RealizeHealth.org Writing & Structural Formatting Guidelines

Revised May 2014

Thank you very much for your interest in writing for our RealizeHealth.org. The intent of these monographs is to create web pages that will rank very high on Google for people looking for natural treatment for specific conditions. We have shifted our project structure slightly from what we tried previously. The plan now is to have one or two NDs give a thorough overview of a health condition (see below for specifics) and then to have a professional writer take that information and create a finished monograph. This means that the ND will need to always spell out acronyms and write in such a way that a consumer will understand the language since our writer is not a doctor. It is better to give too much information rather than not enough information (though, let’s not belabor the point either). Each monograph will go through a series of steps before ending up on the website:

  • ND writes initial monograph based on our guidelines (see below)
  • ND sends monograph to Larry (Executive Director) for first review and edit suggestions
  • Larry sends back monograph to ND for revisions
  • ND emails Larry revised monograph for another review
  • If no additional revisions, Larry emails monograph to RealizeHealth ND team member for medical content review. This ND either 1) adds additional content and/or removes content, or 2) emails the monograph back to original writer for medical content revisions
  • Once the monograph has both an appropriate amount of consumer education and medical relevance, then the monograph is emailed to our writer for restructuring, writing and editing
  • The writer will email the completed monograph to Larry for review; Larry may send it back for revision, or not
  • The final monograph will be reviewed by one or two RealizeHealth team members for a final edit, and once approved, will be posted to the website

General Points

Google now says that the best way to achieve optimum search performance is to create excellent content. This means that content needs to be well structured, convincing, and detail oriented. Natural medicine is dismissed in mainstream media all the time and so now is our time to shine. We should strive to create content that helps the consumer understand what an ND does and why s/he does it, and what the positive health enriching outcomes are. Final published pieces should be at least 1,500 words and up to 3,000 words.

These monographs need to be original. If we reuse old essays that have been published online or even cannibalize significant portions, google recognizes this and we will not rank high.

It is preferable not to go into dosages and specific protocols for treatments. These monographs are intended to encourage people to come and see us, not try stuff out at home. With that said, we do want a robust overview of what we use for treatment, and this is very important. Therefore, it is ideal to discuss - at length - some specific types of nutritional and herbal supplements, homeopathic remedies, dietary changes and other treatment methods often used to treat the health condition, and why (mechanism of action), but to not give actual dosages (e.g., how many milligrams). In certain instances, it would also be desirable to mention the difference between a therapeutic dose and a maintenance dose. Similarly, recommend labs should be thoroughly discussed as to what the ND is looking for and why.

Please do not plagiarize. This may seem obvious but many people are unaware of what constitutes plagiarism. This is often trickier than it seems. Check out the FAQs at plagiarism.org.

Use Microsoft Word 2003 or more recent

Referencing

Referencing is essential.

Please follow APA style guidelines for citations (as seen here, for example -

Put references in endnote format. That is – put them in Word as footnotes and then use the endnote function to put them all at the end of the essay.

You do not need to cite sources for information that is general knowledge and you did not need to look up (e.g. symptoms of otitis media). You should cite for the following reasons:

  1. If the information you give comes from another source that you read (e.g. most common antibiotics used to treat OM)
  2. If it seems likely that a person would want to look for the origin of that statement (e.g. food allergies can cause ear infections, taking antibiotics doesn’t help)
  3. You quote someone
  4. You use statistics

Use primary sources wherever possible. Secondary sources are OK provided that they are reliable (meaning that it is fine to cite the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine on vitamin C for colds but not to cite Hulda Clark on how parasites cause all cancer).

Do not cite Wikipedia.

If in doubt, use a reference.

Keep in mind that you will be writing from experience and accepted standards of care and that the ultimate goal is to provide a convincing argument as to why to visit a naturopathic doctor, thus, citing lots of data is not necessarily the goal of the monograph - explaing what NDs do and why they do it is the goal.

