Para mí, crear una estructura narrativa es como nombrar al perro. La estructura se desprende de la historia misma. No puedo delinearla por adelantado; necesito profundizar en la historia y el reporteo primero. No sé qué es lo que estoy buscando, pero lo sé cuando lo encuentro.
Journalist Brooke Borel had written numerous stories about the science of genetically modified organisms when she stumbled upon a strange discovery about a plant scientist, Kevin Folta, who’d been promoting GMO science on a podcast he produced under the pseudonym Vern Blazek. He insisted that guests and listeners understood his intent, though he’d never disclosed that the Blazek character was fictitious, even after he used both his real and his fake identities to interview himself on the show.
I’m the kind of person who will write things like “make to do list” and “eat breakfast” on my task list, just to give myself the pleasure of marking them off. Writing and rewriting my to do list had become a form of procrastination. I needed a better approach.
How many stories do freelance science writers work on at a given time?
Serendipity Stories is The Open Notebook‘s new series dedicated to the idea that you never know what’s going to hit you on the head. That’s true when it comes to story ideas, as previous Serendipity Stories […]
Rose Eveleth is a producer, designer, and writer based in Brooklyn. She tries to explain sciencey stuff for places like The New York Times, Scientific American, The Story Collider, Minute Earth, TED-Ed, and OnEarth. She’s a regular blogger for Smithsonian magazine’s newest online endeavor, Smart News; an editor of all things animated at TED Education; and the special media manager at Nautilus.
The Open Notebook visits Andrew Curry, a foreign correspondent based in Germany. Curry covers science, history and international news and has written for National Geographic, Wired, Discover, and Smithsonian, and is an Archaeology contributing editor.
Science journalist David Dobbs explains how he found an ending to his #1 Kindle-Single bestselling e-book, My Mother’s Lover, published by The Atavist. Dobbs is an author and journalist who writes about science and culture for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Wired, National Geographic, and other magazines.
Emily Anthes is a science journalist and author. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, and elsewhere. Her book Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech’s Brave New Beasts was published in March 2013. Emily lives in Brooklyn, New York with her dog, Milo.
In 1973, Richard Todd was a young editor at The Atlantic. His boss, The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief Bob Manning, had just handed him a manuscript with a note scrawled across the top, “Let’s face it, this fellow […]
Maryn McKenna shares a lesson she learned while reporting on a tsunami. McKenna is a columnist for Scientific American, a blogger for Wired, and the author of Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA and Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.
A dinosaur known as Tarbosaurus bataar once roamed what is now Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. About seventy million years later, its fossilized bones turned up at an auction in New York City, placing it at the […]
Laura Helmuth shares a bit of wisdom she learned from Molly Ivins. Helmuth is the science and health editor at Slate and a member of the National Association of Science Writers executive board.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum is the author of five books, most recently the best-selling The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. Blum is a science blogger for Wired and is currently working on a book about poisonous food.
On Tuesday, we posted an edited transcript of an interview that TON contributor David Dobbs conducted with author David Quammen. This conversation took place before a live audience at a TON event at the ScienceWriters meeting in […]
Writers and editors work together all the time, but the two clans are somewhat mysterious to one another. Mutually suspicious, even. How do you know which career path you should specialize in? And how […]
Are you an editor or a writer? How do you know? What are the crucial differences between the two specializations? The question arose when Slate science and health editor Laura Helmuth was visiting a […]
A few years ago, I adopted a puppy. I’d picked the runt of the litter and in the weeks that I waited for him to wean, I made a list of a […]
In 2010, Slate national correspondent William Saletan wrote an eight-part series about experimental psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and her work on false memories. He began the series by inviting readers to take part in an interactive […]
Including diverse voices in science stories ensures more accurate and complete stories that more fully reflect and inform readers, and is the equitable thing to do. On this page, we compile detailed and specific resources and strategies for making that goal a reality.
The articles in this collection from The Open Notebook—on topics such as covering preprint manuscripts, interviewing people who have experienced trauma, spotting shady statistics, avoiding spreading misinformation, and more—are especially relevant for anyone covering the coronavirus pandemic.
Good Transitions: A Guide to Cementing Stories Together
A Day in the Life of Sabrina Imbler
Journalists as Characters: Using First-Person Narration to Drive Stories
COVID-19 Reporting Diaries: March 25–31, 2020
How to Read a Scientific Paper
Reporting on Health: What 18 Journalists Wish They’d Known from the Start
Interrogating Data: A Science Writer’s Guide to Data Journalism
Making Your Writing and Reporting Transgender-Inclusive
How to Talk to Your Facebook Friends about Fake News
Data Journalists’ Roundtable: Visualizing the Pandemic
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