My mother is southern. I grew up thinking there is an “R” in wash, and square has at least two syllables. Despite her southern dialect, my mother knows grammar better than anyone I know. By the time I reached high school, I couldn’t hear or even read a sentence without diagraming it in my head. It had become second nature.
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My father is an engineer. He is the most intelligent person I know. He couldn’t diagram a sentence any more than my mother could calculate the trajectory of a missile. They are both brilliant in their own right. Luckily for me, they are both great teachers, and I can honestly say I have learned from the best.
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I never desired to be an engineer. And while I love being a mom more than anything, I never saw it as my career (though motherhood is the hardest job I have ever had). What I fell in love with was biology, chemistry, and eventually medical science.
Through much trial and error, I have found a passion and a home in medical writing. If it is possible to consider it a calling, I think that is an appropriate word for how I feel about it. And yet there are so many medical journals, documents, and even published novels that transport me back to being 12 years old. I read the sentence and hear my mother asking, “Exactly how many prepositions do you need here?” Or better yet, “I think you forgot your punctuation.” This meant my one sentence should have been two or even three sentences. It bothers me that I find myself judging these authors who are much smarter than I am, simply because they didn’t have my upbringing. Grammar is hard, writing is even harder, and medical writing is the hardest of them all.
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So that is what has inspired me to start this webpage. Hopefully, in my own condensed and superficial way, I can help bring awareness to all that is expected of medical writers. In doing so, I aim to bring encouragement and support to my peers.
My name is Amber Plattner, and this is my microscopic contribution to the field. I hope you enjoy it