Aims of the course
- To give participants inspiration, guidance and support to think creatively about their popular science writing.
- To help participants find story ideas and write successful pitches for them.
- To explore and learn about different approaches to scientific storytelling, with a focus on concise forms of writing (50 to 1,000 words).
Target audience
- Anyone interested in communicating science to the general public, and who may or may not have a scientific background.
- People at any stage of their science careers who are keen to write effectively and engagingly about science for a wide audience, beyond their peers.
- People who are new to popular science writing or who have some experience; the course will cater to different levels of experience and abilities.
- People who are interested in becoming freelance popular science writers, either full- or part-time.
- Early-career science writers who want to make time to think creatively about their writing process and take a fresh approach to gathering ideas.
Course content overview
- This course introduces the scope, aims and craft of popular science writing (non-fiction writing about science for general audiences) including for both adults and children.
- Participants will learn about creative ways of finding story ideas and produce their own notebook of science writing ideas.
- Participants will learn about various concise forms of popular science writing and how to pitch their ideas.
- There will be a series of weekly writing exercises with feedback from the tutor throughout the course.
- Participants will develop and write at least one full draft of a piece of concise science writing of their choice, with guidance and feedback from the tutor.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online)
Orientation Week: 19-25 May 2025
Teaching Weeks: 26 May-29 June 2025
Feedback Week: 30 June-6 July 2025
Teaching week 1 - Writing about the science around you
This week will show the value of exploring everyday life for scientific ideas to write about, and to learn about three forms of concise science writing.
Learning objectives
- To have explored what’s around you for ideas to write about, including from your daily lives and non-science media (e.g. stories in the news).
- To have started keeping a notebook of story ideas.
- To have shared and discussed with your fellow classmates one idea you’ve found.
- To have learnt about and discussed ‘Question and Answer’ style articles for popular science magazines and websites.
- To have learnt about and discussed list-based science writing (e.g. “5 things everyone should know about exoplanets”).
- To have learnt about and discussed science photo stories.
- To have picked one of these three formats (Q&A, list or photo story), paired this with an idea you have identified this week and written a pitch.
Teaching week 2 - Harness your enthusiasm
This week will explore personal interests as a source of ideas, and to study a staple of popular science writing: the short feature.
Learning objectives
- To have spent time thinking about what interests you and how this can translate into ideas for popular science writing.
- To have learnt about how to look for different angles and hooks for a topic.
- To have shared and discussed with the class one idea you’ve found that captures your interest, and identified several angles you could take for writing about it.
- To have continued to collect story ideas in your notebook.
- To have learnt what editors are looking for in short popular science features.
- To have read and discussed several examples of features, including studying common structures used by established writers.
- To have learnt how to pitch short popular science features to editors and written a draft pitch for an idea you have developed this week.
Teaching week 3 - Spoken word and video in science storytelling
This week will explore how to use audio and video to communicate science to general audiences.
Learning objectives
- To have listened to and discussed science podcasts.
- To have watched and discussed several science videos on YouTube and/or TikTok.
- To have learnt how to write a basic treatment for a popular science podcast or video.
- To have developed an idea for a short science podcast or video, and drafted a pitch.
- To have continued to collect story ideas in your notebook.
Teaching week 4 - Writing science for young readers
This week will explore ways of communicating science to young readers on page and screen.
Learning objectives
- To have learnt about the main ways in which popular science writing for young readers differs from pieces aimed at adult readers.
- To have learnt about publications and websites that publish science writing aimed at children.
- To have read several examples of popular science writing for children and discussed with the class.
- To have developed an idea for a science article aimed at children, and written a pitch.
- To have continued to collect story ideas in your notebook.
Teaching week 5 - How to be a science writer
This week will explore different routes available to becoming a full- or part-time science writer and how to be paid for your words and ideas. To write a full draft of one piece of science writing, based on an idea developed during the course.
Learning objectives
- To have picked one idea from your notebook and paired it with a format learned about during the course (e.g. short feature, podcast script, children’s feature etc), and worked up a full draft to share with the class, with feedback and editorial guidance from the tutor.
- To have learnt practical tips for getting started in professional science writing, including advice from the tutor in an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session.
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Virtual Learning Environment
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards etc).
Certificate of participation
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
