Speechmag

Pride & Prejudice and the essentials of editing

I had a very enjoyable trip to the theatre last night to see Theatre Royal Bath's version of Pride & Prejudice. There was clever use of minimal props, and the text was by and large Jane Austen's words.

I know the book so well that I was fascinated to observe how Simon Reade had edited it down to just 2 hours 10 minutes on stage yet - as Jane Austen almost said - "In essentials, I believe it was very much what it ever was." Some useful tips there for this editor!

If you are an Austen fan thinking about writing for publication, have a look at Prime & Predigest, my edit of the book from the Spring 03 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice.

Video on writing for publication from the British Medical Journal

I was interested to watch this video about writing for the British Medical Journal. Although it focuses on the BMJ's preference for the randomised controlled trial, it includes a lot of useful and sensible advice for anyone in the healthcare field who wonders whether they should write for publication or get involved in research.

We all watch and interpret things through our own lenses, and things I have taken from it include:

• we are by and large funded by the public, so new knowledge should be publically available
• negative findings are as useful as positive
• important research can result from a clinician noticing something in their everyday practice
• healthcare publications actually have a role in creating the fairer society we want to see.

The British Medical Journal has developed impressive online resources using video and audio, something that I hope will increasingly feature alongside Speech & Language Therapy in Practice articles.

Speechmag blog is Speechwoman's 'Site of the Month'

What a great start to my day - an e-mail from Caroline Bowen telling me that the speechmag blog has been awarded the Speechwoman 'Site of the Month' award for January 2010!

Along with speechmag, Caroline's renowned website is one of the most enduring speech and language therapy related presences on the internet. Since June 1998, her alter ego Speechwoman has selected "an outstanding speech-language-pathology related website" as her site of the month. The variety of winners is testament to Caroline's super powers in finding and sharing good practice around the globe.

Speechwoman notes that the "immensely readable" Speech & Language Therapy in Practice magazine is supported by the speechmag website, a presence on Facebook and the editor's blog.  Explaining why she has chosen to recognise this blog with the first Speechwoman award for 2010 she says, "As well as being a skilled editor Avril has a lively and engaging writing style, so it comes as no surprise that her blog is interesting, informative and entertaining."  

The blog gets a maximum triple plus 'excellent' rating for quality, usability and design and a double plus for authority, reflecting the Speech & Language Therapy in Practice aim of bridging the gap between academia / research and practice.

Thank you Speechwoman, my blog will wear your logo with pride!

Editor apologies for using wrong version of Pulse / Frontline advert

Much as I enjoy editing Speech & Language Therapy in Practice and seeing a new issue come out, there is always a horrible moment as I wait to find out what mistakes have made their way into print. A painstaking proofing process is essential as, once the magazine is 'out there', it is very difficult to do anything about it.

While errors are usually fairly minor, such as a typo, a missing word or poor punctuation, very occasionally they have more serious consequences. With the Winter 09 issue my checking process went spectacularly wrong and I ended up using the first draft rather than final version of the advert on the inside front cover. The company is being very gracious about it but as there are a few important differences - in particular the e-mail address at the end - I wanted to make readers aware of it as soon as possible. What follows is the correct version (click on it to see it full size):

 
  

Online communication community

I recently heard about an ambitious online venture called icommunicate.This global online community provides free information and resources around communication skills, written by speech and language therapists / pathologists. As well as sharing within the profession, the site aims to help clients, parents, teachers and other professionals.

icommunicate leading light Johan Langfield explained to me that his motivation came from seeing "a lack of resources for many people that really needed them." Working for a time in the public sector, he saw children "who were not getting sufficient help because they were not deemed severe enough to fit the criteria for funding. This really bothered me." He says that, as icommunicate evolved, "the more we felt we could create something really great, that people could use, that would help people."

The success of icommunicate will depend ultimately on the number of speech and language therapy professionals who choose to send in their activities, ideas, videos and stories for inclusion and participate in the forum. This video link explains how it all works.

Writing for publication

As Hislop, Murray & Newton (2008, p.156) say, there is a "growing expectation that health care professionals will disseminate information, experience and findings in order to improve practice and patient care, and as part of their continuing professional development." Yet many who would describe themselves as "very practical" therapists lack the confidence to write and submit articles for consideration.

A few weeks ago I did a workshop on writing for publication with a lovely group of speech and language therapists in North Wales. Some of the results of their endeavours will be in the 'In Brief' section of the Winter 09 issue of Speech & Language Therapy in Practice. One of the authors, Non Thwaite, says, "There's no way I would have considered writing that piece, thinking it was of any worth or sending it along for publication were it not for that workshop. It was confidence boosting and made me think that ideas or practice we may consider as ordinary or humdrum may be extraordinary, useful or reassuring to other therapists - and therefore that it's worth sharing."

I would be happy to visit other groups of speech and language therapists in the UK to run a similar workshop. It takes 2-3 hours.