Professional Development


48 - Tools needed for writing
Upon deciding that you are going to write a text, you obviously need adequate hardware (PC or Macintosh), good knowledge of word processor software (Microsoft Word is the most widely used) and of the grammar and spelling tools that come with the software. If you are a non-native English speaker, you should also have a bilingual English/your language–your language/English dictionary (there are CD-ROM dictionaries and many others available on the Internet) and a medical dictionary to look up the appropriate medical terms. You need a high-quality printer to print the hard copies of the manuscript required for submission to the journal. Before you start writing, you must have already selected and read the bibliographic references that are most related with the topic of your research. Finally, you must have all the paperwork related with the research, such as the protocol for the study, definition of the Methods or the statistical report, figures, tables and possible previous communications of the results of the study (as in meetings, etc.).