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."
Science writing news
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."
From autism to animal migration, pollution to animal testing, winners of this year's Science in Society Journalism Awards tackled sensitive and controversial topics with reporting and storytelling skill. Read on to learn more about the winning entries.
A party honoring the inventor of an amusement park ride germinated an application for an NASW Idea Grant to fund a day-long workshop of bioethics for science journalists. Joe Bonner discusses the planning process and logistics for the meeting, which took place in March in New York City. Attendees included reporters and editors, PIOs, students, and concerned physicians and scientists. From the Summer 2012 ScienceWriters.
The National Association of Science Writers is pleased to announce a new resource for science journalists — the Funding Sources database. Available to all NASW members, the database was developed by member Madeline Bodin. It includes grants, fellowships, and other types of funding for which science writers may qualify. For information about joining NASW and taking advantage of the Funding Sources database, please see our membership benefits page.
Naturally our favorite is ScienceWriters2012, but if you're keen for more than one meeting, check this list compiled by blogger Michelle V. Rafter. The list includes conferences by the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the American Medical Writers Association, and the Association of Health Care Journalists, plus speciality conferences for freelancers, authors, and digital storytellers.
It's not exactly an exhaustive survey, but BestVendor.com polled 97 independent workers for their favorite gizmos and compiled the results into an elaborate online graphic. It includes familiar ones like Google Docs but also up-and-comers like Expensify: "One observation: Freelancers are all about the cloud. Not one piece of desktop software made the top 25, with the possible exception of QuickBooks, which has both a web and desktop version."