Poynter's Roy Peter Clark writes that, like a magician, a narrative writer shouldn't disclose too much about the reporting: "Over the course of say, five minutes, that beautiful lady will disappear and be replaced by a tiger. 'How did he do that?' we wonder aloud. But since the purpose is mere entertainment, we succumb to the illusion and return to our ordinary lives. Succumbing to an illusion is, I would argue, a requirement of the successful experience of narrative."
Science writing news
From Maria Popova comes a collection of quotes from famous authors on writing. Can you match the writers (Hemingway, Susan Orlean, Stephen King, Isabel Allende) to their words? "You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it." "I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops." "All bad writers are in love with the epic." "Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too."
Will sucking a baby's pacifier reduce the risk of eczema and allergies? Is vaginal delivery better than C-section? The evidence, such as it is. Winter is Coming, and so is Obamacare. The organizational challenges are immense, and opposition hasn't gone away either. Plus the fate of DSM5, Wehrner von Braun, Ed Yong on science blogging, the media and the anti-vaccine movement, and a shoutout to the Knight Science Journalism Trackers.
In some ways, writing a book (the Science Writers Handbook) with 30 other writers was easy compared to sole authorship. Each of us had only a chapter or two to write. But in other ways, it was incredibly difficult. How do you make so many individual voices cohesive, and how do you weed out the overlaps or resolve differences of opinion? It quickly became a balancing act of delegating work and decisions, coordinating many moving parts, and heavy doses of diplomacy.
Climate change isn't the only subject where "balanced" journalism distorts the truth. Writing in CJR, Curtis Brainard says the same is true of the discredited link between autism and vaccines: "Only a small group of researchers ever even entertained the theory about autism. The coverage rarely emphasized this, if it noted it at all, and instead propagated misunderstanding about vaccines and autism and gave credence to what was largely a manufactured controversy."
Do you punctuate your speeches with a lot of "ums?" Does a sneeze from the audience derail your train of thought? Denise Graveline offers some tips for watching your own speeches on video, analyzing your flaws, and fixing them: "Most people's mouths, when at rest, are either flat-lined or slightly downturned, making you look bored or sad. Smiling, even a little, corrects that natural downward turn. You get to decide how much to smile, but smile at least somewhat."
Last week's announcement that Johns Hopkins University is disbanding its graduate science-writing program may signal a broader decline, Carl Straumsheim writes for Inside Higher Ed: "Although not all institutions … report a decline in the number of applications, one trend appears to be developing: Programs that exist independently seem to be faring worse than those that can draw on the resources of a full-fledged journalism school."
If you missed the NASW-sponsored Cross-Border Science Journalism Workshop April 27 in La Jolla, Ca., then take a look at these archived webcasts posted by Genevive Bjorn. Almost 30 U.S. and Mexican science journalists attended the one-day workshop to exchange ideas, discuss health and environmental issues, solve problems and start collaborations. See Bjorn's "Confronting the Barrier of the Border" on Storify for more.
What can you do if someone you don't know — or don't want to be associated with — adds you to a "Twitter list," those custom groups of accounts that users can create? Nina L. Diamond offers instructions in a Poynter post: "You can review the lists that include you, and remove yourself from any that are inappropriate or make you uncomfortable … The good news is it’s easy to find out which Twitter lists you’re on, and to make a graceful exit from them."