Article

In teams (ranging from 3-5 members, depending on course enrollment), you will write a feature-length article for a science or engineering-related magazine or journal. The topic of this article, as well as the publication you gear it toward, will be decided on by your team. Over the course of the semester, you will do a series of assignments related to the article, including a query letter (which is a sort of proposal), a pitch presentation (another kind of proposal), a bibliography of background articles and an op-ed. More about those assignments later.

There are no length requirements for the article, except that it should be feature length (so probably necessarily over 1500 words). Generally, articles of this sort range from 1500 words to 5000 words. But you will look to the conventions of the magazines or journal you’re gearing your article toward.

We’ll be spending next Wednesday at Carpenter library (downstairs, in the blue room) for a session on using the library’s magazine and journal databases for finding articles on your topic (and possible venues for your article).

Also, I’ve pasted below some websites that might help you think about current science and engineering-related research:

http://www.eurekalert.org (Basic source for science press releases)
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ (A European counterpart to EurekAlert!)
http://www.newswise.org (An independent alternative to EurekAlert!)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/ (Another independent alternative to EurekAlert!)
http://ksjtracker.mit.edu (An experienced science journalist reviews the day's news, and
also comments on science journalism)
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/ (The New York Times, especially the Tuesday
"Science Times" section)

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