the discipline of the craft

... interest in it Science writers and editors needn’t start off knowing much science Some of the best of them do, but some of the best of them don’t They must, though, be able to learn science, be eager ... all kinds of things with this theory The first thing I calculated was the rate of disintegration of the muon and the neutron They should be connected together, if this theory was right, by a certain ... deeply with the ma- Ideas into Words terial as they with the readers Indeed, their curiosity and its fruits are a large part of what the reader senses, of what lets the reader trust them—a process...

Ngày tải lên: 05/10/2012, 09:47

... would arrive at the of ce and see that, actually, the work was not so bad So I’d patch and polish (always fun, the exercise of craft) , then start a new segment on that momentum The next day I ... trigger their adrenaline So they often thrive as staff, goaded on by the rest of the group (not to mention the boss) Gregarious types may not need goading but wilt in a life that leaves them alone ... water and fertilize and weed There is work to be done But the work pays off biggest when the plants are right for the soil and microclimate of the particular garden Is there some subject or writing...

Ngày tải lên: 17/10/2013, 19:15

... all kinds of things with this theory The first thing I calculated was the rate of disintegration of the muon and the neutron They should be connected together, if this theory was right, by a certain ... part, the best scientists agree on the current best theory, which they recognize because, well, it fits It answers the most questions with the greatest precision and the fewest loose ends There’s ... it’s off by percent.” Then I remember the percent It was like a prediction for me: I went home and got this theory that says the neutron decay should be off by percent, and they tell me the next...

Ngày tải lên: 20/10/2013, 10:15

... tamper with the laws of nature to suit the needs of the story The archetype of this requirement is Tom Godwin's "The Cold Equations," in which the laws of nature are the background of the story ... and they think they know what the inside of a jail looks like But what does the reader know of the ammonia seas of Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn? How can a reader visualize the ... apart and say, “This is all the other kinds of fiction.” All the other kinds of fiction restrict themselves to the here-and-now, or to the known past All other forms of fiction are set here on...

Ngày tải lên: 19/01/2014, 20:20

... past the point where I paid it any mind So I sat and waited while she finished Finally, she pulled out the page, gathered it together with one or two others and, still not looking up, passed them ... left blank words Mastering the Craft of Science Writing ideas into Elise Hancock Foreword by Robert Kanigel THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS Baltimore & London For my father, who would have been ... Index 147 ©2003 The Johns Hopkins University Press Foreword © 2003 Robert Kanigel All rights reserved Published 2003 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The Johns Hopkins...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... interest in it Science writers and editors needn’t start off knowing much science Some of the best of them do, but some of the best of them don’t They must, though, be able to learn science, be eager ... bestow just the sorts of insights you’ll find in the pages of this book I speak now not of such matters of common sense and good professional practice as double-checking names, though these count, ... count, too But rather of a rich sensibility of respect For language For ideas For people For the surprising and the deliciously weird in us all And most of all, respect for the world, the endlessly...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... deeply with the ma- Ideas into Words terial as they with the readers Indeed, their curiosity and its fruits are a large part of what the reader senses, of what lets the reader trust them—a process ... always have the reader in mind, not only as they write but also in the finding out that comes before They their research with integrity, digging deep, and they write with the same care They connect ... interesting about how the world works, and then another something, and another, and another For the rest of your working life, you will get paid to talk to people and pass along the great stuff you...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... parties, people often tell me that they have decided they want to be writers, and they’ll get started as soon as they have more time, or when they have their study fixed up, or when they get a new ... way of Being that in turn gives rise to appropriate Doing You can spot the best mentors, like the best parents and the best shrinks, because their former protégés are out there doing the work They ... they can afford to go back to school, or after the precession of the equinoxes, or something When I was still an editor, a few would even say they’d get started when they had an assignment, then...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... Another whole class of story ideas arrives from the other direction: from outside the world of research, in the form of a question, observation, or piece of news.To understand the phenomenon then ... Well, you get the picture Spot what appeals to the visual sense Today’s technology lets us look at everything from the eyes of flies to the birth of stars, from the bottom of the ocean to the everyday ... 34 as for the rest of us, ideas spark each other off, showing their full size only as they connect Sometimes it’s hard to know what you think till someone asks the right question or offers one...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... complex issue there is a fabulous book to be written Go for it The beauty of case studies is that they carry the reader along on the wings of story, to which you can append pods of explanation ... clouds of dirt stop rain falling in the desert.” “Agent Orange is still poisoning the Vietnamese, but now it’s in the food.” (These catchy news heads come from the May 26, 2001, issue of New ... is the topic of this chapter But first, let me recommend one more attitude: The science writer and the scientist are allies, sharing a commitment to science and the public understanding thereof—upon...

