ChemSemBlog

This week was a very interesting presentation in which, Jyllian Kemsley presented via a video conference. This was an experimental presentation done online, with the speaker in California and her presentation slides were on the screen next to her. Kemsley works as an associate science writer in Chemical and Engineering News. She has received a PhD in Chemistry from Stanford and it was there she found scientific writing to be interesting. Kemsley also provided us with a lot of information about her background. At Amherst College she became an chemistry major and worked as an analytical chemist after graduation. She entered the science writing program at UC Santa Cruz, and became a freelance writer and consultant.

In Chemical and Engineering News they produce feature stories, news items, online news, and blogs as well as perform story updates. In a typical week they read scientific papers, top of the news, converse with scientists and other sources, write, revise, and attend conferences near and far. They employ five or more editors and their goal is to produce good stories for readers. Although this is their goal there are still some challenges of science writing. One must be comfortable with unfamiliar territory, creative on demand, and juggle simultaneously different kinds of stories under different time pressures. Some rewards of becoming a scientific writer are: intellectual freedom, highly creativity, and flexibility in work hours and topic content. Kemsley has written stories on breast milk and nutrition and the influence it has on the infants, water plants mixing with sewage, and all types of things. If one is thinking of becoming a scientific writer they must have a fascination with science and a drive to keep learning.

In science writing, one can still work in traditional media, such as online media, trade publications, newsletters, science journals, etc. I thought it was very interesting that CNN laid off all of their scientific staff over the summer, so if one is thinking of doing scientific writing with a news media I suggest they also have a backup plan. Scientific writing is a good way to set up connections with industries, depending on what their topic of writing is about. Although I found scientific writing to be interesting and a good way of establishing networks, I wasn’t encouraged to do research in science writing. If one is thinking of becoming a science writer they can start be writing features for university publications, star ta blog, take classes in journalism, read widely (Knight Science Journalism Tracker), join the National Association of Science Writers, or attend annual science writers meetings.

I found that many students seemed to be engaged in this presentation and asked many questions at the end. Kemsley was able to answer the questions to the best of her ability and many students learned new things from this presentation. This presentation involved learning about science writing, and what one can do to achieve this goal.

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This week’s online video seminar by Dr. Jyllian Kemsley was done successfully. I thought the presentation was easy to follow, interesting, and helpful to us as chemistry/biochemistry major students. She is currently the associate editor of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), which is published by American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

I learned many things about the job as a science writer. She told us about her challenges and rewards as a science writer, and things that make a good science writer. Challenges included being comfortable to learn unfamiliar information, being creative when it is demanded, and being able to work on several stories at once. On the good side, rewards included intellectual freedom and flexibility of the work. She mentioned that passion and drive to keep learning, writing skills, and ability to deal with time pressure well are the qualities that makes a good science writer.

I thought the presentation was interesting. Its topic as science writing was interesting, because as a science major student, that might be one of the things I might consider doing later on. The content of the presentation was also interesting to learn about science writing from a science writer. However, I felt that she talked too much about her personal stuff, which is not related to the topic of her presentation, such as explaining why she went to such school.

I would describe the presentation to my ‘non-science’ friend or family as this: “Dr. Jyllian Kemsley’s presentation on science writing is a must for those who are considering a career as a science writer.”

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This week’s speaker was Jyllian Kemsley, the associate editor of Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN).  She communicated to us via a video link.  Her presentation was meant to enlighten us on the topic of science writing.  Kemsley has had experience as an analytical chemist working for Merck.  She is a graduate of Amherst College and obtained her graduate degree at Stanford University.  At UC Santa Cruz, Kemsley took part in a “boot camp” for science writing before joining C&EN in 2007.

C&EN is affiliated with the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest chemical society.  C&EN itself is divided into three groups: business, government and policy, and education in science and technology.  Kemsley is one of eleven writers in the education in science and technology group.  A weekly magazine of C&EN includes feature stories, news items, online news, and blogs.  Examples of stories reported by Kemsley include reports on contaminated heparin and a discussion on the quantification of metals.

Kemsley mentioned traits required of all journalists.  They need to stay on top of stories and communicate with the scientists in the respective fields.  Journalists will, at times, need to attend conferences and visit research facilities.  They will also need to research the scientific literature.  Journalists must be comfortable with unfamiliar territory, be creative on demand, and juggle different stories with different schedules.  Obviously, deadlines are very tight.  But, there are benefits to being a science writer.  These writers have intellectual freedom and are allowed (in fact, required) to be creative.  They also have a fair amount of flexibility.  Of course, science writers need to be interested in science.  They need to have some “thick skin” as editors will not always agree with their ideas or writing styles.  One major problem that science writers face is that when a company faces a tough economic situation, science writers and journalists are among the first to be laid off.

I thought that this presentation was very interesting.  I gained valuable insights into the realm of science writing.  Science writers may not be practicing chemists, but they at least have the chemistry background needed to understand the material that they report on.  These journalists are instrumental in bridging the gap between scientists and laypeople.  At this point, I am not interested in taking up a career in science writing, but I am willing to keep my options open.  I have some questions regarding science writing.  First of all, what is the average salary for a science writer?  Second of all, which companies are most receptive to science writers, and which companies are least receptive to them?  Finally, what advantages could there be to being a science writer rather than a researcher?  I think that science writing is at least worth a look.  To sum up this presentation, I would say that is an introduction to what science writers do and what is expected of them.

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