Technical Writing Exercise - Search and Research

Back in the Dark Ages when I started in this business, we worked with things called pencils and typewriters and telephones and books. When we needed to do research on a topic we didn't know anything about - such as the piece I did on bacterial vaginosous - we looked it up. Now, back then, when we "looked it up," it usually meant going someplace and looking in a book.

For that job, the SME, a doctor, told me to check Stedman's Medical Dictionary and Gray's Anatomy (not the TV show - the book) to get a general idea of what the subject was about before we talked. Not having Amazon.com to turn to, I went to a book store where I discovered that these are really good books that cost a whole lot of money. Next stop, the library.

OK, fast forward to the early 21st Century. The point is that now we've got so many great research resources literally at our finger tips. Being able to go online and key in a subject is so much better than the old way.

That doesn't mean that you never need to go on-site or go to a library or get out and talk to people. It does mean that much of what you need to know you can find quickly right on the Web. The amount of information is amazing. Having this resource saves time that you can use to refine your research and produce a better product.

But, whether it's Fred Flintstone or George Jetson, there are some things that don't change. I'm still a tech writer, and how I process information is still more important than where I get it. It's still my job to gather, evaluate, and organize data. The very fact that there's a lot of data available pretty much ensures that it's not all equally good. Finding it is easier. Making it useful is just as hard as ever.

The exercise this week is to look at some online sources and decide which ones you'd be most likely to use as a basis for your tech writing task. The task is to research a list of eight people who are considered prominent in their fields. Then you have to make a recommendation as to which two should be interviewed by your client, based on their area of expertise and level of education, as likely candidates to fill out a team studying the economic effects of drought in African nations.

Here's your list of 8 people to research:

o Benson, Charlotte

o Clow, Barbara

o Clow, Kenneth

o Elbadawi, Ibrahim A.

o Thompson, Lonny

o Tilahun, Tewodros

o Weinhold, Janae

o Wilcox, David

When you're done check the solution below.

Exercise - Answer

Your task was to Web research eight people who are considered prominent in their fields. You had to make a recommendation as to which two should be interviewed by your client, based on their area of expertise and level of education, as likely candidates to fill out a team researching the economic effects of drought in African nations.

Using both the person's name and key words such as drought, research, and Africa, you found a large number of citations. Then it was a matter of researching areas of expertise and education to find the two candidates who most likely fit your client's needs.

Your information should include:

There are two prominent people named Charlotte Benson :

1. Charlotte Benson is a charter member and five-term president of the Arizona Society of Astrologers and has no degree.

2. Charlotte Benson is a PhD and a professor of economics and a Senior Research Associate.

There are two prominent people named Clow:

3. Kenneth E. Clow is a Ph.D. and Dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

4. Barbara Clow has an MA from the University of Michigan and is an astrologer, channeler, and New Age entrepreneur.

There are two prominent people from Africa:

5. Tewodros Tilahun is the Managing Director of the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation.

6. Ibrahim A. Elbadawi is a member of the African Economic Research Consortium in Nairobi, Kenya.

There are two prominent people named Thompson:

7. Lonny G. Thompson is a professor of geological sciences at Ohio State University.

8. Lonny L. Thompson is a PhD in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University.

9. Janae Weinhold has a PhD in child psychology and operates the Carolina Institute for Conflict Resolution and Creative Leadership which specializes in evolutionary resources for shifting consciousness.

There are two prominent people named David Wilcock:

10. David Wilcock is a PhD from Basel, Switzerland, working on the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach to solving hunger.

11. David Wilcock is a professional intuitive consultant with no degree

Now, the task is to narrow down these eleven people based on the client's specifications. Here is how I approached it.

First, I eliminated seven people whose areas of expertise didn't fit the specifications.

1. Charlotte Benson, astrology

4. Barbara Clow, astrologer

5. Tewodros Tilahun, insurance

7. Lonny G. Thompson, geology

8. Lonny L. Thompson, mechanical engineering

9. Janae Weinhold, shifting consciousness

11. David Wilcock, intuitive consultant

Of the remaining four, I eliminated two who least fit in with the subject of the research.

