Writing Advice
Advice for writers and for editors to keep in mind when giving feedback.
Don’t whittle down a paper submitted to an academic journal - Academic journal articles are written as peers talking to peers. There is a level of assumed background knowledge. The People will not have this level of knowledge. Which is why they are coming to you for information.
Identify the main point - What is the key message you want to get across to the audience. Write it down in one or two sentences. It should be simple and easy to explain. Example: An academic journal article about how the Andromeda galaxy unraveled another galaxy a few billion years ago and astronomers found the remnants.
Identify the background information necessary to understand the main point - What knowledge does the audience need for them to get the point? Example: An academic journal article about how the Andromeda galaxy unraveled another galaxy a few billion years ago and astronomers found the remnants. Background information: The audience needs to understand how astronomers can identify stars from different galaxies. This requires a knowledge of what a spectrum is (rainbows) and how the temperature of a star affects how long it lives.
List the jargon used in your field - Your background information will probably be full of jargon specific to your field. This is OK! Audiences don’t mind learning new words. But you must identify them and make sure you explain them. This is where analogies come in. In the example above, spectra are explained by relating them to rainbows - something people have experience with. This is also the thing your editor will be looking out for, so don’t worry if you miss jargon. This applied to both scientific and political bodies of knowledge.
Tell a story - Pull your audience in with something they can relate to - a personal experience, something they are aware of in the news, an everyday encounter they should think about differently. This is also a good time to discuss any background they need to know.
First 5 words - The beginning of your article has to be captivating. Some journalists will tell you that if you don’t grab them in the first 5 words, you’ve failed. Since this is a magazine our readers are already invested but that doesn’t mean your first paragraph can make them yawn. Example of a good lead (my editor came up with it, not me): https://www.voanews.com/a/dim-milky-way/3370842.html
No passive voice - Don’t do it. Make your writing active. Your audience will keep reading!
Lede - A great example is in the Geoengineering Collective. https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/greenhouse-gases-agroforestry/ It begins with a personal anecdote and draws parallels between two issues that science has weighed in on that are familiar to most people. The main point is there in the title.
Resources - Massive Science Consortium - a great way to learn about accessible writing and read articles written by scientists for the public. The Open Notebook - gives you a breakdown of how great science writing happens. Summary of Carl Zimmer’s advice - a summary of Carl Zimmer’s advice to science writers. National Association of Science Writers - has some resources buried on their website.
Last updated