I was thrilled to cover this workshop. The three-woman panel gave a great presentation on running a freelance business, covering everything from taking whatever you can get for work, to controlling, shaping and selecting articles. Siri Carpenter is from Madison Wisconsin and a trained social psychologist. She has been freelancing about behavior science topics for [...]

As I sat, notebook open in lap, pen uncapped and ready to listen to a panel of science journalists describe their critiques of the press, my eyes wandered to the large window doors that led out to a patio. The sun’s rays made the conference room, with it beige walls and navy valences, seem almost [...]

As any aspiring writer knows, getting published is the hardest part of the job. Sure, you may write well and have some really great ideas, but in no way does that guarantee that your stories will get published. So what exactly can talented, creative science writers do to up their chances of gracing the glossy [...]

This session focused on propaganda but in the very best sense of the word: How do universities and laboratories convince people to care about them? The answers were good, but they applied to a specific group of science writers, which unfortunately did not include me with my waning attention span. Jim Barlow, the director of [...]

As panelists Ron Winslow, Betsy Mason, and Erika Check Hayden took their seats on stage, Lisa Rossi, director of communications and external relations at the University of Pittsburgh, introduced the session entitled ‘PIO Pitch Slam: Packaging, Delivery…and Placing the Story.’ In this session, we would be discussing how public information officers should and should not [...]

Well, I found my seat in the Cyprus room, which wasn’t too hard since the room was only a quarter of the way full. I found that interesting, since I thought that this would be an extremely beneficial session, especially for those who are still timid about the technological advances in journalism. As a self-proclaimed [...]

My first session, “Freaks, Geeks, and Deadlines,” was interesting because its three panelists and one moderator could hardly agree on anything.  Indeed, they probably wouldn’t be able to decide as a group whether or not Taco Bell was authentic Mexican food! All their disagreements made for a very interesting talk that easily engaged my attention. [...]

“Imagine an appointment as a train,” my mom told me when I was a kid. “If you’re late, will it still be there? No. You’ve missed the train.” "Science Writing for Kids: Skills and Markets"—I totally missed that train. I was conducting an interview just before the session began, and lost track of time. I [...]

It was nearly 5 pm at the Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto, and I was a healthy mix of exhausted and excited. I had just attended "Thinking Outside the Lab," a workshop session on communicating science to the public, my last session of the day and certainly the most enjoyable, if only for bolstering my [...]

On Saturday evening, presumably to unburden writers who had endured a long day of workshops, the NASW scheduled a comedic speaker during Happy Hour. Everyone gathered outside the lecture room on the patio, sipping wine and mingling. I found a seat close to the speaker and waited for crowd to file in. But it seemed [...]