With a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and more than 12 years of experience as a science communicator, I'm an expert at helping scientists tell their science stories. If you're looking to become a more confident communicator of science, check out my newsletter!
Issue 11 - Continuing the Hero's Journey
Hi, Reader! I don't know about you, but I had a rough weekend. I landed in the hospital during the wee hours, and while I'm doing better now, I don't feel much like my normal self. So, while this newsletter has Part 3 of my Hero's Journey series, Part 4 will have to wait a week or so while I recover and get myself back on an even keel. Thanks for understanding while I pause and reset!
The Hero's Journey, Part 3: Character-Driven Nonfiction
When writing a science-focused Hero's Journey, you can still focus on a character and their journey. Here I deconstruct a familiar example and show how a similar technique can work for individual researchers telling their own story.
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On a Detour
In which life has other plans...
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From Around the Web
- Charles Darwin's note-making system - Darwin, father of evolutionary biology, developed his own system of taking and building on notes. In a digital age, we're unlikely to exactly copy it, but this article gives a fascinating look into how Darwin structured his work and thinking.
From the Archives
Here's the O.G. version of my Hero's Journey in Scicomm, as presented almost five years ago now.
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That's it for now! I'll see you again in two weeks with more scicomm tips, tricks, and inspiration. - Nicole
Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
With a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and more than 12 years of experience as a science communicator, I'm an expert at helping scientists tell their science stories. If you're looking to become a more confident communicator of science, check out my newsletter!
Hi, Reader! This year my summer calendar has a massive question mark hanging over it. That's not, in my experience, conducive to steady, quality writing each week. So I've decided to put the blog and this newsletter on a hiatus until life gets a little more certain. I expect to return in a couple months with lots more to say and share about communicating science. In the meantime, though, I leave you with another edition of "Fixed It For You" - this time powered by ChatGPT. Or rather, inspired...
Hi, Reader! Whether you like them or loathe them, we all have to deal with time and word limits at some point. In this issue, I take a look at the questions you should ask yourself anytime you're operating with one of these constraints. And because we all sometimes have budget constraints, too, I share some of my secrets for finding free, royalty-free images, video footage, music, and sound effects. I hope they'll help you dress up your presentations, videos, and research posters without...
Hi, Reader! Since I was asked a few weeks ago to prepare a five-minute, no-slides talk for Fellows of the Royal Society, I've had constraints on the brain. I feel like we scientists and engineers love to complain about time limits and word counts and just not having enough space for our voices and ideas. But the more I thought about constraints in other contexts, like art, the more I realized that constraints are, in fact, a good thing to have. And not just for the audience or conference...