Finding the science in any story
Finding a scientific angle on a trending news topic may be more likely to pique an editor’s interest, according to the article in The Open Notebook.
New to science writing
Journalism story structure
Learn more about organizing a news story in this article from CubReporters.org.
Ask TON: Using PIOs to hunt stories
Find out the best ways to use university public information officers to find ideas for features and front-of-book stories for magazines in this article from The Open Notebook.
Ask TON: Breaking into science writing
Are you new to science writing? Get tips in this article from The Open Notebook.
Is anyone out there? Sourcing news stories
The Open Notebook tackles the issue of pinning down sources for interviews.
How can we solve the diversity dearth in U.S. science writing?
Science journalism and science writing have a diversity problem, and solving that problem was the focus of the opening plenary session at the ScienceWriters2019 meeting.
NASW student programs at AAAS 2020, Seattle
The National Association of Science Writers (NASW) is again sponsoring several exciting programs for student journalists during the AAAS meeting, being held next in Seattle, Washington.
Writers who came from the lab bench
Julia Rosen draws from her own experience and from interviews with other scientists-turned-science-writers for a guide to making the move from academia to journalism. She also discusses her own motives for making the big switch: "Although I had excelled in science classes as an undergraduate, I was unprepared for the drudgery of lab work, and the funnel of ever-narrower research questions that felt ever more removed from the questions that motivated me at the outset."
The traditional path to a newsroom job starts with journalism school and, at most, a master's degree. But there's another way that starts with the lab and a science doctorate, writes Robert Irion, who directs the science communication program at the University of California-Santa Cruz: "My graduates agreed that it's not necessary to complete a PhD to be a successful science communicator. It's a competitive realm, however, and the degree can help open some job doors."