Process Journalism

So today I have a very, very sciency (is that a word… didn't think so…) article on SLAC Today. After some edits from the scientists it turned out a little more dense than I would like it, but I still think its good and am pretty proud of it.

OK, so maybe it's not too great, but it took a loooooooong time to get it to the point where it was publishable.

The story was generated from a list of scientific article pre-prints published by SLAC every week. The list gives every paper being published by SLAC personnel and a short description of the work along with it. Every week I read through the pre-prints and try to pick one out to write about.

This was my first. And it shows.

The first draft was pretty terrible. I didn't even have a firm grasp on what it was I was writing about. But the real problem was that I wrote like I am now, sort of off the cusp. I now believe that, especially when dealing with science-related articles, it is extremely important to have a rigid structure to the story.

This means a solid lead with the actual news in it, a solid nut graph to explain exactly where the story is going, and solid topic sentences that encapsulate the paragraph they precede.

The original draft basically had none of these, and my editor let me know it.

So I re-drafted it and it got a little better.

Then I studied a little more on what exactly "kinematics" is, re-drafted, and it got a little better.

Then I asked the researchers again what exactly the "cosmic jerk" is, re-drafted, and it got a little better.

Next, I asked why using x-ray clusters is innovative and new, re-drafted, and it got a little better.

Finally, it went through some final edits, I (you guessed it) re-drafted, and it got a little better.

Then it was sent off to the scientists for approval and editing. They re-drafted some bits, and it, well… it got more accurate scientifically speaking.

So seven drafts later, I had a working article that was much better than the original. I learned a lot about writing more sciency articles, and it was a great experience.

By the way, I have since written another article based on a pre-print, and got it done in two drafts. :o)

P.S. - Despite the time stamp on this, it was written on Thursday the 28, but my computer was on the fritz...