My first step in a career in science writing?

Tuesday, 11 May 2010 14:20

The science-annex of the newspaper, popular science magazines and books have always been things I enjoyed reading. I love to see how journalists are able to explain difficult science in a simple way, and would like to be able to do this as well and become a journalist one day. But I know that there are only very few people who can make science writing into a paid job, and I personally didn’t think I’m a good writer - so I always just left the writing to others…

For a recent project with my Department I had to come up with a few stories about our research in a simple way, and some colleagues complimented me on my writing. During this project, we browsed through popular media for scientific (mainly genetic) bullsh*t. This inspired me to write a story about misinterpretations of genetic research, and had my article published in our departmental newsletter. Searching for a more serious place to publish it, I came across a science-blog, Science Palooza (sorry, in Dutch), where sometimes guest-authors would send in articles. I plucked up some courage, emailed my story to the editors of the blog and they actually liked it! After some small changes my article got published - my debut as a science journalist was a fact! Maybe I had some hidden talents for writing after all?

A bit later I got new inspiration, wrote another article and it got published again, which promoted me to be an official co-author of the blog. From now on I can write and post more stories… Of course, I don’t get any money for this, but writing for a real audience (both scientists and non-scientist) is very good practice for getting experience!