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Resource of the Week: A visual “taxonomy” of great writing

  From the incomparable writer, Maria Popova, and her wide-ranging, powerful Brain Pickings site, comes a brief, thought-provoking “taxonomy” of the three levels of good science writing. Don’t stop at this article – her site is a treasure trove of big ideas, compelling quotations from science writers renown and obscure, and more.    

Resource of the Week: “Steal” a Scientific Writing Course’s Syllabus

Planning on teaching a course about scientific writing next semester? But, you haven’t finalized your syllabus yet? Ecologist Stephen Heard (@scientistseessquirrel) invites you to use his scientific writing course syllabus! He also wrote a book – The Scientist’s Guide to Writing – that is a useful companion to the syllabus.

#MySciComm: Tatiana Eaves on making the jump from science to science writing and editing

This week, Tatiana Eaves responds to the #MySciComm questions!  Tatiana is a biologist, photographer, and freelance science writer living in the Washington D.C. metro area. She received her undergraduate degree in Biology, with a concentration on ecology and evolution, from Appalachian State University and minored in Geographic Information Systems. She currently writes for Ricochet Science and the Ecological Society of…

Resource of the Week: Free, 5-episode online series for scientists writing blogs, op-eds, etc.

Image: screenshot from the article Share Your Science: Resources for Blogging and Op-Eds for Magazines, Newspapers and More Scientific American and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University have launched a free, 5-episode, online series aimed at helping scientists and engineers write blogs and op-eds for magazines, newspapers and other news outlets. Browse the live-streamed public…

SciComm Lit Review: Skylar Bayer reviews “Writing Science in Plain English”

I feel like I have found a reference to keep on my shelf for the rest of my career […] In fact, after reading Writing Science in Plain English, I want to go back and edit every journal article I have ever written. ~S. Bayer What is the reviewer’s motive (expertise, curiosity, sharing lessons learned, etc.) and perspective (research scientist,…

Resources: Writing

*This list is dynamic, and in-development. Feel free to make suggestions (use the comments section or contact us directly) re additional resources and great examples that should be included. RESOURCES See the general scicomm resources page for tips and resources on writing about numbers and data, storytelling techniques, and a lot more. Science Writer’s Handbook + Pitch, Publish, Prosper blog Terms…

Resource of the Week: Science careers and individual development plans

  According to their website, “myIDP provides: Exercises to help you examine your skills, interests, and values A list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit your skills and interests A tool for setting strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you on track Articles and resources to guide you…

#MySciComm: Sarah Schneider on the at-times winding road from academia to academic publishing

This week, Sarah Schneider (of ESA’s Editorial Office/publications) responds to the #MySciComm questions! We’re delighted to share her story with you, as it is a window into a type of SciComm career that is pivotal to how we do science. Sarah Schneider has worked for the Publications Office of the Ecological Society of America since 2013. These days, she works primarily…

Resource of the Week: The importance of storytelling in science

Numerous articles, resources, podcasts, and whole ventures (e.g., StoryCorps; The Moth) address key aspects of narrative and storytelling that are valuable (even essential) for sharing science. See the following articles for a few we find particularly helpful, insightful, or thought-provoking. These resources may change how you do things and/or provide you with useful citations to justify how you tell science…

Member Highlight: New Publishing opportunity as The Bulletin of ESA launches “Communicating Science” section

Effective November 2018, The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America will accept submissions for consideration in a new section dedicated to Communicating Science. All articles published in the series are free to publish and freely available via open access. This new space in the journal provides ESA members interested in communication and engagement a platform for publishing articles on…