Writing:
Michigan medicine blogs
As a volunteer writer for Michigan Medicine’s Health Lab Blogs, I edit articles before they are posted, following the Blogs’ guidelines plus AP Style that I had to learn. I collaborate with the Editor-in-Chief and website analyst to find topics to execute interviews for and write about. I also took the initiative to help with the Blogs’ social media. I manage the pinterest account, which had not been regulated until I started working on it this past summer, posting daily for the 3.2K followers, garnering 119.4K monthly views.
the editing process
From week to week, the Blogs' Editor-in-Chief, Johanna Younghans, will email me links to articles from other Michigan Medicine publications that she would like me to edit to fit into the Health Blogs. I created a cheat sheet for myself (pictured right) for the different rules they follow.
the writing process
From time to time, Johanna will ask me to write an article. They come in different forms: sometimes I have to interview a health professional, and other times I listen to an audio clip and write an article from there. Afterwards,I receive feedback on my piece, which goes back and forth for a bit, and then, published!
1. It starts with an email (seed)
2. then a draft (sprout)
3. Feedback. feedback. feedback. (water)
Especially when it comes to the writing style required for the Health Blogs, which I am not as accustomed to as I am to my paper's writing rules, I can always expect feedback. And I embrace it! A big idea that Johanna wanted to shift into was globalizing the content in the Blogs so that it wasn't localized to the University of Michigan. This required many nuanced edits to reposts and my own pieces.
4. the finished product (flower)
please click on the image to view the full post
pinterest posting
Johanna regularly sends me "The Michigan Medicine blogs: Recap of this week's stories," which is a dozen of stories hyperlinked and titled from the week. Then, I use Sprout to schedule posts each week for our Pinterest. For the posts, I implement captions, descriptions, hashtags, and schedule the posts at the "optimal" period for engagement.
