Science Writing and New Media: Communicating Science to the Public
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this introduction to writing about science, medicine, technology, and engineering for general audiences. The course emphasizes background research as the foundation of strong science journalism, and students read published work by established science writers to study technique. Assignments cycle through the popular forms working writers actually produce: news articles, interviews, personal essays, and short features, each building research and drafting skills for a different format. Materials include the syllabus, assignment prompts, and readings, in keeping with MIT OCW's open format. There is no instructor feedback loop or certificate, since OCW publishes course materials rather than running a live class, but the assignment sequence gives a structured, practical path from reporting to publishable prose for anyone wanting to write about science for non-specialist readers.