Write or Wrong: Leaving science to write about it

Nell Greenfieldboyce

What is a science writer

• Science writers translate jargon into clear, easily understood explanations

• Science writers find interesting stories and share them with an audience, either general public or more specialized audience

• Science writers usually have a background in science, but not always

• Why we need them: listen to this.

Where do science writers work

Newspapers and magazinesOnline/web-based publicationsPublic Information Outlets

scientific societies, universities, companies, nonprofits, government agencies.

Radio and TV and movies--documentariesMuseums and science centersBook publishers/science journalsTheir living rooms—freelance and contract work

Hack vs. Flack

• Newspaper reporter– Jobs hard to get– Hours unpredictable, pay variable– More watchdog, investigative role– Serve the public through critical eye

• Public Information Officer– hours are more regular, jobs plentiful– Benefits/pay usually good– You represent your organization to the world– Close relationships with scientists at your org

Ask yourself: Are you

• Already writing?• Deadline oriented--no joke• Seriously attentive to details, like spellings of names • Pathological insistence on factual accuracy. You double and triple

check.• Good listener—people confide in you?• But you are also thick skinned—both to professional rejection and

people getting mad at you• Do people gather round to hear your funny stories? • Do you see every side of an issue?• Do you talk about science with NON-SCIENTISTS?• Do you like to READ…about science and other things too? • Do people tell you that you are a good writer?

Wanting to leave the lab / academia is a wrong reason.

You have to want to be a writer.

How to get started:Clips, Clips, Clips

• Science writing masters program– Johns Hopkins, Santa Cruz, New York

University, etc.– Or, journalism schools like U of Maryland

• Internships– AAAS mass media fellows (deadline in

January)– National Association of Science Writers– DC Science Writers Association

Or get clips on your own

• Find small news / features outlet and email a “pitch” to the editor. Do it for free or almost nothing

• Use those small clips to get gigs at slightly more prestigious news organizations.

• Online is great for getting clips. Places like ScienceNOW, Geotimes, etc.

My Path….• Biology degree quickly abandoned for history of science/social sciences

degree at JHU• MA program at JHU in science writing• Two brief internships: JHU PIO office and UPI• Staff job at Clinical Laboratory News—newspaper ad

– Published by American Assoc. for Clinical Chemistry• Freelanced clips get internship at New Scientist• Freelanced clips help get U.S. News & World Report gig• Did some teaching at Johns Hopkins MA program• Hard times hit the print world.• Freelanced a radio piece, applied for NPR gig.

• MY START: MA program, internships, freelancing to small pubs

David Kestenbaum Path

• Physics major at Yale, worked at Fermilab in the summers• Entered Harvard physics graduate program. • Girlfriend dumped him for a writer (as he tells it)• Freelanced to Chicago Reader, on guy who talked at Fermilab• After getting PhD, didn’t do postdoc, did freelancing• Did AAAS mass media fellowship at WOSU, a radio station in Ohio• Science magazine gave him an summer internship• Went and did that 4 days a week. Day 5 he spent freelancing at

NPR HQ• Science wanted to hire him. He spurned them. A year later, NPR

hired him, in 1999.

• HIS START: Freelancing to small pubs, fellowship, internship

It looks so easy, but……

• I sent out a lot of freelance pitches that fell into the void• I applied for internships that I did not get• I applied for jobs that I did not get• I tried to write stories that just did not work• I wrote some terrible stories, deadly dull• I had scientists yell at me because they hated something I wrote

about them or their work• I had scoops ruined for one reason or another• I dealt with all kinds of horrible ethical issues that come up in

reporting• I applied for awards that I did not get• I felt sometimes like a writing robot and that my job was utterly

pointless and a waste of my life » other times I felt like a hero

Thanks.

Any questions?