76-395 Science Writing
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
Youll learn how to write clear, wellorganized, compelling articles about science, technology and health topics for a general audience. Youll learn how to carry out research on scientific topics using primary and secondary sources, how to conduct interviews, and how to organize that information in a logical fashion for presentation. For writing majors, the course will increase their understanding of scientific research and how to describe it accurately and in a compelling manner to a general audience. For science majors, this course will teach them how to craft fluid, powerful prose so that they can bring their disciplines to life. The course is not intended just for those who want to become science writers, but for anyone who may have the need to explain science, medicine, or technology to a general audience, whether it is an engineer describing a green building project at a public hearing or a computer programmer describing new software to a firms marketing staff. Scientists and educators today are increasingly concerned about the publics lack of understanding about scientific principles and practices, and this course is one step toward remedying that deficit. You will get a chance to read several examples of highquality science writing and interview researchers, but the primary emphasis will be on writing a series of articles, and rewriting them after theyve been edited. Your assignments will range from profiles of scientists to explanations of how something works. In particular, this years class will focus on how science and society interact, whether that means the way that science writers write about public health, technology, infectious disease or climate change. The class will be run partly as a writing workshop where students will be organized in teams where they will discuss ideas, as well as edit and critique each others work in class, in a process similar to what journalists routinely go through.
Prerequisites: (76-102 or 76-101 or 76-106 or 76-107 or 76-108) and (76-372 or 76-270 or 76-271)
Offered: Spring 2027
Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.