Syllabus

While scientific progress has brought extraordinary medical and technological advances, today’s hottest political debates surround scientific issues that are overwhelmingly misconstrued, misunderstood and misreported. In the face of increasingly sensationalized and politicized scientific issues, what is the role of journalism in delivering scientific news and information to citizens? What other social actors dive into these debates and why?

This is a writing-intensive course where students will be introduced to the skills needed to research and write about science, health and environmental news. The course will focus on how to report and write daily news stories, blog entries and longer features. But science writing is not just about mechanics. In light of the current debates raging around issues like climate change, vaccines and genetic engineering, this course will also explore the ethical, social, and political issues raised by the coverage of science and medicine by the media, celebrities, doctors, scientists, politicians and the public. 

Learning objectives

  • Students will learn the mechanics of science writing, including research, sourcing, and generating story ideas; interviewing, note-taking, and organization; fact-checking, editing, writing for story, structure, and formatting.
  • Students will practice writing for multiple public, academic, and professional audiences and contexts using writing strategies, conventions, genres, technologies, and formats to communicate effectively. (They will appreciate the digital landscape within which science journalism exists today by learning: blogging in science journalism (honing your craft, developing a voice); how to get work (pitching and staying relevant); the value of social networks for science journalism (sharing stories, finding stories, joining discussions and finding sources); digital strategies employed by major news organizations (data visualization, multimedia, community building).
  • Students will analyze and learn about the structure of several types of data including numbers, texts and documents. Students will learn the skills to examine, evaluate, and critique those data, extract patterns, summarize features, create visualizations, and provide insights, while learning to be sensitive to ethical concerns associated with the data.

Expectations

Read

Read various sources of science news and tweet them to the class before our meetings using our class hashtag #NUscicomm. Good places to start include The New York Times, NPR, Scientific American, Nature, Undark, and The New Yorker.

Reading assignments appear in the schedule below. This syllabus, like science in the news, is a living, breathing thing. There will be blind spots in the reading assignments below. We’ll fill them in as the semester and news cycles progress. Some suggested readings: “Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019,” “Associated Press Guide to News Writing: The Resource for Professional Journalists,” and “A Field Guide for Science Writers: The Official Guide of the National Association of Science Writers” by Blum, Knudson and Henig.

Write

Writing is essential. Plus, it’s fun! There will be weekly writing assignments. Some will be informal blogposts, others in-class exercises, and a few will be traditional written assignments. Since writing on deadline is a key point of this class, grades will be dropped at least a half-point if you miss deadline. The later an assignment is handed in, the more the grade will fall. 

  • Goal: Hone your craft. The only way to get better at writing is to practice. 
  • Format: Your written assignments will consist of in-class exercises, three blogposts, three short news pieces, and one 800-1,200 feature story.
  • Grading: Written work will be graded on accuracy, objectivity, news judgment, quality of reporting and writing, use of quotes, and creativity. Effort and improvement will count in your favor. All assignments must be submitted by 1:30 pm ET on their respective due dates.

Blog

Over the course of the semester, students will be required to keep a blog. Blogs are the sandbox where writers get to try out new things. (Write short. Write long. Write in the 1st person. Write in the 3rd.) The best blogposts make succinct, well-informed, and well-researched points. 

  • Goals:  
    • 1) Write for a popular audience with a high school level of scientific fluency;
    • 2) Translate the esoteric into the digestible while making a specific argument; 
    • 3) Have fun discussing scientific issues you encounter in other classes or outside of school. Each blogpost should have a stated point and students should stick to it. In other words, keep it specific. 
      • *Pro Tip: Don’t tackle the entire health care debate. Instead, discuss an interesting case of one kind of patient in one town in Massachusetts. Don’t write the definitive story on creationism in American schools. Rather, point us to an interesting and newsworthy story from a specific school district. 
  • Format: The class blog will be hosted on WordPress on Northeastern’s network. Every student will have a login. If you have any problems with the basics of publishing blogposts on WordPress, read this. The blog’s format is very flexible. Students can publish: 
    • 1) Listicles of science stories they’re reading, watching or hearing, e.g. “Top 5 science podcast episodes I listened to this month”; 
    • 2) Brief, informal posts about scientific studies students find interesting and why, e.g. “Why the Zika virus may not be the only thing to blame for Brazil’s spike in microcephaly cases”; 
    • 3) A pointed reaction piece to a certain scientific issues circulating in the media, be it a new diet or a political talking point, e.g. “What Ron DeSantis forgot to say about how he isn’t fighting sea level rise in Florida.” 
  • Grading: Though students are encouraged to blog weekly, only three blogposts will be submitted for grading. Though they’ll be posted to the student blog, submit the published URL to Aleszu by 2 pm ET on their respective due dates. Tweet the blogpost from your personal account. 

Tweet

Twitter is a great venue for sharing stories, finding stories, joining discussions and finding sources. It’s also a great place for young writers to get noticed and join conversations halfway around the world. *Students with privacy concerns should feel free to create a private or anonymous Twitter account. Twitter is public: be careful what you write! 

