STEP EIGHT: Writing
This is a huge untapped campaigning resource. Did you know that the Lancet Student gets tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, hits on their website? This is about tapping into that goldmine.
If you want to write a little bit regularly then blogs are for you – for example, you could write up all the events that you or your branch organises. This type of writing is more reflective and more journalistic – your major challenge is to make it concise, interesting, informative and inviting.
If you want to undertake more large-scale writing projects then full articles will be for you. This is where you begin to think and read about a topic, develop an argument in your mind and then put it all together into around 1,500 words. This is a superb way to consolidate your own knowledge and package it for distribution to other people. Your article can be one of many things but remember that you’re reaching a wide audience, make sure that interwoven with the science that you’ve been researching for however long there is a fluid argument for whatever it is you’re arguing – probably an argument for health professional action against climate change, if you’re writing in Healthy Planet mode.
If you’re nervous about writing an article but would still really like to, then it is incredibly easy to get other people on board, especially for feedback andediting help. As a note from experience, calls for assistance in writing articles almost always attracts more than enough people – people tend to be drawn to the idea. The flipside of this is to make sure you don’t replicate and overlap with other authors – the solution being to email and let us know what you’re planning and we can tell you if it conflicts with any other project across the country.
In terms of topics, the list is limitless. If you’re blogging then your topics are what you’re blogging about; events you’ve gone to, conferences, meetings, new policies, news articles you’ve read, your point of view etc. If you’re writing an article, then write on what you’re interested in – climate change and health, human rights, sustainable development, adaptation, mitigation, lower carbon lifestyles, lower carbon institutions, climate change and the NHS, climate change and the health profession, to give a few examples. And within each you can go as deep as you want – you could dissect sustainable development, for example, into architecture, biomimetics, ethics, international development policy, greening aid, industrialisation etc.
The point is, if you have an active mind that likes to think about these things, then writing an article/blog/paper can be a great thing to commit to, both in terms of the experience and enjoyment.
If you want to write a little bit regularly then blogs are for you – for example, you could write up all the events that you or your branch organises. This type of writing is more reflective and more journalistic – your major challenge is to make it concise, interesting, informative and inviting.
If you want to undertake more large-scale writing projects then full articles will be for you. This is where you begin to think and read about a topic, develop an argument in your mind and then put it all together into around 1,500 words. This is a superb way to consolidate your own knowledge and package it for distribution to other people. Your article can be one of many things but remember that you’re reaching a wide audience, make sure that interwoven with the science that you’ve been researching for however long there is a fluid argument for whatever it is you’re arguing – probably an argument for health professional action against climate change, if you’re writing in Healthy Planet mode.
If you’re nervous about writing an article but would still really like to, then it is incredibly easy to get other people on board, especially for feedback andediting help. As a note from experience, calls for assistance in writing articles almost always attracts more than enough people – people tend to be drawn to the idea. The flipside of this is to make sure you don’t replicate and overlap with other authors – the solution being to email and let us know what you’re planning and we can tell you if it conflicts with any other project across the country.
In terms of topics, the list is limitless. If you’re blogging then your topics are what you’re blogging about; events you’ve gone to, conferences, meetings, new policies, news articles you’ve read, your point of view etc. If you’re writing an article, then write on what you’re interested in – climate change and health, human rights, sustainable development, adaptation, mitigation, lower carbon lifestyles, lower carbon institutions, climate change and the NHS, climate change and the health profession, to give a few examples. And within each you can go as deep as you want – you could dissect sustainable development, for example, into architecture, biomimetics, ethics, international development policy, greening aid, industrialisation etc.
The point is, if you have an active mind that likes to think about these things, then writing an article/blog/paper can be a great thing to commit to, both in terms of the experience and enjoyment.
