One week ago I introduced you to my newest project, this blog. You have found out a little about who I am and the basics about what health communication is, but it occurred to me that you still don’t know my why for creating it.

So, the purpose of this post is to give you some insight into my motivation for creating healthy communicator, as well as my 2 personal goals that I hope to accomplish through writing about health comm.

Why Write A Blog?

1. To publicize academic research to a non-academic audience

Research is a very important part of a professor’s job. Beyond teaching classes, they work tirelessly writing papers to get published in academic journals.

I cannot tell you how much work goes into writing one paper!

From the beginning stages of research to the paper finally being published, the whole process can easily take over a year. For one paper!

Needless to say I am way too impatient for that, but I do love to read journal articles and wish that more people had access to this amazing information. This thought was the catalyst for my blog.

There seems to be no clear cut answer to how many readers the average journal article has, but it’s safe to say that most are restricted to the eyes of other professors and grad school students who study the same subject.

An American Scientist article stated, “The fundamental purpose of scientific discourse is not the mere presentation of information and thought, but rather its actual communication.”

I agree. So, my first why for creating this blog is to get health communication research out of the ivory tower it was created in so it can more likely help improve people’s lives.

Hopefully by doing so I will also provide much deserved recognition to the hard working faculty members who study this important topic.

2. To work on my own writing style

I like to write and have been told much of my life that I am good at it. Specifically, I think my writing career began in 4th grade, when I won an award for a mystery story I wrote (which I’m sure my mom still has somewhere). I remember being called to the vice-principal’s office and thinking I was in trouble. She asked me if I knew who the vice-president was (I didn’t; it was Gore).

Strange the things that stick in your mind….

In college, my writing career expanded into rhetorical criticisms and communication research papers on everything from teacher misbehaviors in the classroom to parent-child communication about alcohol to physician burnout and what can be done about it.

I am a strong scientific writer, and I enjoy it. But here’s the thing, academic writing is totally boring to the 99% of the world that is not as nerdy as me.
So, my second goal in creating this blog is to re-learn how to write like a normal human being. What do I mean by that? I mean not writing in 3rd person, limiting my use of semi-colons, and keeping jargon to a minimum. I want to practice writing in a conversational style that is educational and entertaining.

And that’s it. Those are my two goals. How do you think I’m doing so far? Now that you know my goals, you can help me reach them. As new posts come out, please share them with others so that more people outside the communication field can learn about these topics. And if you think I’m getting a little too wordy, let me know!

Best,
Erin