Footnotes (endnotes): Proper Layout

Footnotes need to be properly created for all documents. “Properly” means using the footnote feature in Microsoft Word. Do not use superscript to create your footnotes. Follow this step-by-step outline on how to properly create footnotes in your monograph:

  1. Place your curser exactly where you want the footnote
  2. Go to INSERT > FOOTNOTE
  3. Select "Endnotes"
  4. Number format: Select "1,2,3"
  5. Numbering should be "continuous"
  6. Click "Insert"
  7. Once the format has been set, Word will remember your settings.
  8. After you click "insert" the number will be automatically placed in your document, and you will be taken to the end of the document where you can input your information.
  9. You can hover over any endnote number and view the info, and you can click to be taken to it, and vice versa.
  10. If you move content around in your document that has properly created endnotes, Word will automatically chronologically renumber your endnotes.

Tone

1. The tone should be authoritativebut conversational, accessible and friendly.

2. Be positive: the language should be supportive and compassionate. Avoid negative tones or words such as awry, disastrous, etc. Where it is necessary to discuss problems, it is best to be factual and unbiased and use non-inflammatory language. We want to leave people with hope, especially at the end of the monograph.

3. Be consistent throughout monograph.

4. Anticipate a roughly 6th grade reading level - the monographs should be consumer-friendly; minimize the use of technical language

5. Avoid compound sentences when possible. Use two sentences instead of a semicolon when possible.If you need to explain a medical term, do it in the next sentence instead of trying to add it in parentheses in the same sentence.

Incorrect: People who have had chicken pox as children are at greater risk for developing shingles (a reactivation of the virus in the herpes family that causes chicken pox that can occur when a person is immunocompromised) later in life.

Correct: People who have had chicken pox as children are at greater risk for developing shingles later in life. Shingles and chicken pox are caused by a member of the herpes family of viruses. The virus lies dormant after an initial infection and become reactivated later, especially when the immune system is compromised.

6. Limit use of the passive voice.

Incorrect: The supplements were taken by the participants.

Correct: The participants took the supplements.

7. Never use “you.” Write in the 3rd person only.

8. Use “may” rather than “will” or “can” to avoid bias or overstating an effect.

9. Please use gender neutral language where possible. Where third person singular pronouns are necessary, the forms “he or she,” “his or her” and “him or her” are preferable.

10. Please use “Naturopathic Doctor” rather than ND throughout.

11. If you need to refer to a style book, we are using the Associated Press (AP) style. You do not need to understand the minutiae of AP as it will be written by a professional afterwards.

12. Many commonly used terms can be confusing or off-putting. Please note the following:

Avoid / Use instead
Adjunctive therapy / Used together with/combined with
Administered / Given
Adverse effects / Side effects
Alleviate / Relieve
Alter / Affect/change
Analgesic / Pain reliever
Arrhythmia / Irregular heartbeat/rhythm
Chronic / Long-lasting/long-term
Conflicting results / Mixed results
Constricted / Narrowed
Dilate / Open/widen
Edema / Swelling
Efficacy / Effectiveness
Elicited / Caused/triggered
Examined / Tested/studied
Hypercholesterolemia / High cholesterol
Hypertension / High blood pressure
Hypoglycemia / Low blood sugar
Indicate / Show/suggest
Initiated / Started/began
Insufficient / Not enough/lacking
Necessary / Needed
Possess / Have
Preliminary / Early
Prophylaxis / Preventive treatment
Recurrent / Frequent
Renal / Kidney
Required / Needed
Synergistic / Enhanced effects
Synthetic / Man made

Monograph Writing Template

Revised May 2014

General Instructions

This writing template is to help you think through all of the possible questions a potential patient may have about a health condition: why it manifests,Naturopathic Medicine treatment, and natural medicine outcomes for a patient, with a mention ofconventional treatment for reference. It is structured in a question and answer format, but keep in mind that these questions are not a part of the monograph. Thus, you’ll want to write in a way that answers these questions (when relevant) by putting the topic into the answer. In other words, if asked, “What color is the door?” you would not say “white;” you would say “The door is white.”

