How to write a science blogpost people want to read

How to write a science blogpost
people want to read
Michelle Kovacevic
@kovamic for @FutureEarth
#popupwebinars
futureearth.org/blog/pop-webinars

“Storytellingis as old as humanity itself. And in a modern world saturated with
electronic media, nothing resonates quite so much as the personal narrative of a
storyteller. In science, this narrative has a special role, especially because what we do so
often seems mysteriousto those outside our profession. Storytelling in
science, whether of science valouror science beauty, provides a very human
window into our world. Telling stories, simply and clearly, is the means by which we
connect science with humanity.”
Sir Paul Callaghan

What is a blog?
A collection of short, informal, sometimes controversial, and
sometimes deeply personal online posts.

Science blogs
2.48 million blogs (just Tumblr and
Wordpress)
Approx 20,000 science blogs
New blog every 2 seconds
Number written by professional research
scientists is growing each day
Stats from Technorati

1.8 million articles published
each year, in about 28,000
journals
Only 10% are cited
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-are-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/
50% only read by their
authors and journal editors
Hardly any scientific papers get read

Blogging widens readership
(potentially by orders of magnitude)
Pageviews

Stories Create Common Ground
Elizabeth Connor, The KinShip http://www.thekinship.co.nz/

Make an impact beyond academia
Blog story led to scientist being invited to brief government officials
and new research collaborations.

Blog or be blogged
“Even if you choose not to blog,
you can certainly expect your
papers and ideas will be
increasingly blogged about. So
there it is – blog or be blogged.”
Professor Paul Knoepfler
University of California, Davis

Institutional vs personal blog

Institutional blog
Pros Cons
Broad audience May not publish
everything you want
to write about
High readership
Editing assistance
Less time
consuming

Personal blog
Pros Cons
It’s all about you Time intensive
Integrate with the
rest of your profile
(current
publications,
media etc)
Need something
to say
Blog about other
cool stuff too
Can still cross
publish on
institutional blog

Audience
Chances are you’ll have
many audiences you want
to reach – policymakers,
general public, potential
students, collaborators etc.
Many science blogs write
for the intelligent non
expert / undergraduate
student
http://www.scilogs.com/communication_breakdown/know-what-you-want-part-one/
Elena Olivo/NYU Photo Bureau

Finding your science stories
!   Published research
!   News

!   Published research
!   News
!   Analysis

!   Published research (news,
analysis)
!   Comment on latest
developments

analysis)
developments
!   Human stories from the
field, the lab

analysis)
developments in your field
!   Human stories from the
field, the lab.
!   Interesting conference
sessions

analysis)
developments in your field
!   Features from fieldwork
!   Interesting conference sessions
!   Other?

What about unpublished research?
!   When writing about results, try to write about ones that
have been peer-reviewed
!   Make it clear in the story that the research is yet to be
published (e.g. In forthcoming research, we have found…)
!   Point out where the research sits in relation to similar
work
!   If it’s someone else’s research (e.g. you hear it at a
conference) and you’re unsure, ask the presenter

Angle/Focus of the article
How is this product better than its
predecessor?
What do users of the new phone
have to say about it?
Are experts predicting it will change
the cell phone market? If so, how?

Todorov’s 5 Stage Structure
Story Science
Initial Equilibrium Initial State of Knowledge
Disruption of
Equilibrium
Research reveals new
information
Recognition of
Disruption
Inconsistency recognised
Attempt to repair
disruption
Attempt to find new
knowledge
Reinstatement of
Equilibrium
New State of knowledge
Elizabeth Connor, The KinShip http://www.thekinship.co.nz/

How newspaper stories are written

How academics
write
Long and descriptive title
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References Elizabeth Connor, The KinShip http://www.thekinship.co.nz/
Steven Pinker: http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Academics-Writing-Stinks/
148989/

How academics
write
Long and descriptive title
Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion
References
Short, snappy title
Main finding or anecdote (Lede paragraph,
1-2 sentences)
“Why is it significant?”
Introduction (refs hyperlinked)
Brief method
Results (refs hyperlinked)
“Why is it significant? What does this mean
for this research field?”
Discussion
“What next.”
How science
bloggers write

How academics write
Subjective wellbeing and income: empirical patterns in
the rural developing world
Money buys happiness? New study says think again
about those assumptions
How science bloggers write

How academics write
A commonality in the economics of happiness
literature is that the absolute income matters more for
the subjective wellbeing at low income levels
Conventional wisdom has long held that for people
who have the least, money matters much more than
it does for people who are better off. But there is
some dissension in the ranks. Economist Arild
Angelsen believes that this is a dangerously outdated
concept.
“It is this idea that if you are poor, what matters is
just to fill your belly with food and have shelter and
some of the bare necessities covered,” he says. “And
that social comparison is something only the rich
care about.”

