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| Volume 46, Number 2, Fall 1998 |
by Laura van Dam and Lynne Friedmann
Internships are a time-honored way for students and other aspiring science writers to gain real-world experience. But finding the right opportunity takes a combination of imagination, chutzpah, and managing expectations.
“Don’t expect to go to [a major newspaper] and write science immediately. You’ll get a lot of doors slammed in your face,” says Ellen Ruppel Shell, associate professor and co-director of the graduate program of science journalism at Boston University. Instead, she recommends “grunt journalism.”
“Contact the editor of a small community paper and inquire about covering for vacationing reporters,” Ruppel Shell says. “While the beats might not be the most thrilling, the actual reporting, interviewing, and writing on deadline teaches one far more than considering the profession abstractly. To say nothing of the thrill of seeing one’s work in print.”
Alternatives to small newspapers include writing for local conservation groups, developing science articles for university alumni publications, and creating written materials for research laboratories, she says.
A budding science writer who lives in a major metropolitan areas can also check with the local convention and visitors bureau for upcoming scientific conferences, then contact out-of-town editors of trade magazines and offer to cover the meeting.
Bruce Lewenstein, an associate professor at Cornell University who teaches science communication, notes other possibilities. “Offer to write for a newsletter that a local professor may publish, report for a campus news service or university public-information office, or produce a video for a community-access television station,” he says. Or, should no writing opportunities present themselves, students should develop and fine-tune their computer skills. “Learn how to design a Web page or how to use Power Point software,” Lewenstein advises. “These have become standard tools for science writing.”
While Lewenstein and Ruppel Shell suggest that a wide range of news-writing experiences will offer students valuable skills, John Wilkes, director of the science-writing program at the University of California at Santa Cruz, recommends a more focused approach to his incoming classes. He encourages his students to write about science for general readers.
He reasons that most people entering his program already hold an undergraduate or advanced science degree, and they therefore “tend to get too into the details.” The value of writing about science for the public lies in figuring out how to produce work for a non-scientific audience. Simplifying is an art that requires, Wilkes says, “finding good metaphors.”
Wilkes also prefers his students to begin by writing for independent operations such as newspapers rather than public-information offices. While “I’m very much in favor of students trying public-relations writing,” he says, the best way to start is with an outfit where one has to sell story ideas to an editor. Learning how to pitch articles is invaluable; budding reporters should arm themselves with three to four story ideas in the hopes of landing one assignment.
Managing expectations also means that money should not be the primary motivation when seeking one’s first writing assignments, science-writing professors agree. Stringing for a small newspaper may lead to little or no money—but a very real payoff in terms of experience, according to Lewenstein. And by producing stories early, science writers applying for their first full-time jobs will avoid the “Catch-22” of needing clips when they haven’t yet held such positions, he notes.
Board members Laura van Dam and Lynne Friedmann are members of the NASW Education Committee.