Why are Good Online Writing Habits Useful to Environmental Scientists?
This semester I wrote 20 atomic essays and 3 medium blogs about the environment and different ways students might become interested in studying the environment.
This was a tough challenge, but it allowed me to explore topics related to environmental science that I hadn’t before. I wrote about topics ranging from atmospheric gasses to oceanic noise pollution.
How have I changed?
This semester has changed me as a writer because it allowed me to try a more casual style of writing.
In the past, all of my writing had to be scientific and academic.
After being conditioned for years to write academically and use scientific language, I found it incredibly difficult to shift away from that.
It almost felt wrong to try writing at a different reading level, even though I knew a more general audience would never pay attention to me if they couldn’t easily read my writing. It was a very hard habit to break.
This semester my writing has been geared towards a public audience, so it needed to be readable and interesting to people outside of my direct field.
After writing in this style this semester, I have learned to make my writing more interesting to people that might not have been interested in my field before.
I found that chemistry especially was an incredibly difficult topic to make interesting to a general audience, but I hope I have improved throughout this semester.
My audience
The specific audience my writing has been geared towards is other students my age who are thinking about studying environmental science at their school.
In my writing, I tried to show them how useful it is to study the environment by communicating how diverse the topic of environmental science actually is. I tried to show that there are many interesting sub-areas of environmental science that they might not have thought to pursue before.
I also tried to gear some of my writing towards individual people who may not have any background in environmental science.
I think my best atomic essay that shows this is an essay I revised from a medium blog, called pH of Natural Waters. In this atomic essay, I tried to break down a lab I performed in an environmental science course and make it accessible to anyone outside of a lab. I wrote out step by step instructions and also advised how to interpret the results.
The skills I’ve gained
I think the skill that will be the most useful to me in the future will be engagement in social interactions and adapting to public audiences.
Before this class, I had not thought about how it is important to be able to communicate my ideas with a more general audience instead of only other scientists.
I now understand that in order for my research to be truly impactful, I have to be able to get people who never previously cared about the environment engaged in my work.
If I only ever communicated with my colleagues and others in my field, nothing would ever come of my research.
One of the ways I’ve learned to do this is having a hook to gain new readers. The title is one of the most important parts of writing online, because it’s what attracts potential new readers to click on your article.
An interesting title is especially important in environmental science. One great example we talked about in class was an environmental writer who used hooks like “I’m An Environmental Scientist and I Dont Care if You Recycle.”
I remember how this immediately caught everyone’s attention because it was slightly controversial. Stirring the pot can be a great way to get people interested in what you’re writing.
I have also learned how to better style my writing. In the past, I didn’t realize how important aesthetics were to writing.
This semester I worked on making my writing habits pleasing to the eye, which hopefully attracted some new readers. I learned how to break up large chunks of text, where to place headlines, and how to position images within text.
This semester has been very impactful on my writing and future career in science. I hope now I will be able to spread my research with more than just those in my circle.
