Editing

I edit for the school's journal. It's a fun, generally rewarding experience. I get to read about fun topics in medicine - some familiar, some completely new to me - and I get to see the level of expertise in academic writing of my classmates. I also write for the journal, which is equally fun. I've gotten to write about some really interesting parts of medicine and hone my own writing skills.

I really encourage anyone in medicine (or considering medicine) to get involved with writing on an academic or professional level, and student journals are a perfect medium. They're just rigorous enough to push students a bit further, out of their comfort zone, without the frankly onerous restrictions involved in, say, publishing in a more standard peer-reviewed journal. All instances of academic or professional writing provide a chance to explore concepts and organize thoughts in a way simply studying topics can't.

I don't consider myself to be an overly strong medical student, but I do pride myself on the ability to discuss a wide variety of topics in medicine with little or no preparation. Doing things like academic writing is part of that - I feel I can engage in discussions because I've had many of them already, often with myself while writing articles (or, at times, blog posts like this).

The flip side is that both writing and editing are a LOT of work. I'm currently sitting with a stack of articles on my lap, awaiting my notes. There are some highly interesting pieces to read through on my pile, but each one is hours worth of work. Nothing to do but get to them!