Posted 2:14 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024
Writing in Health Professions
The Write Here, Write Now blog invites writers from the University of Wisconsin and La Crosse communities to respond to a series of questions that shed light on their writing lives. As readers of the blog will discover, learning to write is an ongoing, life-long process and all writers, from first-year students to career professionals, benefit from reflecting on the writing process and sharing that process with others.
Name and Title: Dr. Megan Litster, Associate Professor
Department, Speciality Area, and Classes Typically Taught: Recently I moved to the Health Professions department where I work with students in the Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistant, and Nurse Anesthesia programs. Currently, I teach the human gross anatomy courses for these programs and a functional neuroanatomy course for the Physical Therapy students. I am also working in the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning as a Faculty Fellow.
Current Writing Project: I am currently working on editing a book chapter that provides a theoretical overview of flipped learning and the role active learning plays in helping students develop deeper conceptual understanding. This is leading into my next project where we will be working with students to teach them about the ICAP (interactive-constructive-active-passive) framework of learning.
1. What are you currently reading?
Wow, that is a difficult question to answer as I have so many books going at once. But here are two of them
- Non-Fiction: I just started Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge by Sarah Rose Cavanagh.
- Fiction: I am just finishing up House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas.
2. What type(s) of writing do you regularly engage in?
I guess the answer to that question depends on what the purpose of the writing is. I write summaries of information for other faculty when I am wearing my Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning (CATL) hat. When writing my research, I tend to do more qualitative writing. As my research is centered around how people learn, I try to keep my writing a bit more informational and add a bit more of a formal tone.
3. When/where/how do you write? What are your “writing necessities”?
I do most of my writing digitally, but when I am trying to synthesize information I like to physically write and not type so I guess you could say both a computer as well as paper and pen. I also need noise... I tend to work best with some sort of background noise. Whether that be writing in a coffee shop or in my office with music on, I need something to have that aspect of my brain engaged, so I can concentrate on other things. Lastly, I need something warm to drink. I love tea and coffee depending on the time of day.
4. What's the best writing advice you've received?
Don't write passively. If you can remove the word "that" from your sentence do so.
5. How has your work experience influenced how you write?
When I first started in college, I was a science major and was taught to write succinctly and in the third person. But then as I progressed into my doctoral program, I started doing social science research. The writing style in this field is a bit more personal and less formal. so I guess my writing style is probably a bit of both. I try to get to the point but tend to add a bit more personality than you would find in science writing.
6. What is your best tip for getting started and/or for revision? How do you avoid writer’s block?
This has historically been difficult for me, as writing is not my favorite thing to do. Often people say to "just get started" or "write something down" but this is difficult when you want it to be perfect. I tend to ruminate over things in my head, research ideas, and finally start writing things. Most of the time ideas come, I write them down, and then I start to sort them into coherent paragraphs. Then I go back and edit. Writers block is always a struggle for me. I usually work through it by reading. Seeing how others put their ideas into words helps me thing about how I can put my own thoughts and ideas into words.
7. How has your work experience influenced how you write?
As a tenured faculty member, writing is a part of what I do as my career and I think it has made me write more than I would have if it wasn't an official part of the position.
8. What do you think students need to know about academic writing?
Formulate a logical argument. Putting thoughts on paper is one part, but presenting those thoughts in a way that tells a story from the first to the last point is important. Recognizing good writing is something else I think students need to know. With AI programs such as ChatGPT becoming more and more popular, it is important to ensure that the writing is good. Not everything that these AI writing programs spit out is good and/or effective writing.
9. For whom do you write?
Hmmm. That is an interesting question. I guess I would say I write for anyone that wants to read it. Sometimes that is for students, sometimes for faculty, sometimes to present the research, and sometimes for myself.
10. How have your perceptions of writing changed or grown as you entered the field of teaching?
I really can't emphasize enough the need to write a logical argument. As I continue on in my career, I am shown that constructing a logical chain of thoughts that tell a story is the most important part of writing.