A university offers many internal avenues for aspiring science writers to practice and learn

One of the first worries I had once I had decided to try to follow a path of science writing was "I really haven’t written much non-technical stuff." I knew that applying for writing programs or fellowships would require me to send in writing samples, preferably published ones, and I wondered what I could use to display my talents (I didn’t think my recently submitted article to the Journal of Bacteriology would be engrossing enough). Fortunately, having a strong academic science background can overcome a few deficiencies on the writing side, but having some demonstrated writing would have given me an extra boost.

Others like me who are planning or thinking about science writing while at an academic setting may find a similar dilemma. Between research, lab meetings, writing grants and papers, and keeping up on the latest science, there isn’t much downtime to try to pen some freelance work. However, while time constraints did not allow me to fully pursue the opportunities around me, it’s important to know that a university setting is a valuable resource.

One obvious choice is auditing a writing course, or courses, and getting first-hand tutelage. Besides learning some of the tips and tricks of good creative writing, courses provide a sense of structure by meeting at the same time each week and having deadlines to turn in assignments (as some of us know, when there is a deadline looming the urgency to produce dramatically increases). By the time you’ve finished the course, you have probably sharpened those writing skills and have a handful of writing samples to boot; if you do any future writing at the school, you can always ask your course instructor for some editing help too.

For additional writing, you don’t even have to leave your own lab. You could consider asking your PI if you could write a review article on some aspect of your lab’s area of research. It’s a topic that is familiar to you and, while they’re not a completely creative product, reviews and commentaries do provide a bit more flair than a standard research article and do show an ability to effectively summarize a disparate materials into a coherent story.

Looking further out, the university or institute as a whole has in-house publications that could provide writing opportunities. The school paper and university magazine are probably the most visible ones, but communications offices release a host of newsletters, press releases, and other material. A lab researcher is in a great spot to pick up all the news their lab or department produces first. If your boss or another colleague is about to publish some hot findings, you can write up a short blurb and see if the school paper would like to print it.

The writing doesn’t have to be simply about research. If a new faculty member has been hired or a faculty is going to win a prestigious award (or any other scuttlebutt you can pick up in the hallways), you can write a short biography about that person and see if the university press would like to include it somewhere.

Now, just like in the real world, some of these ideas and stories you come up with may not get published, but the possibility of being printed (and also paid, but if you agree to write some stuff free of charge, that might help it get published) might be enough to at least encourage your writing. With a good effort, you will have an assortment of samples when the time comes to submit some. Also, getting some creative writing in is a good way to see if science writing is the path for you before you make any long term investments. Many graduate students and post docs may not be consciously aware of these opportunities as, rightly so, they are concerned with their own research projects and goals, but a university setting offers a great asset to those of us thinking about a career change, and these are just some ways of taking advantage of it.