Bio Career Center

One of the reasons science writing is such a great fit for many graduate students in the sciences is that the skills required for science and for science writing largely overlap. A 5- or 6-year stint earning a PhD in the life sciences will almost wholly prepare you for a career as a freelance science writer. Let me illustrate:

Writing skills

To be an excellent professional writer, you have to be a meticulous writer, and this is something that can be developed in graduate school, although not completely. You will be writing papers, grant proposals, and perhaps helping your non-native English speaking colleagues with their writing. If you are serious about a career as a science writer though, you will want to consider reading several books on writing and editing (eg, The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White; On Writing Well, by William Zinsser; and Sin and Syntax, by Constance Hale, to name a few). You will need to develop your craft. I would recommend taking at least one writing class where your writing is critiqued by other students and by the teacher in the class. This will be revealing. Don’t think you can write just because you get compliments on your writing in grad school—that’s a good start, but it will take more than that. I found it helpful to get a Masters in technical writing in addition to the PhD, for example. Your freelancing clients, who will often be professional editors, can spot all the mistakes that novice writers make. Try to learn what those mistakes are and avoid making them. (Here’s a test: for the word “however”—can you name the part of speech it is, and do you know how it must be punctuated? Do you know the 7 coordinating conjunctions from memory? If you want to use commas correctly, you need to know them—see the end for the answers).

Analytic and organizational skills

To finish a PhD in a science you have to be at least a little analytical, logical, detail oriented, and organized. Most scientists who have enjoyed a lengthy career in science have a plentiful supply of these qualities. It goes with the territory. If you were attracted to a program in a science, then you probably have these qualities also. Science writing is often tedious (as is science) and much of the work consists of organizing information, presenting it in a clear and logical way, and paying attention to detail. Clear writing is logical writing. A graduate program in the sciences will help develop these aspects of your personality. Running a busy freelance business also requires a level of organization, even if just to get your estimated taxes paid on time and figure out which clients are late in paying.

Understanding science and how to research the literature

As a graduate student in the sciences, you will spend a lot of time searching the scientific literature and evaluating and assessing studies. Many science writers spend their time in this way also. As a science writer, when you write an article about something, it will often be up to you to decide which studies should be included to illustrate a point. You may go to a scientific conference and have to decide which presentations to write about. Graduate school will leave you with a clear understanding of the attributes that make a study well designed, and will help you understand the different prestige levels of certain journals. Attend as many journal clubs as you can while you are in graduate school to gain experience in critical assessment of studies. As a science writer, you will often be writing about things you didn’t learn about in grad school, but you will always know where to look things up, and you will not be intimidated by dense, technical scientific language. 

Ability to interact confidently with scientists

I have attended many press conferences over the years and have heard some pretty inane questions asked of scientists by the “non-science” press. If you have a PhD in a science, you will be way ahead of the game in this regard. You won’t be asking questions that you shouldn’t be asking (ie, things you would know if you had a science background), and you will be able to carry on a real conversation. Scientists will sense your understanding of the topic and open up to you. In fact, it is one of the true joys of being a science writer, being able to speak to some of the leading scientists in the world, people with whom you would otherwise have no contact, even as a scientist.

Ability to self-motivate, work alone, and meet deadlines

People sometimes ask how I deal with “writer’s block” and motivate myself to work at home, when no-one is watching. I tell them my dog is watching. No, seriously, in this regard, freelance writing is like any other job. All you have to do is think of what would happen if you didn’t get the work done. It would not be good. However, the best freelancers tend to view their long-term clients as friends, going the extra mile, making little additional tweaks and doing work they don’t necessarily have to do. You also have to learn to get yourself started on a project and give yourself enough time to meet deadlines. Grad school is similar in this regard. You have to learn how to organize yourself, and motivate yourself to repeat experiments, and do your best work, just because, even when no one is watching.

Ability to handle failure and criticism
For most of us, graduate school is difficult, especially after about the third year when the coursework is completed and you may be flailing around, trying to get your experiments to work and to finish up your dissertation. No matter what you do, freelance clients sometimes give you negative feedback, although this diminishes over time as you learn how to better meet your clients’ needs. Nonetheless, it is always painful, especially if your client does not make the effort to be nice about it. For some of us (myself included), the graduate school experience was a crucible that helped develop the ability to tolerate difficulty, failure, boredom, criticism, and a whole host of other challenges. To date, I have had no freelancing situation that made me as discouraged as when my doctoral committee tore my work apart in Year 4 and told me I basically had to start over…. graduate school will teach you to handle anything that freelancing throws at you. A career in freelance science writing is NOT for the faint of heart, but the good news is that the experience of getting your PhD will prepare you well.

Answer to test:
“However” is a conjunctive adverb. When “however” is used to separate two independent clauses (a group of words that contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought), it must be preceded by a semi-colon (not a comma) and followed by a comma. “It started to rain; however, I brought an umbrella.”

The 7 coordinating conjunctions are “but, and, nor, for, so, or, yet.” Those are the only ones. A comma should be used to separate two independent clauses separated by a coordinating conjunction. “I started to write this piece, and I was late because I lost track of time.” BUT, there is no comma in this sentence because the second clause is dependent “I started to write this piece and was late because I lost track of time.” Have I convinced you of the need to go read up on this stuff??