Writing a short review or notice
A short review says whom the book is for, walks its sections in order, picks out a particular feature of the book and ends on who should have it. A brief notice identifies the subject and the intended user, names what the book offers, and closes on a single sentence of verdict or relevance.
A short review
Two short reviews, of a guide to evaluating vaccine safety concerns and of a British general guide to medical writing, follow the same structure: say whom the book is for, walk its sections in order, pick out a particular feature of the book, and end with who should have it.
The vaccine guide is addressed to parents and other interested parties with questions about vaccine safety.
The review of the writing guide walks all six of its sections: an overview of plain English with specifics of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure; research reports, reviews, case reports and conference posters; editorials, letters to the editor, writing for the lay press, press releases and advertisements; examinations, presentation materials and a thesis; a section of special interest to those who write for an audience of medical and health care professionals; and medical publishing, covering medical media and the law, writing and editing books, writing for the internet and getting published.
For the vaccine guide the feature is a chart of words that mean one thing in science and another to the lay public, such as significant, which in science is a specific statistical term and to the lay public means important. For the writing guide it is that, under its theme of writing in plain English, the terms accurate and readable are used throughout the book and emphasised in each section.
The review of the vaccine guide recommends it both to those with questions about vaccines and specific diseases and to medical writers who need to explain scientific procedures to a lay audience. The review of the writing guide notes within its praise that the book is by British authors and alludes to some European specifics, recommends it as usable as an introductory text and as an invaluable reference for medical writing professionals who are called on to write different kinds of documents, and closes that it is a solid addition to the library of any medical writer.
A brief notice
Brief notices of new books by members of a professional association identify the subject and the intended user and name what the book offers, such as more than 25 current web addresses for registries and a comprehensive annotated bibliography in a book on clinical trial registries, or a German-English side-by-side translation of an eighteenth-century writer's work on the personal qualities, education and ethics of the physician and on how a young physician gains the patient's trust. Each closes on a single sentence of verdict or relevance: a career guide is an excellent book for medical writers who may be searching for their own core identity and the right fit in the profession, the registry book a valuable source of information for all sponsors of medicinal products, and the translated work, although specific to its time and place, timely for the 21st century in some of its comments and issues.