Michelle Nijhuis’s Brief Guide to Writing Reported Essays
When I set out to write an essay handbook for science writers, the first problem I ran into is that no one is quite sure how to define an essay. Aldous Huxley wrote that it […]
Brief Guides
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Sharon Begley’s Brief Guide to Writing Medical News
The challenging thing about medical stories is that they can go off the rails before you’ve written the first word—when you choose what to write about. Every week brings hundreds of studies unveiling results, an […]
Charles Seife’s Brief Guide to Writing Opinion
We reporters spend our days gathering facts and talking to experts to learn about a subject. If, at the end of the process, we don’t have any opinions of our own about the matter—well, let’s […]
Susan White’s Brief Guide to Investigations
Great investigative projects usually begin with journalists brave enough to be guided by their own curiosity even if their sources—or their colleagues—think they’re a bit daft. Such journalists allow themselves to articulate the embarrassingly obvious, […]
Carl Zimmer’s Brief Guide to Writing Explainers
Imagine you’re a crime reporter writing a story about a shooting at a nightclub. Now imagine that none of your readers know what a gun is. Suddenly, your story got a whole lot harder to write. You can’t just jump into the shooter’s backstory, or the victim’s suffering, or the detective work that led to an arrest. Instead, you’ve got to explain … Welcome to the science writer’s dilemma.
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How to Use Reporting Skills from Any Beat for Science Journalism
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How Rebecca Skloot Built The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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Taking Good Notes: Tricks and Tools
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Pitching Errors: How Not to Pitch
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Asking for More: Negotiating Rates for Freelance Assignments
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Storygram: Sarah Wild’s “Bones Specialists Try to Prise Secrets from the Veld Bodies”
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The Science Byline Counting Project: Where Are the Women—and Where Are They Not?
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Including Diverse Voices in Science Stories
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How to Tell Science Stories with Maps
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A Day in the Life of Sandeep Ravindran
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Good Endings: How to Write a Kicker Your Editor—and Your Readers—Will Love
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Tools: Planner Pad, the Funnel of Focus
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Going Digital: Inside New Science Journalism Outlets
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Trading the Pipette for the Pen: Transitioning from Science to Science Writing
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Are You a Writer or an Editor? Part I: The Writers
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Nailing the Nut Graf
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How to Do a Close Read
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On the Scene: Reporting from the Field
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Activism and Science Journalism: Where Are Your Boundaries?
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Read This! (Or Not): Writing Book Reviews
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