This year’s Science Writing workshop was held 23—27 June, and again it was my pleasure to conduct it, with a special group of warm and avid students from Oslo and Tromso, as well as Bergen. It seems I say this every year—because it’s true—but in this iteration we grew particularly close. Their generous contributions to each other’s writing were delightful to see.
We devoted 1.5 hours to discussing each of their submitted manuscripts, essentially asking the recuring question, “Is the science clear?” Beyond that, a significant thrust of the workshop is to develop a writing/thinking process that can be applied to the development of a research paper from scratch. I suggest that the writers put aside the conventional parts of a paper and first write only the essence of the science, answering the questions, “What gap in present knowledge does the new research fill? The gap is the motivation for pursuing the new scientific accomplishment. What is that new scientific accomplishment and how does it fill the gap? What methods were employed and what conclusions were drawn?”
On Wednesday, we continued our tradition of “Lit Night,” in which, after a pot-luck dinner, I read aloud several short stories, one by me, and discuss them as a group, exploring how the writers use the artistic tools of the short story to produce meaning—and how some of those tools might be applied to science writing.
I could not effectively conduct the workshop without the generous participation by faculty members with professional experience writing and publishing science papers. Many of these people have been supporting our endeavor since its inception 15 years ago. I am deeply grateful for their essential contributions to the workshops’ success.
It has been my abiding privilege and pleasure to work with the faculty, students, and administrators, not to mention my delight in visiting Bergen, which has come to feel like a home away from home.
Finally, I ask the students to notify me when their papers are finally published.
All my respect and thanks, Dallas.
