This weekend was the second block of Writing Science, and it was a challenging week (in a good way). The block was intense, and felt longer than 3 days as we were kept busy with loads of different tasks.

Thursday was the theory-focused day, as our main lecture was on framing science, while Friday was practical and focused on Magazine Anatomy. To learn about anatomy, we had to flatplan a magazine issue, which meant working out how to structure the issue, and what stories would be placed in what order to catch and keep people’s attention.

I liked the puzzle of planning out the route through the pages and deciding how many pages we would use to tell each story. That was a taste of how many decisions working in a field like this requires about almost every aspect. A lot of what we were talking about, like magazine structure and using a variety of features so people don’t get bored of one topic, will be useful for our group magazine projects too.

We also had a brief lecture about online writing and SEO. SEO is one of those areas that I always mean to research but don’t yet have any application for, so I appreciated having a reason to look at it more.

Aside from that, most of the block was saved for magazine project work. My group have had smooth progress so far; most of the articles are either done or progressing, the overall layout is clear, and we’ve got some designs we’re happy with.

So far, the only annoying part is that we want to spend a lot of time on the magazine because it’s such a novel challenge, when its grade is only 20% of the module marks (4% of the degree). The other assessments due soon are worth more, so I really should be spending more time on them.

Finally, the best news of the block- we all got to see our work published in Science Matters, the UWE science magazine. I found seeing everyone’s stories and looking at their different writing styles really interesting. Even though I’m a bit disappointed with my own article, as I tried to use a simpler style that didn’t come across too well, it’s still a confidence boost to be published.