Online Course

Eureka! Science Writing for General Audiences

January 09 - February 12, 2022

Level Intermediate

Gain writing and research skills—everything from general literary techniques to interviewing and fact-checking—that will help you craft engaging nonfiction about scientific discovery, research, and policy.

Additional Information

In this class, you’ll take a close look at the writing and research skills needed to craft engaging nonfiction about scientific discovery, research, and policy, and practice them over the course of five weeks. You’ll discuss how literary elements such as scene, character development, and narrative can bring scientific topics alive for general readers, as well as how to document research and interviews to prepare for the fact-checking process. You will complete one essay, and will also be given optional short exercises that can later be incorporated into longer pieces. You will also discuss how to identify and query markets for science-based nonfiction and receive personal feedback on your work from the instructor and peers.

 

Course Schedule

WEEK 1: THE HOWS AND WHYS OF GREAT WRITING ABOUT SCIENCE

In this first week, you’ll look at the current landscape of science writing opportunities and discuss the need for exciting, accurate writing about scientific research and discovery. You’ll look at examples of writing that seeks to be (or has proven to be) policy-changing. You’ll also discuss some practicalities, such as ways of recording and note-keeping that can make the fact-checking process go more smoothly. You will have an optional writing exercise of up to 500 words. 

WEEK 2: SCENES AND CHARACTERS: FINDING A WAY INTO THE STORY

What if you weren’t there when the eureka moment happened? What if the eureka moment is months or years away? This week you will look at how to bring research alive on the page—even if it seems static in the lab—by learning note-taking and interviewing techniques that will help with writing three-dimensional actors and putting them into realistic spaces. You will write a draft of part of your essay (up to 750 words) and submit it to the instructor. Optionally, this exercise can also be shared with classmates for peer reviews. 

WEEK 3: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION! FINDING SCENES WITHIN RESEARCH

This week you will put yourself in the shoes of a brand new science writer (regardless of your scientific expertise) and hit the metaphorical pavement. You will talk about how to find newsworthy stories about research and track down experts who can help. You'll address questions such as how to ask for an interview if you haven’t sold the story yet, when to write the story first and when to pitch first, and how to be sure your sources are reliable. You will also look at how to find scenes within your work, to get those characters and settings to interact, while maintaining factual accuracy. You will also talk about the pitfalls (and occasional practicalities) of re-creating scenes, speculation, compression, conflation, and compositing. You will have an optional writing exercise of up to 500 words.

WEEK 4: THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END: FINDING AN ARC

Scientific research is often a very long-term, on-going process. Discoveries and findings are announced intermittently and often with inconclusive or anti-climactic results. How can you find an engaging story within such an unpredictable process? How can you craft relatable stories about inanimate objects, non-human organisms, complex policies, or scientific theory? You will discuss techniques for making large stories small enough to reach a non-expert reader and connecting those small stories back to your larger concepts. You will write an essay of up to 3,500 words that incorporates exercises from the first two weeks (or new writing based on skills practiced during the exercises) and submit it to the instructor.You may also submit work to your classmates for peer review.

WEEK 5: FINDING MARKETS

During this final week, you’ll discuss how to find markets for science-based nonfiction. Which literary publications foster science and nature writing? Which popular markets publish literary coverage from the science frontiers? You will discuss how to query editors and how the revision and fact-checking process works once your piece or project is accepted for publication. You will have an optional writing exercise.

View Complete Syllabus

Course Instructor

Course Registration

$310.00

Out of stock

Become a Supporting Subscriber today and get up to 10% off your purchase.

Please Note

It is not uncommon for classes to fill up before the end of early registration, particularly in the last few days before the deadline. If you know for certain that you wish to take a particular class, we recommend registering early. If you'd like to be added to a waitlist for a sold-out class, please email our director of education, Sharla Yates, at [email protected].

Hear from our Students

Creative Nonfiction’s online writing classes have helped more than 3,000 writers tell their stories better.

Read Success Stories

Testimonials

I enjoyed reading other peoples work and getting feedback about my own work– the handouts/video links and class lessons were also very informative and relevantly paced to the give structural guidelines.

Catherine O’Neill