How academics write
A commonality in the economics of happiness literature
is that the absolute income matters more for the
subjective wellbeing at low income levels
We surveyed a large sample of people in rural areas of
developing countries with relatively low income levels
to test whether subjective wellbeing an increasing
function of absolute income in our sample, and to
analyze the existence of adaptation and social
comparison effects on subjective wellbeing.
Conventional wisdom has long held that for people
who have the least, money matters much more than it
does for people who are better off. But there is some
dissension in the ranks. Economist Arild Angelsen
believes that this is a dangerously outdated concept.
“It is this idea that if you are poor, what matters is just
to fill your belly with food and have shelter and some
of the bare necessities covered,” he says. “And that
social comparison is something only the rich care
about.”
Researchers asked people hundreds of questions
about ‘subjective well-being’ – or ‘happiness’ for
short. People talked about how satisfied they were
with their life over the previous year – and compared
the economic situation of their household with
others in the village – and to their own situation five
years ago.

How academics write
developing countries with relatively low income levels to
test whether subjective wellbeing an increasing function
of absolute income in our sample, and to analyze the
existence of adaptation and social comparison effects on
subjective wellbeing.
Our data show that absolute income covariates with
subjective wellbeing, but—as for richer samples—the
magnitude of the association is lower once we control
for adaptation and social comparison. Finally, our
results suggest that social comparison has a stronger
effect than adaptation in explaining the subjective
wellbeing of our sample.
They found that absolute income does matter for
people’s wellbeing, but that social comparison – how
well off people feel compared to their neighbours –
also matters a great deal.
“People were practising shifting cultivation so they
would open up fields in the forest and move out to
stay there for several months while the rice was
growing, partly to keep bush pigs away from the
rice,” he says.
“I thought that this would be lonely as they’re maybe
an hour walk or more from the village.”
“But people said to me, ‘No we like it, because in the
village there is so much consumption pressure.
There’s a market, you have to buy things, the kids
want sweets. We enjoy being away from all that.’
“These were poor people – and yet there’s the exactly
the same social mechanisms as are at work in rich
countries, consumption pressure and keeping up
with the Joneses.”

How academics write
developing countries with relatively low income levels to
test whether subjective wellbeing an increasing function
of absolute income in our sample, and to analyze the
existence of adaptation and social comparison effects on
subjective wellbeing.
Our data show that absolute income covariates with
subjective wellbeing, but—as for richer samples—the
magnitude of the association is lower once we control
for adaptation and social comparison. Finally, our results
suggest that social comparison has a stronger effect than
adaptation in explaining the subjective wellbeing of our
sample.
Our findings highlight the importance of adaptation
and social comparison even at low levels of absolute
income.
While researching ‘happiness’ may sound frivolous,
this study has serious implications for development
policies for emerging economies, and rural and
forest communities, the authors say.
“Policy makers and development practitioners tend
to create projects designed to raise income – selling
non-timber forest products, for example – but if you
give money to the poor and don’t look at how it is
distributed, and only some people benefit, then you
are creating inequalities,” Angelsen says.

Tips for blog writing
Do Don’t
Tell a story – as if you were
telling a friend over coffee
Document the entire event
Source facts and figures
(hyperlink to reputable sources)
Use jargon or acronyms
Use striking and unusual
images
Write in passive voice
Keep it concise (we recommend
600-800 words)
Write boring and long
headlines
Use proper spelling,
punctuation and grammar
Know your audience
Use quotes (and get them right)

Hyperlink
If you mention a fact, hyperlink
to a credible source (other
research papers, fact sheets,
databases)
Allows reader to go deeper.
Can suggest related reading at
the end of the story (or can be
automated)
Don’t overdo it – for

Do – Use good images
!   Shallow depth of field, not grainy, bright colours
!   Conference photos are rarely interesting – use them
sporadically.
!   Flickr: www.flickr.com
!   Wikimedia commons: commons.wikimedia.org
!   Creative commons licence

Do – Keep paragraphs short
!   Eye tracking studies show online readers tend to skip
large blocks of text
!   1-2-3-4-5 rule: Make sure your paragraph contains 1
idea, expressed in 2 to 3 short sentences, taking 4 to 5
lines on the page.
!   Word count? As much as the story needs.
!   Try not to go over 800 words (unless it is an
investigative piece or feature)
http://www.studyweb.com/scientific-web-design-23-actionable-lessons-from-eye-tracking-studies/

