The Open Notebook – Brief Guides

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. Essays are short, except when they’re not; in prose, except when they’re not; serious, except when they’re tears-in-eyes funny. Here’s the definition I came up with: Essays are written in a personal voice, involve one or more journeys, and are relevant not just to the writer but also to the reader.

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by Michelle Nijhuis · February 23, 2016 · 3 comments

Sharon Begley’s Brief Guide to Writing Medical News

Medical stories 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 embarrassment of riches. But like the dieter ogling the dessert cart, the medical writer needs to maintain tremendous willpower to resist the treats—and, instead, keep reminding herself of two key facts.

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by Sharon Begley · February 2, 2016 · 3 comments

Charles Seife’s Brief Guide to Writing Opinion

We reporters spend our days gathering facts and talking to experts. If, at the end of the process, we don’t have any opinions of our own about the matter—well, let’s just say that it’s not a hallmark of great intelligence to be so untouched by information flowing into one’s brain. At the same time, though, journalists are supposed to be objective. Maybe this inherent contradiction is part of what makes opinion writing so fun.

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by Charles Seife · September 8, 2015 · 0 comments

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, big-picture questions that linger at the edges of the stories that cross every reporter’s desk: This doesn’t make sense to me. Something seems wrong here. How could this have happened?

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by Susan White · August 18, 2015 · 1 comment