  • Goal: Sharing stories, finding stories, joining discussions and finding sources. Demonstrating you’ve found, read and are capable of summarizing science stories.
  • Format: Students will be expected to tweet science stories they are reading in between class meetings. Before every class meeting, every student will be expected to tweet at least one story they have read that week to me @aleszubajak or use our hashtag #NUscicomm. A headline and a link will suffice. Providing extra context is better. Emojis are fine, too. If you find yourself drawing comparisons between stories or themes, tweet the connections you’re making. Come prepared to explain what your story is about, why it’s important and, in general terms, how it was reported. You must use this hashtag or mention @aleszubajak or I won’t be able to find your tweet! 
  • Grading: Twitter activity will be counted towards your participation grade. Students must come to class prepared to explain, in a few sentences, the science stories they’ve read and tweeted. Tweets are due before every class meeting.

Discuss

This course will be heavily discussion-based so attendance and participation is expected at every class. We will be sharing ideas about the profession, stories we read, debates we’ve heard, and each other’s written work, both during class and on the class website. Every class will start with a discussion of topical science stories you’ve tweeted using our class hashtag #NUscicomm or by tweeting at @aleszubajak. You must use this hashtag or mention @aleszubajak or I won’t be able to find your tweet! Though every student will be required to tweet at least one story before class, we’ll only discuss a handful.

About the instructor

Aleszu Bajak is a science and data journalist who teaches courses and manages the graduate programs at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. He is the editor of Storybench.org, an “under the hood” guide to digital storytelling, and LatinAmericanScience.org, a resource for science news and opinion out of Latin America.

In 2016, he was a founding senior writer at Undark, a magazine exploring the intersection of science and society based at M.I.T.’s Knight Science Journalism Program. The year before, he launched and edited Esquire Classic, the digital archive of Esquire magazine. In 2013, Aleszu was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at M.I.T. where he explored the interface between journalists, designers and developers.

Aleszu has been a freelance reporter in Latin America, a producer for the public radio show Science Friday, and once upon a time worked in the gene therapy department at Weill Cornell. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Nature, M.I.T. Technology Review, The Huffington Post, New Scientist, Esquire, Guernica, and Science, among other outlets.

About the assignments

Blogposts
150 – 400 words

Though students are encouraged to blog weekly, only three blogposts will be submitted for grading. Though they’ll be posted to the student blog, submit the published URL to Aleszu by 2pm ET on respective due dates. Tweet the blogpost from your personal account. 

Event coverage
200 words

Every journalist has to do it: Hit the streets and find a story. You will attend a lecture, workshop, seminar or event involving an issue related to science, health, environment or technology. Check out events listings at Harvard, Tufts, Northeastern, M.I.T., the Broad Institute, etc. With notebook in hand, you will record the what, where, who, when, why, and how of the event. You will also write down quotes and details from the event for extra color to add to your story (think of these details as the glue). Write a succinct, 200-word story about the event. Include the most important and compelling information at the top. To help you organize your story, think about how you would describe this event and its importance to your skeptical uncle at Thanksgiving. You will learn writing, note-taking, observation, and style.

Build a news story
250 words

We will begin this in class. You will be provided a set of facts, quotes, and some language about the story’s context. You will construct a story using only paper and pen. What will you include? What will you leave out of the story? You will learn writing, format, style, and editing. *For the following class meeting, you will bring in a polished, 250-word version of the story, including mentions of two directly-related studies and explain why you’ve included them, i.e. why are they important? *Ed note: Students should feel free to double the word count to 500 words.

Your news story
400 words

Now that you’ve built a story from scratch using facts, quotes and context provided to you, you’ll employ the same skills to write a story of your own. Themes and leads can be provided by the instructor, though you’re encouraged to pitch your own story idea. Don’t forget to include the who, what, when, where, how, and why, and get to those as early as possible. Remember the inverted pyramid. Include a compelling lede to draw readers in and make sure to attribute every fact and quote to somewhere or someone. You will learn research, sourcing, interviewing, note-taking, organization, editing, fact-checking, and formatting. The story will be 400 words long. Be sure to include at least one human source and one scientific study or report. You should be emailing at least three sources before the day the pitch is due.

Feature story
800 – 1,200 words

The feature story is your capstone project and will demonstrate fluency in the mechanics of writing a piece of science journalism. It will also show a deep understanding of the issue you’re reporting on, as well as an appreciation of the nuances of the context and argument surrounding that scientific issue. Your feature story will tackle a series of new scientific studies or a new scientific trend and one data visualization – that could be a chart, a map or infographic. Your story must include 1) a point, an argument, a thesis, if you will; 2) at least two human sources; 3) at least two scientific studies or reports; 4) a data-driven graphic that demonstrates ethical, careful data sourcing, analysis and visualization. The idea for your story will be pitched to Aleszu.

Class outline

The mechanics of science journalism
Week 1 – What is science writing?
Week 2 – Deconstructing science journalism; First blogpost due
Week 3 – Building a news story; “Event coverage” due
Week 4 – Story ideas and the art of the interview; “Build a news story” due
Week 5 – Pitching stories and talking beats; “News story” pitch due

Science stories in society
Week 6 – The importance of P.R. in science; Second blogpost due
Week 7 – Public understanding of science; “Your news story” due
Week 8 – Scientists telling their own stories; “Feature story” pitch due
Week 9 – BREAK
Week 10 – Discussing and reporting on controversy

Going digital
Week 11 – Digital tools for science stories; Third blogpost due
Week 12 – Going social; “Feature story” outline due
Week 13 – Community and reinventing journalism
Week 14 – The future of science journalism; “Feature story” draft due
Last day – Wrap up; “Feature story” final due