FAQ: Interviewing scientists
Q: What kind of quote(s) am I looking for?
Why this work is important/significant. What are
Q: What if they don’t mention this?
Call them and ask them. If at a conference, ask them after their presentation. (And
feel free to ask them for an interview during lunch if you need more info)
Q: What if they use a lot of jargon in their answer?
You can paraphrase or edit the quote
e.g. Dr Pahl says psychology provides clues to why such a straight-forward approach
seems to be so successful.
e.g. “[Psychology] shows that images attract attention…vivid information is linked to
the generation of mental images.”

The world’s most banal science quote is: “This research is
interesting but more work needs to be done”.
But what research? What needs to be done? What
experiments would you do?
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/22/a-guide-for-scientists-on-giving-comments-to-journalists/

Don’t – Document the event
REDD+ researchers meet in Jakarta, Indonesia to talk about
benefits sharing in REDD+
On Monday 17th January 2015, 150 researchers from Indonesia
gathered for a workshop on REDD+ benefits sharing. The main
aims of the workshop were to build stakeholder capacity, identify
commonalities in benefit sharing mechanisms and opportunities
for south-south exchange.
What’s wrong with this title and lead paragraph?

Active vs passive voice
https://cgi.duke.edu/web/sciwriting/index.php?action=passive_voice
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/04/01/scientists_should_stop_writing_in_the_passive_voice.html

Passive voice
Academic writing uses passive voice a lot because want readers to focus
on the result of an action rather than the person doing the action.
Passive voice makes storytelling more difficult because it hides the
characters deep in the sentence—if it shows them at all.
Which of these is clearer?
!   Heart disease is considered the leading cause of death in the United
States. (passive)
!   Researchers have concluded that heart disease is the leading cause of death
in the United States. (active)
https://cgi.duke.edu/web/sciwriting/index.php?action=passive_voice
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/04/01/scientists_should_stop_writing_in_the_passive_voice.html

Writing good headlines
!   Surprise – “This Is Not a Perfect Blog Post (But It Could’ve Been)”
!   Questions – “Do You Know How to Create the Perfect Blog Post?”
!   Curiosity gap – “10 Ingredients in a Perfect Blog Post. Number 9 Is
Impossible!”
!   Negatives – “Never Write a Boring Blog Post Again”
!   How to – “How to Create a Perfect Blog Post”
!   Numbers – “10 Tips to Creating a Perfect Blog Post”
!   Audience referencing – “For People on the Verge of Writing the Perfect
Blog Post”
!   Specificity – “The 6-Part Process to Getting Twice the Traffic to Your
Blog Post”

Adapted from http://www.blogtips.org/category/blogtips-primers/making-a-social-media-strategy/
Letting people know about your stories

In summary…
!   Stories connect people and science is full of them!
!   Blogs can significantly increase readership of science
papers
!   Grab us with your headline, image and first paragraph

Resources
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/04/09/academic-promotion-scholars-popular-media/
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/2013/06/26/do-blog-posts-correlate-with-a-higher-
number-of-future-citations/
http://www.scilogs.com/communication_breakdown/science-blogging-citations-2014/
http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/blogCitations.pdf
http://www.scidev.net/global/icts/practical-guide/how-to-set-up-a-science-blog.html
http://blogs.plos.org/blog/2012/12/31/ten-essential-qualities-of-science-bloggers/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-essential-steps-starting-wordpress-blog/
http://cba.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/HowIsResearchBlogged.pdf
http://conservationbytes.com/2014/05/27/scientists-should-blog/
http://scienceofblogging.com/why-scientists-should-blog-a-case-study/
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03075079.2013.835624
https://theresearchwhisperer.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/academic-promotion-by-media-presence/
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/04/23/academic-papers-citation-rates-remler/
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Academics-Writing-Stinks/148989/

Submit a story and get feedback
Between now and September 30, the first 30 webinar participants
to submit blog stories to owen.gaffney@futureearth.org will receive
personalised feedback.
!   Stories should be based on science and sustainability:
!   New research findings
!   Latest developments in your field
!   Features from fieldwork
!   Interesting conference sessions
Chance to have your story published on the Future Earth blog!!

Webinar on 30 Sep, 11am CET
•  Review some submitted blog stories
•  Discuss lessons learned
•  How to live blog from a conference
Make sure to sign up: bit.ly/popup_blog2

How to write a science blogpost people want to read

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