Students

Writing is Hard. The Public Health Writing Program Is Here to Help

 The program works to create a culture among faculty, staff, and students at SPH that values writing as a process and a skill to be honed over time through deliberate practice.

The words we use—and how we use them—matter.

In the field of public health, words have the power to influence policies, alter social structures, and change behaviors. From public service announcements and policy briefs to road signs and research articles, clear writing is a critical piece of public health practice. Recognizing this, the School of Public Health developed the Public Health Writing Program to empower faculty, staff, and students with effective written communication skills.

Operated by the Office of Graduate Student Life, the Public Health Writing Program has expanded upon its hallmark peer writing coach program to offer a comprehensive array of specialized writing resources, including a virtual Public Health Writing Resource Center hosted by the BU Alumni Medical Library, a selection of online writing workshops and community writing groups, a lively public health writing blog, and a 61-page Public Health Writing Guide that can be downloaded for free.

“Whether you are an experienced writer or just starting, receiving feedback on your work can make a significant difference,” says Tenbit Mitiku, assistant director for student success in the Office of Graduate Student Life. “Our peer writing coaches provide constructive feedback on your drafts and guidance on citation, structure, and presentation. Their goal is to improve your writing skills and boost your confidence. I highly recommend our students utilize these resources at SPH. Your growth as a writer is crucial, and support is available to help you thrive.”

The Public Health Writing Program’s website contains links to these resources and more. Those looking to better understand how to paraphrase, for example, can find a recording of a presentation on the subject given last year by Jennifer Beard, a clinical associate professor of global health and director of the Public Health Writing Program, and Kristen Sheridan, an education and information services librarian. In the video, Beard and Sheridan also cover how to use the software Zotero to manage sources and how to check the originality of your language using Turnitin Draft Coach.

Beard frequently identifies writing needs in the SPH community and plans events to support them. In an upcoming Q&A on October 18, she aims to help students enrolled in the writing-intensive core course Individual, Community, and Population Health (ICPH) review rough drafts of their determinants analysis assignment. Beard notes that tips for composing 16 of the most common types of documents written in public health—including emails, grant proposals, fact sheets, literature reviews, policy briefs, reflections, and abstracts to name a few—can be found in the PHX Public Health Writing Guide with links to more detailed resources available via the Public Health Writing Resource Center.

“Students come to our graduate program from diverse backgrounds and experiences, and we can’t expect them to immediately know how to write for public health,” says Beard, who also mentors a cohort of graduate student writing fellows as associate editor for Public Health Post, the school’s digital population health magazine. “We [in public health] are writing many types of specialized documents for a wide range of real audiences.”

Writing centers exist within other colleges and departments at Boston University, such as the College of Arts and Sciences or the Educational Resource Center. However, Beard says that sending SPH students to these centers was not ideal because they could not receive feedback from coaches with personal experience writing about public health.

In 1995, SPH started providing public health-specific writing resources and support to masters of public health students in the Department of Global Health. Then, in 2010, a group of faculty and staff recommended that the school build the Peer Writing Coach Program. It became one of the first peer writing programs staffed by public health students within a school of public health.

Students who receive an A or an A- in ICPH are eligible to apply to become peer coaches. Coaches assist their peers with papers and presentations, providing feedback wherever needed in the writing process. They bring an informed perspective to their meetings with students because they have often taken the same classes or written similar papers. This experience allows them to teach students how to use assignment rubrics to their advantage and align their work with the conversations happening in their classes.

“Writing is not something that students can learn to do once. Every time you start a new writing project, you are creating something from nothing,” says Beard. “It takes practice and many drafts. And it’s one of the most important skills students need to work on during their time at SPH. If we can’t communicate clearly as public health professionals, we have the potential to make a pretty big mess.”

To assist faculty and staff in their own writing processes, Beard created the SPH writing community which meets the first Friday of the month. The online meetings offer faculty and staff a place to talk about writing projects and then turn off their cameras and microphones and write.  These 75-minute sessions are protected time that are meant to provide encouragement and accountability, as well as a consistent space to write.

“Writing is lonely,” says Beard, “so creating a space where our community can gather to write is really important. Writing is also really difficult, and we all struggle with it to some extent. I want all writers in our community to feel less alone by providing a place where we can talk openly about our writing goals and challenges and support one another.”

This story is an updated version of a previous article. To stay up to date on the latest news and resources from the Public Health Writing Program, visit their website, read GSL’s Student Weekly newsletter, and follow @busphwrites on Instagram.