{"id":31686,"date":"2021-10-28T16:47:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T20:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=31686"},"modified":"2021-12-01T14:28:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T19:28:31","slug":"the-art-of-science-writing","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/the-art-of-science-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Science Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Joe Palca<\/a> was a psychology PhD student at the University of California at Santa Cruz, he had an epiphany: he didn\u2019t want to go into a career in research or academia, a common path for many science graduate students. Instead, he decided to pursue science journalism, first on the broadcast side, joining the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., then the print side, becoming a news editor at Nature<\/em> and then a senior correspondent for Science<\/em> <\/em>magazine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1992, Palca moved to radio and joined NPR as a science correspondent, where he still works today. Since 2012, he has hosted the series Joe\u2019s Big Idea<\/em>, which explores the ideas and motivations of scientists and inventors. \u201cMy goal for Joe\u2019s Big Idea<\/em> was to try to talk more about the science process than results,\u201d he says. \u201cI also wanted to show that scientists are real people who do real things besides being scientists. I want to change the way scientists are portrayed frequently as men in white coats, looking at slides and whatnot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Palca developed Joe\u2019s Big Idea<\/em>, he also sought to create a program in conjunction with the series that would help students and scientists who, like him, perhaps don\u2019t want to go into research or academia\u2014or fulfill that stereotypical portrayal\u2014but are also unsure of another path to explore. \u201cI figured I\u2019m sort of proof that you can leave academia and not be a failure,\u201d Palca says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, along with NPR producer Maddie Sofia, he established NPR Scicommers (originally called Friends of Joe\u2019s Big Idea), a free program that helps scientists and engineers\u2014including undergraduate and graduate students, post docs and faculty\u2014develop their communication skills. \u201cThe idea was also to encourage scientists to consider communication an important part of their skill set because it is often overlooked,\u201d says Palca. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to change the way scientists are portrayed frequently as men in white coats, looking at slides and whatnot.<\/p>Joe Palca<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Palca and Sofia developed a Scicommers writers program, in which members can practice pitching their article ideas and then receive feedback from an experienced editor. Since they began, more than 100 stories written by Scicommers have made it into top publications including Scientific American<\/em><\/a>, Smithsonian<\/em><\/a>, Vox<\/em><\/a> and Popular Science<\/em><\/a>. They also created a mentor chat series, which brings in speakers to discuss various facets of science communication, including freelance science writing and science podcasting. Between mentor chats, Scicommers also have access to peer support through more than a dozen channels on the messaging app Slack, with topics such as #freelancing, #stem_inclusion and #jobs_fellowships. Since its inception, Sciccommers has grown from 100 members to more than 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New Chapter at COM<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

About two years ago, Palca began planning for Scicommers\u2019 NPR grant to run out and went on the search for its new home. \u201cUltimately, NPR is a media organization, and not an educational organization. We really wanted to find an educational space that could grow the program, someplace that was interested in promoting science communication as a mainstream activity, rather than something sort of on the sidelines,\u201d says Palca. \u201cBU\u2019s College of Communication felt like the right place.\u201d As of November 2021, the program has officially moved to COM\u2014and has been rebranded as SciCommers with a capital C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, much of the program will remain the same, with an emphasis on helping scientists polish their communication skills and get their work published outside of academia in popular publications. One thing Palca wants to make clear: members don\u2019t need to have a BU connection. \u201cThe program is open to anyone. Our hope is for this group to be as diverse as possible,\u201d he says. While Palca will remain a correspondent at NPR, he also plans to continue to be involved with the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited about the arrival of the SciCommers global network of researchers,\u201d says Mariette DiChristina (\u201986), COM\u2019s dean. \u201cIt will help advance both BU\u2019s and COM\u2019s strategies around fostering research that matters as well as COM\u2019s mission of improving understanding to address societal challenges, which are multidisciplinary and complex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about COM\u2019s SciCommers program, email scicomm@bu.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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