... needs. For example: the
Insured, the Uninsured, the Doctor, the Insurance Company,
the Taxpayer, the Hospital, the Residents and Medical Stu-
dents, the Medical Teachers, the Makers of Medical Parapher-
nalia ... Each party brings special expertise
to the table .The science writer knows how to translate
science for the public, while the scientist knows the sci...
... on.
Another whole class of story ideas arrives from the other
direction: from outside the world of research, in the form
of a question, observation, or piece of news.To under-
stand the phenomenon then ... scientists,
Finding
Stories
33
as for the rest of us, ideas spark each other off, showing their
full size only as they connect. Sometimes it’s hard to know
what you thin...
... Guaranteed, there must have
been other ways to approach the issue, so what was the advan-
tage of this one? The answers are always part of a larger pic-
ture, about either the science or the research ... folks, too. The
researcher will not mind. In fact, the better the scientific
team, the more the leaders seem to want to credit the junior
Research
and the
Inter...
... inter-
views, the machine took enough attention that my rapport
with the other person suffered, plus I often lost track of the
content. The problem is that, when I’m typing at the speed
of speech, the ... questions and find out the
answers; you ponder some more.
A period of wandering in a formless void is necessary to
any writing of substance, simply as part of achi...
... magnifi-
cent island.”
Then I considered the essay’s title: The Island at the End
of the Earth.” Hmm. In many seagoing cultures, the islands
at the end of the world are where the dead and dying ... is the symmetry so clear at
opening and close. The reader enters and leaves this universe
of words at the same place, pulled through the duration of
the trip by a we...
... knowledge that
could have confused the picture: the other causes of high
blood pressure, for example; the other part of the kidney
problem; the names of the various parts of the kidney’s cir-
culatory ... but they aren’t as effective in the kidneys.
Part of the problem lies in the kidneys’ unusual design.
Blood enters the organs via arteries and then fans o...
... de-emphasize should go in the
middle of the sentence (and paragraph).
The middle of the sen-
tence is the place for necessary nothings such as these:
however (a slalom flag to mark the unexpected)
Dr. ... chap-
ter got pitched out.
Often the hard part is less the writing than the think-
ing, but everyone meets a hurdle from time to time.
What to do depends on your par...
... you tell. In professional
writing, you show. In a term paper, the reader is the teacher,
who by definition knows all and must read the paper any-
way. In professional writing, the reader knows ... means for the particular readers), placing evocative, in-
teresting, and newsy parts to the forefront. Leave out the
general statements so beloved by the teachers who taught
them to...
... intentionally left blank
Mastering the Craft of Science Writing
into
words
ideas
Elise Hancock
Foreword by
Robert Kanigel
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS Baltimore & London
For my father,
who would ... Press
271 5 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hancock, Elise.
Ideas into words:...
... education, or interest in it.
Science writers and editors needn’t start off knowing
much science. Some of the best of them do, but some of the
best of them don’t. They must, though, be able to ... today about writing, espe-
cially writing about science, medicine, and other difficult
subjects, I learned then. Others did, too. Those who came to
see the ceaseless flow of red...