help out by covering science/medical articles for them.
- Join a professional organization in the field. The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) and the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) are good options.
- Attend their annual and regional meetings to network.
- Sign up for their jobs listservs.
- Participate in discussion boards to learn more about the field.
- Network face to face as much as possible to make contacts and land a job. Networking at the AMWA and NASW annual meetings is a great way to meet established medical/science writers and editors, some of whom may be looking to farm out work. If available, be sure to sign up for a meeting mentor.
- Check out the websites of other medical writers to see what they’re up to. You may stumble across a possible job lead.
- A great site to check out for additional help in getting started as a medical writer is that of Emma Hitt, PhD (https://nascentmc.com/). She offers a variety of resources (for a fee) and a free weekly jobs list.
- Read A Field Guide for Science Writers by Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, and Robin Marantz Henig to explore the variety of science/medical writing disciplines available.
