Assignment sheet for Project 2, Writing about Science for Non-Scientific Audiences

1. ENGL 318/JAMM 328 | pg 1
PROJECT 2
[Writing about Science for Non-Scientific
Audiences]
100 points. First draft due 2/21 (by class time); final draft due 2/23 by
11:59 p.m.
A news release - also called a press release, press statement, or media
release - is a short document written to alert the media and the public about
a new development: in our case, the publication of scientific research. While
some scientific news releases are published on centralized sites like
EurekAlert!, organizations like the University of Idaho typically publish them
on their own websites to highlight work being done at the university, and
also in the hopes that others will find and link to the news releases.
While your news release will be written in a journalistic style, the real goal
for the assignment is to start getting comfortable with finding the
significance of scientific research and to write about it in a way that is
accessible to and interesting for people without expertise in this particular
field.
PROJECT DELIVERABLE
Write a 550-700-word news release about recent scientific research
conducted at the University of Idaho for publication on the University of
Idaho website (see some samples at www.uidaho.edu/sci/news/releases).
Ideally, you’ll use very recent research (published within the last 6 months
or about to be published); however, if you can’t access very recent work or
want to focus on other work by a particular scientist, it’s fine to use a paper
that was published within the past five years. You can pretend (via your date
and time stamp) that you’re writing the release at the time the work
appeared. While I’m imagining that you’ll be writing about articles published
in peer-reviewed scientific journals, you could also write about scientists who
have won grants to study something.
Note that along with reading his/her scientific research, you will need to
actually interview the scientist - schedule this ASAP!!! UI-CDA students will
need to schedule it via Skype or some other video-conferencing platform.
Your news release should contain the following elements:
 An attention-grabbing, newsworthy headline.

2. ENGL 318/JAMM 328 | pg 2
 An interesting image that captures the essence of the article (you can
use Google Image Search for this - just be sure to include the source
in a caption below the image).
 A link to the abstract or article.
 A date and time stamp (e.g. January 18, 2018)
 A lead which summarizes the gist of the story in 25 words or less.
 All the essential information about the research (use the journalistic
questions: who? what? when? where? why? how?).
 Quotes from a minimum of one source (whom you will need to
interview) - probably one of the scientists who conducted the research.
NOTE: You should contact this person ASAP for an interview!
 A call to action and description of the organization at the end.
 A statement about how and for how much the study was funded.
 The names and contact information for the appropriate media contacts
for the lab.
GRADING CHART
Your news release will be evaluated on the following qualities.
Attention-grabbing. The headline, lead, and content tell a clear and
compelling story about the significance (and newsworthiness) of this
research. Quotations are well-chosen to illuminate the significance of
the research or the interestingness of the process.
25
points
Accurate. The information about the scientific research presented in
the news release is clear, accurate, and thorough.
25
points
Well organized. The body of the news release focuses on the most
important elements first, but includes all relevant information using the
5 Ws (and H) as a guide.
25
points
Stylistically appropriate and mechanically correct. The news
release uses accessible language, is written in third person, quotes from
at least one relevant source, is written in AP Style and is free of
grammatical and mechanical error.
25
points
TOTAL 100
points