The primary structure of the monograph is:

  1. Overview/Opening Paragraph(s) (see below)
  2. What the health condition is and why it manifests
  3. Naturopathic diagnosis, such as physical exam performed, recommended labs, etc.
  4. Naturopathic treatment, and the associated features and benefits
  5. Patient Outcomeswith a call to action (find an ND near you)
  6. Conventional treatment and the problems associated with conventional treatment
  7. Recap of call to action

Features vs. Benefits: Use both, especially Benefits

  • A benefit is the outcome of the treatment: less drugs, restored health, more energy, weight loss, no side-effects, etc., etc.
  • A feature is what an ND uses to create the benefit: nontoxic medicine, treat the root cause, remedies that are natural to the body, dietary change, an hour consultation, etc., etc.

Use both in your writing. Recurrent ear infections, for example:

  • Features: Removal of root causes (dairy, etc.), use of herbs to mitigate current infection, building of immune system with probiotics, etc.
  • Benefits: stronger immune system, Eustachian tubes no longer clogged with mucous, resulting in rarely occurring ear infections, etc.

Remember to discuss the benefits as often as possible.

Use Subheads

A subhead is “mini-headline” at the beginning of a paragraph/section that helps the reader know what the next bit of content will cover (and are used extensively in this document). It is not required to structure your subheads in accordance to the outline in this document. However, using subheads to indicate the beginning of a new topic not only helps the reader, but also helps with search engine optimization.

1) Opening Paragraph(s)

The first one, two or three paragraphs of the monograph are the most critical because they will help the reader decide whether or not to keep reading. Structurally speaking, we want to give the reader a quick overview of:

  1. What the condition is (outward symptoms),
  2. Conventional treatment concerns (drug management, not getting to the root of the problem, problem never resolves, etc.),
  3. And that an ideal solution is a naturopathic medicine approach because it will address the root of the problem which can lead to a reduction or elimination of reliance of drugs, improvement of health and the resolving of symptoms.

This opening section should offer the reader hope and a positive outlook that natural medicine can help resolve the health condition. The concluding sentence can then say something like: “Before the natural medicine component is discussed and what a naturopathic doctor can do for you, let’s first look at what [the health condition] is so we can understand it a little better.”

Additional Writing Points to Consider For Each Monograph (in structural order)

1) What are the signs and symptoms of this condition?

2) What is/are the root cause(s) of this condition?

3) Does this condition have subtypes (like diabetes)? If so, what are they?

4) What are the risk factors for this condition?

5) How do you diagnose someone with this condition (presenting symptoms)?

Questions

Physical Exam

Blood work: what tests are you asking for and why

Urine analysis: what and why

Saliva: what and why

Stool: what and why

Allergy (e.g., IgG): what and why

Specialized test? what and why

Referral out: what kind of specialist, and why

Give a differential diagnosis (What is this condition potentially confused with or may be a part of?)

6) What is the naturopathic treatment for this condition?

Overview: Explain the overall treatment goals. What is the ND hoping to achieve? What is the purpose? Clinically. This is the “what” (e.g., do vitamin D levels need to go up?). Then:

This is the “how”

Lifestyle changes (overview)

Exercise

Diet (elaborate)

Detox? If so, this is where to explain it

Nutritional supplements

Botanical/herbal supplements

Homeopathic Remedies

Additional natural therapies?

Any conventional therapies used in different ways?

NOTE: this discussion can be blended together (e.g., talk about Vitamin D levels, and then the need to take Vitamin D3 at a therapeutic dose)

7) Are there special concerns with this condition for certain groups (e.g. children or pregnant women)?

8) Summary & conclusion with a call to action

Include: What should patients who follow their ND’s protocol expect?

Success can be complete reversal of the symptoms (and in how many weeks or months/atypical) or can also be a significant reduction of pharmacological management of symptoms. Recommend a visit to an ND to get complete care.

Note: we’ll now transition into a conventional treatment overview, which will help the reader understand some of the problems with symptom management as well as help improve search engine performance.

9) What is the conventional treatment for this condition?

Name each drug commonly used for this condition, what it does, and its side effects; discussion as appropriate about pros and cons of these medications (e.g. antibiotics overused, antidepressants not as effective as touted, etc.). Does not need to be detailed - short overviews will work well. Other invasive therapies or conventional medicine assumptions may be briefly explained as well, if indicated.

10) Reiterate the natural medicine approach to the diagnoses and treatment of the health condition, and why to visit to a naturopathic doctor.

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