Samuel Johnson's opinion aside, there are times when it's OK to write for free, Jessica Hische asserts in this elaborate flow chart with a question-and-answer format. An example of the questions: "Is it for your Mom?" If so, the answer is easy: "22 hours of labor and you can't do ONE … garage sale flyer?? COME ON!" Other questions: "Is it for a legitimate business?" "Is it for a charity or non-profit?" "Is it for your friend?"
Science writing news
Since its inception in 2010, more than $265,000 has been awarded in NASW's Idea Grants program. The Idea Grants program has been refunded for the coming year, and a new request for proposals will be published this summer. In the meantime, here are the winners of the inaugural ScienceSeeker Awards, funded by an Idea Grant. You can also read this list all of the Idea Grants awarded to date.
The most famous of all environmental writers was an unexceptional student, Gabriel Popkin writes, but that coursework made her eventual career possible: "While at Johns Hopkins, Rachel Carson made an important journey from inexperienced biology student to jaded researcher to skillful narrator of nature," Popkin writes. Carson's education gave her "the foundation to become the most famous science writer of her age and the voice that launched the environmental movement."
John Koetsier has an introduction to Amazon's Storyteller, a tool for turning scripts into storyboards with props, characters, and backgrounds: "You start by uploading a script to Amazon Studios — or by playing with one that’s already there," Koetsier writes. "Then simply page through the script paragraph by paragraph. Storyteller will try to match up characters, props, and background with the words in each chunk of text, and it does a surprisingly good job."
The Supreme Court declares — unanimously — that the Myriad Genetics patent on BRCA genes is not valid. The decision is being interpreted to mean no "natural" genes can be patented, but that patenting cDNA is a possibility. Patent lawyers are hopeful. Is the Court's genetic ignorance patently obvious? Justice Scalia expresses a second opinion that reveals he's a genetic ignoramus — or maybe a very clever wordsmith. The disgraced and disgraceful Jonah Lehrer has bounced back with a new book.
Pity the poor journalist — buffetted by layoffs and buyouts, and plagued by clueless public relations agents. Lindsay Goldwert has some tips for the latter in a PRNewser post, including this one: "Don’t send mass-emails: Don’t do it. Pick a handful of people and tailor your pitches to them. Journalism is about exclusives — no one wants the same crap you sent everyone else. If you have to send it to 500 people in order to get three hits, you’re doing it wrong."
"We’re experiencing a diaspora of journalism," Nicco Mele writes in the Spring Nieman Reports. Everyone knows the future of news lies with small media. But who inherits big media's power to shape the public sphere? "The front page of a newspaper was a judgment about what was important to the public, what we should think about, what we should discuss. But now, the unbundling of content has led to the unbundling of audience … There is no shared public experience."
Two takes from busy science writers on handling students seeking help with their assignments. From Carl Zimmer: "It doesn’t feel right to supply emails that students can simply cut and paste into their assignments, when they should be learning how to learn from reading." And John Hawks: "I give students a lot of credit for having the courage to write and ask original questions, but when I get form letters by e-mail, they have to go unanswered."
Read it and weep. James Somers is a computer programmer who gets unsolicited $120,000 job offers, but what he really wants to be is a writer. Trouble is, no one seems to be willing to pay that kind of money for writing, Somers laments in an Aeon post questioning the value of his work: "Despite my esteem for the high challenge of writing, for the reach of the writerly life, it’s not something anyone actually wants me to do. The American mind has made that very clear."