Ngày tải lên: 21/01/2014, 08:20

... of research and not some other? Why now and not before? Guaranteed, there must have been other ways to approach the issue, so what was the advantage of this one? The answers are always part of ... fact, the better the scientific team, the more the leaders seem to want to credit the junior Research and the Interview 53 Ideas into Words members—who are their future colleagues, after all They ... troubles a kiss and skootch them over They will wait Once in the room, there’s no rush to start Allow a few moments for the two of you to get used to being in the same room, the process that I call...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... my rapport with the other person suffered, plus I often lost track of the content The problem is that, when I’m typing at the speed of speech, the words blur into a succession of letter combinations ... successfully out the other side, because then you’ll know in your bones that feeling hopeless is just a phase After that, you’ll probably find the process rather fun It has all the joys of solving the New ... not to rouse the MEGO, I think because you are not entertaining each other Nor are you polishing stories in isolation from the rest of the material.You are poking at the stuff together, looking...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... head at the close “We could a lot of good for other countries where they really need the camels for meat,” Skidmore said “Where they really need them for milk Where they desperately need them for ... ones? If the mother is nursing the baby, does that make a difference? Not all the readers would have thought to ask those questions, but they will all care about the answers Then consider the pregnant ... focused on the core concern shared by the subgroups You directly address the key reader, offering 100 percent of what that person needs (e.g., rudimentary world news) Then you throw the others a...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... magnificent island.” Then I considered the essay’s title: The Island at the End of the Earth.” Hmm In many seagoing cultures, the islands at the end of the world are where the dead and dying go ... is the symmetry so clear at opening and close The reader enters and leaves this universe of words at the same place, pulled through the duration of the trip by a well-crafted spiral The other ... albatross appears out of the east, where high dark coasts open on the ocean horizon and the last sun ray glints on the windy seas of the Drake Passage The group reaches the island The author tells...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... grew so big it disrupted the train of thought The trouble with these items is that one gets attached to them, having invested the labor to create them Hence the value of the bone heap: Knowing ... waves, the events of the last three chapters the struggle for life on other boats caught out, as well as the heroic deeds (including a death) of the Coast Guard rescue teams The book ends ... watershed pattern: you see a stream of evidence here, another there, a third and a fourth some other place; they grow, they become rivers, and they converge! The piece ends with something new...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... nice job of suppressing much knowledge that could have confused the picture: the other causes of high blood pressure, for example; the other part of the kidney problem; the names of the various ... effective in the kidneys Part of the problem lies in the kidneys’ unusual design Blood enters the organs via arteries and then fans out into microscopic capillaries There, clusters of cells called ... the causes of high blood pressure, they know that a hormone called angiotensin can contribute to it Some blood pressure medications offset the angiotensin’s effects in much of the body, but they...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... to the forefront Noting positive reactions is a must, and not only to preserve morale Most of us tend to think of editing as “fixing” what is off.We forget the other half of the job, and maybe the ... substance without which the reader cannot go on? Does it grab? Go on to the next paragraph, asking the same questions, and the next, and the next All too often, you can drop the first few paragraphs ... Yes, the scene in the computer lab! It’s the essence of what the story is about With just a little tweaking, it will be perfect Often both pace and tone change at this turning point, as the writer...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... de-emphasize should go in the middle of the sentence (and paragraph) The middle of the sentence is the place for necessary nothings such as these: however (a slalom flag to mark the unexpected) Dr Jones ... by the NIH The middle of the paragraph is the place for their equivalent in full sentences The middle also makes a good home for items that only a few readers will need, for whatever reason the ... head down the whole idea, the whole town, the whole anything traditions of the past exactly pinpoint a friend of mine a sense of relative proportion driven primarily by her feelings fit the bill...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... yet, start to work with them on the day of the talk, while you’re still excited Otherwise the new ideas will evanesce, cast off as wrong or irrelevant by your older mindset, the one that had you ... cleaning them up less than usual, virtuously reminding yourself of your duty to report all the ums and uhs? Head for the high ground of fact and normal practice Does the topic bore you? The best ... to 128)? Get all the small stuff; it may be enough Do several of your examples the same job? Pick the best and drop the others Sometimes one memorable story can two jobs; when the second task...

Ngày tải lên: 26/01/2014, 08:20

... read a set of teaching evaluations of a university professor 10 THE CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS Implicit in the opinions held by an audience of a presentation are the biases of the audience ... literature and philosophy.”4 The 13 14 THE CRAFT OF SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS combination of these two problems caused many of the students to complain to the head of the department However, Oppenheimer ... some of which are shown in Figure 2-1a, the presenters of the proposal used referenced facts and the opinions of experts to assign a cut-off value The establishment of these criteria formed the...

Ngày tải lên: 14/03/2014, 18:20