- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (Jan 1 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0195100689
- ISBN-13: 978-0195100686
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 667 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Science writers are translators of sorts: they transform the jargon-laden language and arcane concepts of the science world into something the rest of us can understand and even appreciate. For this, they must be able to comprehend (and assess the value of) the science at hand, then simplify, calling into action whatever metaphor and analogy they can find to get the idea across. For this indispensable guidebook, 39 committed and enthusiastic science writers chime in about what their jobs entail. Among them are newspaper reporters, magazine and journal contributors, book authors, and freelance, editorial, and op-ed writers. Specialists relate the intricacies of covering topics such as infectious diseases, neuroscience, the environment, and technology. A final section explores science-writing jobs for colleges and universities, government agencies, museums, and industry. Particularly fascinating is the chapter by Mary Knudson, a freelance writer who covered medicine for the Baltimore Sun for 18 years and one of the editors of this book; in the chapter, she dissects one of her articles, explaining how she arrived at each piece of information included therein.
From Library Journal
This is not a "field guide" in the sense of a reference or guidebook but a report from the field by more than 30 expert science writers from all disciplines. Each writes about his or her own area of expertise, often including a road map that shows how he or she ended up in a series of particularly interesting places, e.g., the New York Times, Science, and the President's Office of Technology. Somewhat similar to The New Science Journalists (LJ 4/15/95), although much more comprehensive, this well-written collection is full of interesting insights into professional science writing and serves as a valuable resource for current and would-be science writers. Collections emphasizing career planning, especially at institutions with programs in journalism, writing, and communication, should obtain this work. Nice for crossover collections between the liberal arts and the sciences as well.?Mark L. Shelton, Worcester, Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
Many years ago, when I was laid up from a ski accident after covering politics for my newspaper, a well-intentioned friend brought me an astronomy book. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Many years ago, when I was laid up from a ski accident after covering politics for my newspaper, a well-intentioned friend brought me an astronomy book. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Field Guides,
By
This review is from: A Field Guide for Science Writers (Hardcover)
As a fairly experienced science writer - http://www.sciencebase.com/resume.html - I didn't anticipate learning any news tricks from this book, but it's well worth checking out if your journalistic beat is anything from astronomy to zoology by way of molecular architecture and quantum mechanics
1.0 out of 5 stars
Field Guide for Science Writers who read with a microscope,
By annoyed (auburn, wa United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Field Guide for Science Writers (Paperback)
Was very excited to get reading my new paperback copy of "A Field Guide for Science Writers." However, I could not read it!The text is size 6 font and the chapter blurbs and excerpts are size 4 sans serif. Would be comical if I hadn't paid $20. Seems like a lot of people worked on this unreadable piece. I suspect the book says "consider your audience" and stuff like that, or maybe it doesn't, I will never know. I read 2 or 3 books a week, so I took a look at the last batch of things I have read to see if I was hallucinating, but alas, this book is the smallest font by about half... Hope I can get my money back. Seems a bit lazy to this writer and editor. Would not expect shabby design from a writer's organization. Maybe the hardback is better?
4.0 out of 5 stars
Handy guide for would-be science writers,
By
This review is from: A Field Guide for Science Writers (Paperback)
The editor's note says that the primary goal of this book is "to help train a new generation of science writers." I think the key word there is "help." One is certainly not ready to go out and be a science writer after reading this slim volume, but then one shouldn't expect to be.What I think this book does do is to give the reader some idea of what's involved in being a science writer and to provide numerous pointers along the way. This is done in several ways. The first section of the book contains half-a-dozen chapters on the different "homes" of science writers: newspapers, magazines, journals, broadcast media, etc. The second section focuses more on technique: the use of sources, handling statistics, and so on. The third section addresses science writing from a topical perspective: how to write about subjects like biology, astronomy, and technology. And the fourth section has several chapters on being a science writer at various sorts of institutions (universities, government agencies, businesses), rather than for the media. Each chapter is written by a different person who is an expert in that area. For someone like me who knows his science writers, there are some notable names here: Julie Ann Miller, editor of Science News, has a chapter about writing for trade journals; John Noble Wilford, who covered Project Apollo for the New York Times and wrote the very first book to come out about Apollo 11, addresses writing science books; PBS personality Ira Flatow discusses doing science on television. The book concludes with an appendix covering useful sources of information, which seems handy. I particularly want to order the chart of the fundamental particles--I've never been able to keep those straight! So this is a very useful book for someone going into science writing and interesting, too, to anyone who wants to know what's involved in covering science from a journalistic perspective.
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