While Cynthia Graber isn’t new to reporting on regenerative medicine, her interview with Tufts University biologist Michael Levin led to some unexpected stories. In research that recalls the toils of Dr. Frankenstein, Levin uses electricity to initiate regeneration of body parts in living organisms. In light of recent advances in DNA research, the field of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Reporting’
Cynthia Graber profiles a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein
Posted by Melanie Bauer on December 21st, 2012
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews 
Tags: Bauer, Edits, Graber, Guest Contributor, Interviewing, Matter, Narrative, Reporting, Structure, Writer Interview 
No Comments »Brian Vastag profiles a dinosaur tracker
Posted by Siri Carpenter on December 13th, 2012
When Washington Post science writer Brian Vastag found Ray Stanford, an amateur dinosaur footprint tracker in the D.C. suburbs who had found an unusual baby dinosaur footprint, he thought he had stumbled upon a “nice little day story.” Soon, though, he realized that Stanford’s newest find was only the most recent chapter in a far [...]
Posted in Behind-the-Story Interviews Tags: Carpenter, Drafts, Edits, Narrative, Reporting, Structure, Vastag, Writer Interview 4 Comments »Ask TON: Planning reporting
Posted by Jeanne Erdmann and Siri Carpenter on October 31st, 2012
Welcome back for another installment of Ask TON. (Click on “Ask TON” above to see previous installments.) Today’s question: I feel like I waste a lot of time when I’m reporting for feature articles — feeling hazy about what I’m aiming to learn, asking the wrong questions, having to go back and ask a lot [...]
Like being there: How science writers use sensory detail
Posted by Jyoti Madhusoodanan on October 17th, 2012
“At this time of year, with new growth laying a haze of green over the wet fields, the farm country around this small town smells faintly but distinctly of manure. It’s a rich, warm aroma, appropriate to the place that bills itself on road signs as “Canada’s foremost cattle county.” But follow the dip in [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Madhusoodanan, Narrative, Reporting, Sensory Detail 1 Comment »Making the leap from news to books: Critical questions
Posted by Charles Choi on May 30th, 2012
Authors of science books often begin as writers of science news. As a science journalist who is looking to write a book, I’ve become very curious as to how other science journalists made the leap forward. I suspected that the questions that go into books might be different from those that drive newspaper and magazine [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Blum, Books, Choi, Dobbs, Elements-of-Craft, Guest Contributor, Hutson, Koerth-Baker, McKenna, Narrative, Reporting, Zimmer 5 Comments »Taking good notes: Tricks and tools
Posted by Siri Carpenter and Jeanne Erdmann on December 6th, 2011
Whether you rely on a digital recorder or a laptop or a ragtag collection of mismatched notebooks, you need to take good notes. That doesn’t just mean that your handwriting needs to be legible — though that matters too. It means that your notes capture the essence of what you have observed, from the words [...]
Posted in Elements of Craft Tags: Field Reporting, Grimm, Interviewing, Notes, Notetaking, Reporting, Tools 4 Comments »