Different media mean different ways of storytelling about science: radio, podcasts, TV, online news, books, blogs, print media, and the list goes on.

Discuss it/on your own: How do these media differ in the way they tell stories? Compare and contrast the different elements. For example: paragraph/speech length, sources, images, total length, hyperlinking. What other elements are different, or the same between these media?

Find an example of science story that particularly grabs your interest.

Discuss it/on your own: What were the elements that interested you? How did the reporter grab your attention? Was there any sensationalism or controversy in the story? Can you think of how the story could take on different angles (i.e. be written for a business magazine, for example)? Discuss how the reporter illustrated concepts (graphics, controversy, quotes, case study). Is the story told in present or past tense? How did the reporter end the story?

Practice: Now, have a go at rewriting a couple of paragraphs of the story as follows. If there’s a technical explanation, try to rewrite it using an analogy, for example, or try to reorder the information so it starts with a different angle. Or have a go at sketching a rough illustration of a scientific concept from the story.

Find a story that reports on results from a research project. This exercise will help you think about what elements you can use to tell a story about research that’s just beginning.

Practice/on your own: Imagine you’re with the research scientists at the beginning of the project described in the report you found. Write the beginning paragraphs about a story you could tell to get people excited about the new and upcoming project. You can make up some quotes from the scientists if you like.

Stories with a scientific element can benefit greatly from images, whether it’s a TV, radio, print or online report. Find a science story with spectacular images online (blog or online media), and a TV story about science (e.g. the video section on the ABC ‘science’ page).

Discuss it/on your own: Was the imagery to entertain or explain? Is there merit in both? How well do you think it worked? Is there anything you’d change? How did the reporter build words (or not) around the imagery?

One day you may report on a human interest story—and scientists are no different to other people in their passion for their work. A profile of a scientist can be used to illustrate interesting elements of their work. Find a report that works a scientist’s research into their profile.

Discuss it/on your own: What elements did the reporter work into the profile? How detailed did they make the explanations? Describe what you particularly liked about the profile.

A feature story differs from a straight news story in one respect—its intent. A news story has information about an event, an idea or a situation. A feature story has that and more—it may interpret news, add depth and colour to a story, instruct and/or entertain. You are going to practise writing some paragraphs for a feature story that revolves around science. Choose a simple scientific concept (e.g. gravity) and invent a scientist working in the field.

Practice it: You can do as many of these exercises as you like. They’re all good practice. Write three paragraphs to start your report. Write a simple paragraph or two to explain the scientific concept. Write some quotes from your (excited) scientist source, and a quote from another (imaginary) source of your choice. There are different ways to end feature stories, too—quotes, anecdotes, summary sentences—write some end paragraphs to end your report.