Cover: The Science Writers’ Essay Handbook: How to Craft Compelling True Stories in Any Medium by Michelle Nijhuis
THE SCIENCE WRITERS’ ESSAY HANDBOOK:
HOW TO CRAFT COMPELLING TRUE STORIES
IN ANY MEDIUM
Michelle Nijhuis
Self-published, February 2016, $4.99
ISBN: 9780692627495
Nijhuis reports:
I wanted to write an essay handbook for science writers not only because I love to write and read essays about science, but also because I think the essay form is perfectly suited to the digital age — and to science writing.
Essays allow science storytellers to go beyond simple “translation” of scientific results, providing the context and analysis so valuable to modern readers. The personal essay voice is increasingly used to explore broader questions in feature stories, multimedia productions, blog posts, and many forms of social media. The essay form may be more than four hundred years old, but it’s everywhere.
This essay handbook, which was written and published with the support of an NASW Idea Grant, is a companion to the 2013 Science Writers’ Handbook, which was also supported by an Idea Grant.
Michelle Nijhuis
Writing the essay handbook was rewarding in many ways: it gave me a chance to read, reread, and analyze many great science essays, and to read a lot of smart writing about the essay form. It allowed me to think through and articulate my own essay-writing process. I also benefited from some terrific editing by NASW members, especially my co-grantee Monya Baker.
I chose to self-publish because I liked the idea of being able to control the book’s content, and because self-publishing would allow me to get the book into the world more quickly. As a novice self-publisher, though, I didn’t realize how much time I would spend fiddling with coding, designing interior pages, and choosing and acquiring rights to cover art. I may or may not choose to self-publish again — it’s too early to say — but the experience did give me new respect for all the hidden work done by commercial publishers!
I hope the handbook will be useful to all NASW members, including students, teachers, and professional communicators of all kinds. If you’re interested in using the handbook in your classes or workshops, please contact me directly for a review copy.
Contact info:
- Michelle Nijhuis, 509-808-1311, [michelle@nasw.org](mailto:michelle@nasw.org, http://www.michellenijhuis.com
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