From The Open Notebook, an edited transcript and video recording of David Dobbs's interview with David Quammen, author of eight acclaimed nonfiction books, including the iconic The Song of the Dodo, as well as four novels. His newest book is Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.
Event coverage
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Coverage begins in 2006 for the ScienceWriters meeting and 2009 for the AAAS meeting. To see programs for past ScienceWriters meetings, go to the ScienceWriters meeting site.
The Open Notebook has collected the thoughts of a half-dozen editors who took queries during the popular Pitch Slam at ScienceWriters2012. The six — Laura Helmuth, Amanda Moon, David Corcoran, Beth Quill, Susannah Locke, and Tasha Eichenseher — discuss what they look for (one word: "voice") and whether they prefer short or long queries: "Finally, remember that the best way to figure out what editors are looking for is to read the publication."
NASW fellow Amy West took photographs at ScienceWriters2012 in Research Triangle, N.C., Oct. 26-30, 2012. Use the "read more" button to see them.
Every science writer has probably been experienced the same problem at one point or another: you've stumbled upon a great topic, but it isn't a story. How do you find a good angle and a narrative arc that will help you craft a story that readers won't want to put down?
Moderator Nancy Shute began the “Wikipedia: The best, most hated resource for science communicators" seminar at ScienceWriters2012 by proposing this question to the audience. Dozens of sheepish science writers slowly raised their hands and a nervous giggle filled the room.
Alan Brown, moderator of the panel, “Surviving your mid-career crisis,” faced a scary question as a feature writer when the demand for long-form began to dwindle: how would he make a living?
Going to meetings can be overwhelming and expensive, but if you’re a science reporter or public information officer, you can’t afford to miss them.
I'm a big advocate of social networking and spend a lot of time convincing scientists that these platforms aren’t mindless time-sucks. But while it’s easy to make the argument for social media, it’s a whole lot harder to quantify the benefits and show that online efforts are actually paying off.
In his NASW workshop, "Tools for tackling nightmare documents and data," freelancer reporter Tyler Dukes presented an Internet toolkit that can make investigative stories a more feasible prospect. To this end, he presented three online resources that make handling data and documents cheaper and easier: a PDF-file converter, a document sorting program, and a website that allows you to recruit people online to transcribe your interviews and complete other methodical jobs.