Competence Tweet Series Begins Monday, July 1

Our 30-day tweet series on competence in medical writing and editing will begin July 1 and continue throughout the month at the leisurely pace of a tweet per day.

Each tweet will relate in some way to one of the key competencies of a medical writer identified in a 2012 survey by the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). A total of 1,177 individuals completed the survey, which produced 68 competencies, but we will just tweet about the top 30. AMWA members may view the list by visiting http://goo.gl/dUpkg.

Tweets will originate from the account of the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences, @BELS_Editors. Tweets will also originate from my personal Twitter account, @Grantsmeister, and as updates from my LinkedIn page, http://goo.gl/ZIdDS.

If needed, background information on the series may also be posted here on my blog, Delaware Valley Medical Writer. 

Tweets will be aggregated under the symbol #cmwesm. The letters stand for “competence in medical writing, editing, and social media.” This means you can catch up on what you’ve missed by visiting your Twitter account and searching on #cmwesm. This hashtag has been registered with the Healthcare Hashtags Project.

If you're still coming up to speed on Twitter, here's a great guide to the basics, published by the London School of Economics. http://goo.gl/Sg6ST

At the end of the series, we'll meet for a one-hour tweet chat. Time and date of the chat will be announced later. (Coordinating time zones may require some discussion.)

Before the chat, I will send around a list of discussion questions. This list is still forming, but is sure to include the following:

1) How can editors help ensure competence in medical and science writing?

2) Why do you think "maintain confidentiality of information" ranks 3rd in importance on the list of 68 basic medical writing competencies?

Hope to meet you soon, in the Twitterverse!

Don