Science Writing and New Media: Perspectives on Medicine and Public Health

Readings

SES #	READINGS
1	No assigned readings
2	Campo, Rafael. “Illness as Muse.” Bellevue Literary Review (2011) (V11 2).
3	Shin, Eliza. “Star Material.” JAMA 281, no. 6 (1999): 493. Groopman, Jerome. “Flesh-and-Blood Decision Making.” In How Doctors Think. Mariner Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780547053646. [Preview with Google Books] Ofri, Danielle. “Acne.” Annals of Internal Medicine 132, no. 11 (2000): 919–20. ———. “Incidental Illness.” Health Affairs 23, no. 4 (2004): 197–201.
4	Ofri, Danielle. “Tools of the Trade.” The New England Journal of Medicine 349 (2003): 1693–4. Durso, Samuel C. “Trust.” Annals of Internal Medicine 137, no. 12 (2002): 1004–5. McClenahan, John L. “Drop-in.” Annals of Internal Medicine 137, no. 4 (2002): 293–4. Ross, Carolyn. “Rhetoric: Writing About Personal Experience.” In Writing Nature: An Ecological Reader for Writers. St. Martin’s Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780312103910.
5	Gawande, Atul. “When Doctors Make Mistakes.” In Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. Picador, 2003. ISBN: 9780312421700. Nuland, Sherwin B. “Mistakes in the Operating Room—Error and Responsibility.” The New England Journal of Medicine 351, no. 13 (2004): 1281–3. Mukherjee, Siddhartha. “A Precarious Exchange.” The New England Journal of Medicine 351, no. 18 (2004): 1822–4. Fadiman, Anne. “Preface”, and “The Eight Questions.” In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. ISBN: 9780374525644. [Preview with Google Books]
6	Sample Student Narrative Essays “Faith and Medicine (PDF).” (Courtesy of Dima Mirkin. Used with permission.) “The First Sip (PDF).” (Courtesy of an MIT student. Used with permission.)
7	No assigned readings
8	Nisbet, Matthew C., and Dietram A. Scheufele. “What’s Next for Science Communication? Promising Directions and Lingering Distractions.” American Journal of Botany 96, no. 10 (2009): 1767–8. Pineda, Diego. “Editing a Science Documentary: More Than Words (Literally!).” (PDF) Science Editor 27, no. 2 (2004): 47–49. Varner, Johanna. “Scientific Outreach: Toward Effective Public Engagement with Biological Science.” BioScience 64, no. 4 (2014): 333–40. Reynolds, Julie. “When Communicating with Diverse Audiences, Use Velcro To Make Science Stick.” Bulletin Ecological Society of America 90, no. 3 (2009): 297–304. Select and view a pair of documentaries from this list: Critical Review Documentaries (PDF)
9	Sample Student Critical Review “Why Should I Care?: Analyzing the Effectiveness of an Environmental Documentary (PDF).” (Courtesy of an MIT student. Used with permission.)
10	Find and read three articles on the subject of your documentaries. Look for carefully researched articles. Steer clear of news articles. Hancock, Elise. “A Matter of Attitude.” In Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780801873300. [Preview with Google Books]
11	No assigned readings
12	Critical reviews from your workshop group
13	No assigned readings
14	Penrose, Ann M., and Steven B. Katz. “Reviewing as a Genre: The Review Article.” In Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication). 3rd ed. Longman, 2010. ISBN: 9780205616718. Diekelmann, Susanne, and Jan Born. “The Memory Function of Sleep.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11, no. 2 (2010): 114–26. Stickgold, Robert, and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen. “Quiet! Sleeping Brain at Work.” Scientific American Mind 19, no. 4 (2008): 22–29. Select and read carefully an article from the following list on a public health topic that interests you and might provide a starting point for your own Scientific American Update: Preparation for your Scientific American Update (PDF)
15	Track down and read a recent (last five years) review article that covers new research on a key topic within the earlier magazine article. Read at least two more journal articles (probably from the list of studies covered by the review article) that focus on the particular area of research that interests you.
16	Sample student Scientific American Updates (Courtesy of MIT students and used with permission): “Cancer Causing Fat - Why Postmenopausal Obese Women Are in Danger (PDF)” “Scientific American Update: Sea-Level Rise and Its Potential Impacts (PDF)”
17	No assigned readings
18	Scientific American Updates written by your workshop partners
19	Any additional reading / research required to complete the revision of your Scientific American Update
20	No assigned readings
21	Watch three TED talks (see list in the Assignments section)
22	No assigned readings
23	No assigned readings
24	Reread your three major writing assignments for the semester, review the feedback you received, and select the assignment that you plan to revise a second time.
25	No assigned readings
26	Select a passage (c. two pages) from a work assigned earlier this term (or another work by one of the assigned authors).