The Open Notebook offers a number of different workshop options and consultations to help journalists, editors, and newsroom teams, as well as graduate students and scientists who are interested in science writing advance their skills.
Virtual Workshop Series: The Craft of Science Editing
As an editor, how do you decide whether to assign or reject a pitch from a freelancer? How do you work with writers to shape story ideas and to support their reporting? How do you identify what’s missing in a draft and figure out what revisions will make a story sing? How do you communicate your edits effectively and build collaborative relationships with writers? How do you edit with diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind? How do you handle difficult conversations with writers when tricky situations arise?
Science editors have few formal opportunities to learn these skills. To help fill this critical gap, The Open Notebook is offering a series of virtual, interactive workshops that will give emerging and established editors the skills and confidence to work with writers on selecting and sharpening story ideas, planning and carrying out reporting, anticipating and troubleshooting problems in the reporting and writing process, and crafting accurate and compelling stories.
These workshops are for editors at any career stage, staff or freelance, who want to improve their skills in key technical areas of editing and to sharpen their coaching skills.
Host a Private Webinar or Workshop for Your Newsroom, Classroom, or Event
Whether you’re a newsroom seeking to help your team members build their skills, a community of freelancers looking to invest in your craft, a university instructor who wants to bring additional perspectives into your classroom, or a professional association that wants to offer training opportunities to your members, Open Notebook webinars and workshops offer a range of training options. Our webinars and workshops range from single one-hour sessions to multi-day events and can be customized to meet your needs. Formats can include short webinars, hands-on interactive workshops and trainings, keynote lectures, or informal Q&A discussions or panels. The cost of our workshops and other events varies greatly depends on many aspects of the circumstances. Some of our programs include:- Finding effective story angles and pitching science stories
- Editing science stories and coaching writers
- Reporting, writing, and editing with diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind
- Reporting on scientific studies
- Evaluating evidence and claims
- Understanding and dealing with conflict of interest
- Structuring science stories
- Building and sustaining healthy writer-editor relationships
- Transitioning from science to journalism
- Building and sustaining a healthy, equitable nonprofit organization
- And more
Host a Job Simulation Training
Our Job Simulation Training program provides an opportunity for early-career scientists to both explore career paths in science writing and integrate a more robust science writing skill set into their Individual Development Plan. Through this tailored training program, we aim to bridge the gap between scientific expertise and science journalism and to further foster a supportive ecosystem for emerging talents in the field.
This program offers science trainees:
- The opportunity to explore careers in science writing and journalism with a hands-on simulation of the process of reporting and writing a brief science story for a general audience
- The chance to hone critical skills in written communications, applicable to any career but especially pertinent in research roles
- The ability to understand how to collaborate with journalists to engage the public
- The ability to understand how to explore other career paths that intersect with science communications and journalism
