I know that writing well and with economy are pre-requisites for the cogent deliberation on a contentious topic being selected for publication as a Letter to the Editor. After all, each day only a handful of the very best of submissions make the grade.

Good writing burnishes your message, yet the proof of the pudding remains in seeing your name in a by-line. This sought-after merit remains at the sole discretion of the Letters Editor. The jolt of excitement upon my letter’s creation could only be topped by this submission been deemed fit to print in your esteemed Letters pages.

The barometer of good writing for my dabbler-self is that rare gift of selection for limelight publication in these miserly 134 words. I live in hope to see my submission birthed in print.

Dr. Joseph Ting is an emergency, prehospital and aeromedical physician as well as adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology’s School of Public Health and Social Work.