Department of English

Healthcare in America is changing dramatically. And so is where and how the public gets its information. It is my theory that in the future doctors, nurses and a wide variety of medical professionals will want and need to write more. They will need to explain to the public what is happening within medicine. They will need to advocate for their patients and profession. And in a field that is increasingly more science than art, they will want to nourish their own souls by writing, a way to process the intense emotions that they experience. So in this class, students who are interested in medicine will read and write about medicine. The goal is to read good medical writing by physicians, nurses and journalists alike, and to write our own stories. We will try a few different forms – a personal story, an advocacy piece, and a classic piece of narrative journalism. This class is taught by a journalist, not a physician. The goal is to improve your own storytelling and your understanding of medical writing.