2. Charlotte Benson, economics

3. Kenneth E. Clow, insurance

I settled on these as the final two whom the client should interview.

10. David Wilcock, hunger reduction

6. Ibrahim A. Elbadawi, African economics

There are certainly other ways of slicing and dicing the list, but whomever your final picks were, the important thing is that they were based on a lot of research and on choosing what resources you felt were the most credible.

By the way, if you wonder how the client came up with the original list, I can only say that it's no stranger than a lot of the information you're given to work with in this business.

If you can write a simple sentence and organize your thoughts then technical writing may be a rewarding field. You can easily make it a second income stream in your spare time.

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The Latest Developments in Aging Research

There has been a lot of study on aging research and actually much of the medicine and research being conducted is about keeping you healthy so that you can live a long and happy life. Much of aging research also focuses on how specific aging decreases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's develop and what you can do to prevent them.

The life expectancy for humans as increased dramatically and while humans are living longer this also increases the number of chronic diseases associated with aging. Much research focuses on reversing or slowing the aging process and this in turn would produce individuals that would able to stay in the work force longer.

Some hot topics in aging research include understanding and preventing Alzheimer's. The ACT-AD is a coalition that works to produce accelerated cures and treatments that are focusing on slowing down and stopping Alzheimer's. Many national organizations belong to this coalition and some of the best aging research is being produced from these organizations.

The role of oxidation into the aging process has also been looked at extensively and this is why antioxidants are becoming so prominent in anti aging products such as skin creams. Free radicals create molecular instability in the body and with enough free radicals aging will occur. Much research is looking into how these free radicals develop and how to combat and reverse the effectives of free radicals. This is particularly important for the beauty and cosmetics industry.

A lot of research is being conducted on how your weight affects your health as you age. It is known that being overweight when you are younger is linked to diabetes and heart disease when you are older.

Also it is known that in general your health is just better if you are at a healthy weight. When you are older it is easier to move around and be mobile and that when you are overweight is important to your health when you are older.

It has also been found that those individuals that break bones, such as hips have an increased or lower mortality rate because this breakage makes them less mobile and more prone to problems. Therefore a lot of research is going into keeping bones strong and healthy as well as rehabilitation after a broken bone. Many times dementia and cognitive impairment cause the falls that result in broken bones so understanding this link can greatly reduce the number of broken bones as we age.

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New Research Methods May Lead to Integrative Treatments In Texas

Steve Mister, President and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, called upon scientific colleagues during this May's symposium to consider alternative methods for studying nutrition and the effects of dietary supplements.

This year's symposium, The Workshop, drew scientists and medical practitioners from across the country to discuss new research in the field of nutrition. While the current model for testing the health effects of particular nutrients and nutritional supplements utilizes randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and evidence-based medicine (EBM), the same methods employed to test the efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs, Mr. Mister urged scientists to consider approaches that may be more reflective of the complex nature of nutrients.

"(I) recognize (the) scientific rigor or RCTs...but we can't ignore all other research -- case-control and cohort studies, and other epidemiological data...(that) may be just as rigorous for proving hypotheses as well as developing them."

The repercussions of these seemingly simple statements may be huge for the natural health, healthcare, and health insurance industries. The entire country, from Texas, to California, to New York would be dramatically impacted by national organizations', such as the American Medical Association's, acceptance of data from studies other than the standard RCTs and EBM. Evidence integrated from observational studies focusing on nutritional supplements may eventually allow for the prescription of nutrients and supplements to, at least in part, officially treat certain conditions.

Texas, with its high levels of chronic diseases such as diabetes, and its fight against the growing epidemic of obesity, may particularly stand to benefit. Imagine a diabetic patient walking into a medical clinic in Dallas, Houston, Austin, or any other part of the state, and receiving supplements, along with other drugs, to treat the condition.

