English 290sc - Colloquium: Topics in Crafting Creative Nonfiction-Writing about Science

This course invites students with an interest in science to learn skills for creatively communicating science news, concepts and history. Class time is devoted to discussions (call them dissections) of assigned readings, including books, articles, plays, poems and blogs that treat scientific themes. We compare and contrast the writing of practicing scientists with that of science writers, in the hope of appropriating the best elements of both. Class sessions later in the term provide time and space for workshopping and peer editing. Writing assignments include a profile (or obituary) of a scientist, and a final project concerning research in a field of personal interest.