Science writing news

Every story is different, but sometimes it helps to have a mental checklist of questions to ask during interviews. NASW member Charles Choi offers his suggestions in a ScholarCast blog post on Nature's Scitable: "Although science writing might on the face of it largely seem about organizing and explaining concepts in ways understandable to audience, if the science writer did not ask the right questions to begin with, he or she will be at a loss to explain anything."

Journalism's latest embarrassment has lost another outlet. Wired.com cut ties with Jonah Lehrer after commissioning a review of his work by science writer and journalism professor Charles Seife. Among his conclusions: "Lehrer has been recycling his material for years; he was doing it in 2008 and probably even earlier. It's amazing — and disturbing — that it took so long for anyone to notice." More from Poynter.

Technology makes things easier for journalists but it's also made it riskier for sources, Sherry Ricchiardi writes in an American Journalism Review story about new ways for governments and others to keep tabs on reporters: "Government spying and journalists being stalked are nothing new. It's the methods that have changed. The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein didn't have to worry about Trojans stealing the identities of their Watergate sources."

The National Academy of Sciences held a colloquium in May, “The Science of Science Communication,” at which dozens of science communication researchers discussed how lay audiences perceive science information. The major goal of this meeting was “to improve the understanding, relations between scientific community and the public,” said NAS President Ralph J. Cicerone. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.

Poynter's Roy Peter Clark has a big case of author envy when it comes to William Zinsser, whose classic outsells Clark's own. But he credits the old man with holding himself to his own high standards, and cites pages 10 and 11 of "On Writing Well" as evidence: "I’ve studied them until my eyes bleed ... There have never — I say never! — been two pages in a writing text as practical, persuasive and revealing as pages 10 and 11."

Three recent stories focus on the same challenge: harnessing the power of Twitter. First, an update from Nieman Journalism Lab on plans by the Library of Congress to build and maintain a Twitter archive. In short, it's moving slowly. Second, the New York Times explains how Twitter's new rules make it harder for outside developers work with it. Finally, Reporter's Lab on the obstacles to building a Twitter tracking tool.

The first question Paige Williams had for author Jon Franklin was, "So, were you in the operating room during the surgery or some sort of viewing gallery?" Franklin, a former NASW board member, answers that question and others about his classic 1979 story about a brain surgeon and his patient's operating room death: “It wasn’t until four or five hours passed that I thought, 'Well, wait a minute, it’s a better story because she died,'” Franklin says.

The Poynter Institute's Tom Huang starts with a confession before listing six questions a writer should ask and answer before making a story pitch to an editor: "Back when I was a cub reporter, I used to pitch story ideas by proclaiming that I wanted to write about “the homeless,” or “drug gangs,” or “teen mothers.” While these were interesting and important topics, that’s all they were — topics. They didn’t have enough shape or specificity to be ideas."