Featured news
We are pleased to announce that NASW is providing over $20,000 in travel fellowship support for attendance at ScienceWriters2013, November 1-5 in Gainesville, Florida. Applications due September 12. Read on for details and visit sciencewriters2013.org for full information on the meeting.
Why scientists — and especially science writers and science bloggers — should be tickled pink about Nate Silver's move from the New York Times to ESPN/ABC.
Technology writer Virginia Heffernan declares for creationism. You'd think it was the end of the world. Turns out, however, that she's not really a true believer. Also, the Bigfoot Genome Project. Is Sasquatch a human hybrid and European immigrant?
Six essentials for recording phone interviews
As a radio reporter, I had to record my phone interviews. When I started print reporting, I tried just taking notes, and then went back to recording.
How to write a blog post in an hour. Easy-peasy if you follow these rules. And leave out the interviewing. Not to mention the thinking. On Science Blogs: Aggregating and Thinking Since 2009! The state of U.S. health: Dismal. Murder by thallium. Transcranial brain stimulation for everybody, only $249.
Whether we are trying to figure out how to avoid participating in a “trust fall” activity at an office team-building event or debating how much our key stakeholders trust the scientific information that they see in the media, trust is a recurring theme in our professional lives. With all of the time our community spends focusing on trust, we thought it would be worth exploring some recent research that can provide some insight into how issues of trust play out in science communication.
NASW member Kathleen Wong and colleagues tell the story of the University of California Natural Reserve System (NRS) and its mandate to provide outdoor classrooms, protect research sites, and conserve ecosystems for the people of California. Wong, a science writer at NRS, pulled the book together in only six months.
Make your characters memorable
It's hard work to write pithy character descriptions. We struggle over what to leave in — and leave out — and whether we're being too mean to the villain or have become too close to the hero. How do we show instead of tell to create a character that no one would mistake for someone else?