Module 3 Project: Medical Writing For
Non-Medical Readers
Purpose
For this project you will prepare medical writing for non-medical audiences. By doing this, you
can put what you¥ learned about medical writing into practice and develop your abilities as a
medical writer.
Directions
In this module we have considered the importance of knowing your audience and some of the
types of medical writing specifically for lay/non-medical audiences. When writing to non-medical
audiences, a medical writer must 2anslate#omplex and technical medical information so that
the lay reader, who has no medical expertise, can understand. As you¥ seen, there is a big
difference in medical writing meant for medical and academic audiences and medical writing
meant for lay/non-medical audiences.
For this assignment you will choose a recent medical study and then 2anslate)t for a lay/nonmedical audience by preparing two items:
1. Patient education material or medical blog post
2. A social media post
Part 1: Patient Education Material or Medical Blog Post
The first document you prepare will be a patient education material or a medical blog post.
Whichever approach you take, your purpose will be to educate a lay audience about the
information/findings of a recent medical study. This will include summarizing and paraphrasing
the medical study so that your lay audience can understand the most significant information
without needing to read the medical study. In order to do this, you will need to carefully read and
interpret the medical study you choose. This might take considerable work and attention for you,
especially if you do not have a background in science.
As you saw in this moduleàmaterials, there are many types of medical writing for lay readers.
The general purpose for many of them is to educate that non-medical audience about a
particular medical topic or study. With that in mind, you should prepare a document meant for
patient education, or a medical blog post.
Whichever approach you take to 2anslating! medical study for your lay audience, your text
should be about 400 words in length.
You are not required to include images or visual representations in your document, although
you can if you like. An upcoming module will focus particularly on visual medical writing.
Part 2: Social Media Post
Once you have prepared your first document, choose a social media platform (such as Twitter
or Facebook) and prepare a social media post that presents some of the information from the
medical study for a lay audience.
Social media posts are generally short, so consider what you want to highlight in your post.
Such posts are often to gain an audienceàattention and then direct them to where they can find
more details. For instance, if you wrote a patient education material or medical blog post that is
available to view online, then your social media post could briefly summarize a key finding, and
then direct the reader to your other document for more details. For this assignment, you do not
actually have to host your material online, so if you include a link in your social media post, it will
not need to be a working link.
You might also consider what else can make a social media post effective. In addition to being
short and easy to read, perhaps including links, social media posts often include images. We,
address visual medical writing in more depth in an upcoming module. But, you might consider
trying to include a visual aspect to your social media post.
Choosing a Medical Study
You should use our Library Resources page to search for recent medical studies as you
consider which one to use for this project. You can either search for studies on medical topics
that interest you, or you can browse through recent issues of medical journals and look for
articles that catch your interest. You might need to look in more than one database or medical
journal to find a suitable study. As you search for medical studies that could work for this project
consider:
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Your interest in the medical topic he more interested you are in the topic of the
medical study, the more you will enjoy reading it and 2anslating)t.
The length of the study tudies can vary in length, depending on where they are
published. Studies that are too long, for instance, might be challenging to work with.
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How recent the study is n science and medicine, up-to-date research is important. So,
when choosing a study for this project, you should choose a study that was published
within the past two years.
Your ability to comprehend and interpret the study
edical studies can be challenging
to read, but some are more challenging than others. As you evaluate studies you might
use for this project, consider how difficult it will be for you to read and interpret the study.
To help you with the process of choosing a medical study to use for this project, we will have
some class activities for finding possible studies to use, as well as to interpret and summarize
the study.
Notes on Audience
As you prepare the materials, you should also carefully consider your audience, applying this
moduleàlessons on audience. With this in mind, you should define that target audience. In
addition to being lay readers, you can narrow that further. Consider:
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Who will be interested in this medical information? Will it be someone with a medical
condition or who is close to someone with that condition?
What information from the medical study would this audience be interested in knowing?
Why are they reading?
What, if any, medical knowledge does the audience have?
What reading level does this audience have?
How could you design the material for the audience to read effectively and efficiently?
Grading & Requirements
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Your patient education or medical blog document should be about 400 words in length.
Your social media post should be short and appropriate to the expectations and
conventions of the social media platform (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Include a citation for the medical study you are 2anslating&or your lay audience in AMA
style. You might need to consult our AMA Style Guide as you prepare your citations.
Include a copy of the medical study with your submission. If your document is webbased, I recommend saving a pdf copy.
Your project is worth 100 points and counts toward your Major Assignments grade.

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