“Tell stories like you’re writing for Tony Fauci’s aunt.” That advice from my first mentor, A.J. Hostetler, has stuck with me for more than 20 years. And these days it comes to mind whenever I see Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the news talking about coronavirus.
“It’s my first law of science writing,” A.J. told me recently.
Five editors who are managing their publications’ coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic share the difficulties they’re facing and the lessons they’ve learned through the experience so far, their strategies for prioritizing coverage and for balancing COVID and non-COVID stories, the role freelancers are playing in their newsrooms’ COVID coverage, and the ways they’re supporting the staff reporters and freelancers they work with.
We could spend days extolling the peeptacular virtues of the marshmallow confections submitted to the second-annual World’s Finest Science-Themed Peeps Diorama Contest. Without further ado, we present the winners of #PeepYourScience 2020
The Craft of Science Writing comes out today! It’s available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook forms wherever you like to buy books.
To make our work possible, The Open Notebook depends on donations from our community. Thanks to a pool of generous matching donors, gifts made to TON from now through December 31 will be doubled, up to a total of $5,000. If TON is a meaningful resource for you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation.
The winners of The World’s Finest (and Only … As Far as We Know) Science-Themed Peeps Diorama Contest have been chosen, and we’re happy to announce the crème(-filled eggs) de la crème(-filled eggs)!
Schrodinger’s Peep. Rice CRISPR/Peep9. The first “Peep”eration with ether. All monumental advances in science—with a marshmallow twist. These are just three of the 50 dioramas created by science-minded crafters and entered in the first-ever World’s Finest (and Only…As Far as We Know) Science-Themed Peeps Diorama Contest. Our gallery of the sweet tableaux is now open, and anyone can vote (through April 14) for their favorite to win the highly coveted Peeple’s Choice Award.
What happens if you ask a child, “Hey, do you want to talk to a scientist?” That question drove science writer Jenny Cutraro to develop Science Storytellers, a public engagement program that aims to sit children down to interview scientists, just like professional journalists do—and then to share their science stories. The Science Storytellers booth will be at AAAS’s Family Science Days in Washington, DC on February 16 and 17. Join us!
Christie Aschwanden thought writing a book about how the body recovers from exercise and builds resilience for further challenges should be easy. In her mind’s eye, she could almost picture how the chapters would unspool. But as she dug into reporting and writing her new book, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, she learned how mistaken she’d been—laughably so, she says.
When BuzzFeed News’s Nidhi Subbaraman began covering the Rosebud Sioux tribe’s lawsuit against the U.S. government for its failure to provide treaty-mandated health care to tribal members, she discovered “seriously horrifying stories” of substandard care and neglect. Digging deeper, she found a narrative of not only hurt and outrage but also resilience and activism. Here, Subbaraman tells the story behind her story.
Reading nonfiction stories closely, for the purpose of studying the craft, usually requires reading them several times with some purposeful questions in mind, then giving yourself the gift of time to think about how you might incorporate some of your observations into your own work. Here, we suggest some of the kinds of questions you can ask about a feature story to deepen your perceptions of it and to get you thinking about how writers make the most of their craft.
What happens if you ask a child, “Hey, do you want to talk to a scientist?” That question drove science writer Jenny Cutraro to develop Science Storytellers, a public engagement program that aims to sit children down to interview scientists, just like professional journalists do—and then to share their science stories. The answer, it turns out, is that kids eat it up. Want to see for yourself?
Join TON and Science Storytellers at Family Science Days at the 2018 AAAS meeting in Austin, Texas.
In December 2014, Steve Mishkin suffered a near-fatal brain injury. But he recovered, for reasons as uncertain as the events that led to his injury. Writing for The Atlantic, Apoorva Mandavilli details the many “ingredients” that likely contributed to Mishkin’s recovery. Challenges of reporting the story, Mandavilli says, included piecing together a detailed medical narrative, investigating a stubborn mystery, and maintaining journalistic distance while reporting on deeply personal events in the lives of friends. Here, she tells the story behind her story.
Today, The Open Notebook is pleased and proud to announce a partnership with the authors of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide. The book, forthcoming on March 1 from Yale University Press and funded by grants from the Sloan Foundation and from the National Association of Science Writers, is aimed at science journalists, scientists, and anyone else who has something to say about science and wants to do it on a blogging platform.
Seth Mnookin was drawn to Bertrand Might’s family’s story by a simple question: What do you do when you learn your child could die from a disease with no other known sufferers? Reporting for The New Yorker on the scientific and administrative complexities surrounding rare diseases. In his reporting, Mnookin discovered “remarkable amounts of grace” in the families struggling to understand and cope with their children’s illness. Here, Mnookin tells the story behind his story.
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Deborah Blum’s five books have immersed her in the worlds of animal rights, the psychology of affection, the neurology of sex, the search for paranormal phenomena, and the chemistry of poisons. Her New York […]
TON goes on the road with science writer Mary Caperton Morton, whose office—and home—is a custom-built lightweight trailer that has taken her and her canine companions all over the Western United States and beyond.
The Open Notebook visits award-winning journalist Jessa Gamble, author ofThe Siesta and the Midnight Sun: How We Measure and Experience Time. She blogs at The Last Word On Nothing and splits her time between Oxford, England and Yellowknife, Canada.
TON visits the Brighton, U.K. office of freelance science journalist Priya Shetty. Shetty covers science, society and policy in the developing world for The Lancet, consults for The World Health Organization, and writes a design blog.
Some people fret over the chances that lightning might strike the same place twice. After three summers trailing lightning-chaser Tim Samaras on a unique photographic quest, science writer George Johnson would perhaps have been content […]
When Washington Post science writer Brian Vastag found Ray Stanford, an amateur dinosaur footprint tracker in the Washington, DC suburbs who had found an unusual baby dinosaur footprint, he thought he had stumbled upon a […]
Of all mental disorders, none elicits more revulsion or less sympathy than psychopathy. Psychopathy is widely considered incurable, but some researchers have theorized that it might be possible to treat “fledgling psychopaths” if they can be identified early enough. In a much-discussed 2012 New York Times Magazine story, journalist Jennifer Kahn examined this controversial idea. Here, she tells the story behind her story.
TON visits Christie Aschwanden, award-winning writer and editor for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, O: the Oprah Magazine, Slate, and many other publications. A former professional skier, Christie lives in western Colorado.
TON visits the Somerville, Massachusetts home office and local haunts of Cynthia Graber, a radio and print reporter whose work has appeared on Scientific American’s podcast and on the public radio shows Studio 360, The World, Living on Earth, and the World Vision Report; and in many print publications.
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
Journalists as Characters: Using First-Person Narration to Drive Stories
Data Journalists’ Roundtable: Visualizing the Pandemic
How to Talk to Your Facebook Friends about Fake News
COVID-19 Reporting Diaries: March 25–31, 2020
There’s No One Path to Becoming an Editor
Writing When on the Autism Spectrum
Good Endings: How to Write a Kicker Your Editor—and Your Readers—Will Love
Interrogating Data: A Science Writer’s Guide to Data Journalism
Making Your Writing and Reporting Transgender-Inclusive
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