Writing about science: from the public to your peers

So much of science involves writing – think of all of those reports for your thesis committee, letters, papers, grant applications, your thesis… Nowadays there are even more ways to write about science: press releases, feature articles, and even popular science books, where you can try out new styles and be a lot more creative.

In today’s workshop you get to choose. If you’re currently working on a paper or a grant application, or starting your thesis, we’ll deal with that. If you’d rather stretch your wings and try a different style, go for it.

It may seem like these styles are really different, but in fact they have a lot in common. They all start by getting the clearest possible view of a piece of science in your head. In writing you’re trying to help a reader build an architecture of ideas. That means thinking about the audience – their knowledge, their expectations, the styles they are familiar with, and what you can realistically expect them to absorb. The process you go through can be very similar, no matter what style you’ve chosen, and no matter what audience you’re addressing. That process is what we’ll work on today.

Please let us know in advance what type of writing you’d like to do in the workshop. Everyone should come with an idea for a story and a laptop.

TRAINER: Russ Hodge, Max Delbrück Center