The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7257 p63
12 July 2003

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Fails to deal with main challenge of writing — what to leave out

'Writing skills in practice: a practical guide for health professionals', by Diana Williams. Pp 321. Price £15.95. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd; 2002. ISBN 1 85302 649 2

Writing books is sheer folly: you spend months working them up, and then some self-serving critic comes along and knocks them down again.

So I apologise for any pain that this review might cause. (If it is any consolation to the author, I have been on the receiving end of wounding reviews myself in the past.) But this is just the kind of book on writing I do not care for.

Diana Williams has clearly put plenty of work into her task, covering an exceptionally broad range of topics — from taking lecture notes to time management, from information leaflets to legal implications. Many people will cherish the information.

Whether it will help writers to write and readers to read is another matter. An endless succession of bullet points fails to come to terms with the main challenge of writing (as opposed to compiling lists) — which is that it is about leaving things out, not putting them in.

Sadly there is no mention of the protagonists of polished prose, such as George Orwell, Sir Ernest Gowers, and the incomparable Strunk and White. Many of the author's phrases (sample: "Keep the health records of discharged clients for the recommended time") ignore their guidelines.

Tim Albert

Tim Albert runs courses on effective writing skills and is editor of ‘A–Z of medical writing’ (BMJ Books, 2000).