Some of the main differences between pharmaceutical drugs and nutritional supplements lies in the complex nature of nutrients, which interact with multiple tissues and body systems on multiple levels, and are often interdependent. For instance, research suggests that calcium supplements may have a greater effect when taken with vitamin D. RCTs isolate one or two compounds, at a single dose, for a few years at a time at best, and collect the data independently from other substances (such as nutrients) the subject may be ingesting.

Chronic diseases take years to develop, and perhaps years in order for nutrients or other natural supplements to have an effect. It is not possible to isolate single compounds within nutrients, test and analyze them over only a few months or years, and exclusively use data that has a clear, direct connection with those compounds. To isolate and test every active compound in even the most simple of natural remedies, such as garlic, would literally take decades, and would still probably miss very important pieces of evidence.

To discount observational studies simply because they are not confirmed by a clinical trial may also be dangerous. Too many variables affect the outcome of nutritional studies, many of which cannot be controlled, and perhaps should not be controlled, to collect the most accurate data. Such evidence may take longer to sift through in order to find cause and effect, particularly considering nutrients' symbiotic relationship with other compounds and hormones, but finding accurate answers would be worth it.

Many others at The Workshop agreed that a single research approach, like RCTs, may not be suitable for such a complex task. In contrast to pharmaceutical drugs, "nutrients have beneficial effects on multiple body tissues, and interact in a dynamic fashion with other nutrients," said Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D., of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Robert C. Hearney, M.D., of Creighton University's Osteoporosis Research Center: "(Scientists) ...have eagerly embraced an evidence-based medicine approach without checking to see if it fits nutrition context." He went on to say that RCTs impose constraints ill-suited to testing nutrients and vitamins.

According to these scientists, observational studies may, in fact, be a better method for collecting data on dietary and nutritional supplements, supported by RCTs and EBM. Observational studies can better represent typical populations, typical behaviors, and how food and supplements are, in reality, used. Observational studies also bypass an important ethical dilemma: it's simply not conscience to deprive a subject of a vital nutrient, just to see which tissues are affected and how.

Many nationally-recognized organizations already use observational and experimental studies for data collection. The Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Dietary Reference Intakes, or DRIs, are based on data collected from observational and experimental studies. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), uses primarily clinical trials and observational studies, including cross-sectional, case-controlled, and cohort studies.

This new attitude is welcomed by the natural health community, which has been arguing the same point for years. Specific nutrients, foods, and herbs do, in fact, have a marked effect on many diseases and conditions, but precisely how most of them work is still a mystery. It's the observational, and other methods of study, that confirm this.

For instance, herbal formulas created by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine are often extremely complex, and, in order to work to their best advantage, are tailored to each individual. Few specific compounds can, as of yet, be isolated and linked with one particular effect with any accuracy, but practitioners have recorded volumes upon volumes of "anecdotal" data over thousands of years stating that they work. Viral counts have been known to go down, the efficacy of immune systems have increased, and discomfort and disease all but eliminated in certain cases.

Similarly, acupuncture -- a process Chinese medical practitioners articulate as a method for clearing energy paths, called meridians, and a treatment articulated by Western medical practitioners as a method used to release certain natural compounds and reduce inflammation -- is an approved therapy for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. We don't know precisely how it works, but somehow it just does. To discount such evidence simply because the data cannot be properly collected and analyzed through RCTs would not only be foolish, but would also deprive patients of receiving a possibly effective treatment.

So, if such research approaches are already accepted by national institutes, why are they not used more often? Part of it, simply and unfortunately, is money. Makers of dietary supplements are not allowed to claim their products treat or cure any disease. This provides less incentive for those with greater financial resources to fund such projects. Even if they were to find strong evidence that certain supplements do, in fact, treat and/or cure disease, they would not be allowed to advertise it.

The American public is growing more accepting of data collected through methods other than the traditional RCTs and EBM, however, as evidenced by the growing herbal, organic foods, and natural health care industries. Several universities across the country, in fact, now offer accredited, post-graduate, four-year degrees in Chinese and naturopathic medicine, much like graduate degrees in allopathic medicine (which produce M.D.s). With policies of open communication and integration, these two schools of thought, with their different research methods, may accomplish more medically in this era than ever before.

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