The first gives 18 simple but brilliant tips on writing - including my personal favourite 'Remember the red thread'. The red thread is the overall narrative or story of what you are writing - why it is important and what you found. We try to keep this in mind in all our writing and ensure that the red thread runs through the document (the article is here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1056492619861796 and is well worth a read)
The second is a blog published in the BMJ and it looks at making the introduction to articles more interesting. Personally, I find writing the introduction the most difficult part and often leave it to the end. The author suggests using story telling techniques to hook the reader in, rather than the usual (rather dry and dull): list of definitions, description of a disease’s global burden or referencing a political declaration. This one is at https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/07/17/paul-simpson-why-are-the-intros-to-academic-articles-so-boring/
I am so glad that I found these two articles (via Twitter) and will definitely be using the writing advice in my work.
Hot off the press
We've just published a paper in the Journal of Medical Economics showing that adding the Parkinson’s KinetiGraph (the PKG, a wrist-worn movement recording device that collates continuous, objective, data during daily activities in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) providing a report for clinicians) to standard monitoring of PD is a cost-effective option.