Around, Once More, with Owmapow
by Channie Greenberg
part 1
Dear Dr. Amoeba:
Are you still seeking a Science Writer?
Dr. Owen Brownstone
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Dr. Owen Brownstone:
The position is almost taken, but I would be happy to talk with you upon receipt of your CV if you send it ASAP.
Thanks,
Dr. Amoeba
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Dear Dr. Amoeba:
I am writing in response to your email. Writing about pain in fish is well within my scope of prowess. Working on a team whose focus is designing treatments for pain in humans, by studying those treatments on Danio rerio and on Oryzias latipes is within my academic interests. See: Shellfish and Their Landlocked Buddies’ longish author interview of me.
After all, I’m happy “translating” the academy’s complex ideas into rhetoric usable by the general public. In addition, I am a National Science Foundation Scholar and have taught science writing to community college students.
I think you will find me to be intelligent, creative, and able. That is I think you will find me well-suited to your needs.
Attached is a chronological CV. Please contact me if you or your institute need any additional information. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Owen Brownstone
(Owmapow)
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Hi Owmapow!
Your experience looks good. Did you ever write for peer-reviewed, scientific journals? If so, which ones? Did you ever write about pain research?
Dr. Amoeba
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Dr. Amoeba:
A good (science) writer must be facile with language. Such an individual, given a rudimentary “taste” of a topic’s jargon, and given adequate information about the demographics and psychographics of the audience to whom his data is meant to address, can construct discourse suitable for that audience’s needs. Meaning, a good writer must possess and use classic writing skills.
To wit, over the last few decades, I have challenged myself to teach, to write (and to publish) in domains in which I am not formally trained. I could not refer to myself as a “skilled” writer if I failed to communicate outside of rigid topical constraints.
Consider that my NSF Fellowship was based in Eastern New Mexico University’s Biology Department (a snippet of that work is attached); and that my most recent peer review publications focused on Pleuroncodes planipes, and on Ostracods. It’s interesting and important for me to grasp, to organize, and to articulate many types of ideas. What’s more, recently, I’ve concurrently returned to creative work, e.g. to penning a short story for Smarmy Friends, and to offering up some humorous essays for Under the Sea.
In short, I morph myself to fit rhetorical needs. Because I can flex around various concepts, I am a better resource for “translating” subject specific ideas into general and specialized texts than is someone with training in a limited sector of science. A little reading and few well-placed questions often suffice to zoom me to “warp speed” on technical projects.
In view of my tact on how to write for scientific communities, I offer the following definitions. By “peer review scientific journals,” I assume you mean publications like: ICES Journal of Marine Science, Marine Policy, and Journal of Marine Research. By “research,” I assume you mean “scientific (method-based) analyses, interpretations, and evaluations.”
Beyond the crafting of the above definitions, if you want to see how I work, please send me a sample page and the specifics about where/before whom the ideas are meant to appear. I will finesse the text accordingly. Alternatively, you could send me some of your unedited findings and could prescribe for me the type of short summary that you would want me to construct concerning those findings. I’ll take on either of the above tasks for a nominal fee. I think you will be pleased with the results.
The work you have been engaged in on pain management is interesting to me as a science writer, as a critical thinker, and as a biologist. It is incumbent upon us experts, who have benefited from years and years of education, to do our part to help reduce human misery.
I will make a good addition to your research team. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Owmapow
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Owmapow:
I will hire you to freelance for one paper. You will need to read a lot about the issue in order to do it well and to suggest additions to the discussion at the end of as well as to suggest additions to its introduction. If I give you a standard paper draft, say 5000 words in length, to revise, what would be your fee?
James Amoeba
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James:
5,000 words is roughly twenty manuscript pages, at 250 words/page. Based on the industry norm of approximately $70.00/hour, and on the industry average of about ten pages/hour, this project should take me about two hours and should cost you about $140.00. However, I will not charge you for the time it takes me to read and to integrate new data since this task is meant to showcase my editing skills, not my sharp learning curve.
Please keep in mind that science writing fees are higher than are science editing fees, but we can negotiate my cost if you offer me a spot as a writer. Similarly, salaried work is usually less expensive than is contract work, but salaried work involves a different type of commitment from an employer than does contract work. We can discuss such matters later.
I look forward to receiving this project. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Owmapow
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Dear James:
I await a copy of your manuscript. Please forward it to this email address at your first convenience.
Owmapow
PS: If my terms of payment terms are unacceptable, please advise. I am eager to begin this project.
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Dear Owmapow:
I am not sure which manuscript to send you. Do you know more about analgesic or anxiolytic treatments? Do you have online access to journals or do you need to use our library?
James
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Dear James:
Whereas I’d rather not check “quantitative stuff,” e.g. equations, since I prefer to trust that one of your scientists has already checked and rechecked all of your lab results, I do enjoy rolling around in qualitative ideas. Why don’t you send me the manuscript that has the roughest edges?
Along with that document, please indicate: your intended audience, your intended tone, and the qualities you like, e.g. well substantiated claims, and dislike, e.g. lack of parsimony, in kindred publications. I will follow your lead per the nature of the piece at the same time as I am editing for its arrangement of ideas and for the development of its concepts.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Owmapow
PS: Per access to a library, I have entrée, through my own department, to many journals. However, if there are particular readings that you want me to peruse, I might need additional access codes.
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James:
Will you soon be sending me the paper that you want me to edit?
Owmapow
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Owmapow:
I thought I sent it over already. Here it is, again.
The paper is about using virtual reality with zebrafish as a drug-free response to pain. Note the mention of the lack of randomized controlled data to adjudicate this method’s effectiveness. Good luck!
James
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James:
I attached my Track Changes version of your paper’s abstract. I want to be certain that the reading level is suitable for the audience(s) you have in mind and that I am using the same meaning for terms/phrases that you intend. I am a stickler for thrift in logic.
Further, I want to pay attention not only to overarching qualities of your rhetoric, but also to your work’s mechanics. Please specify which style sheet I ought to follow, e.g. Chicago, APA, or other.
If I am on the right track, so far, then I will proceed with the rest of your document. This work is a pleasure to edit. I am attaching two versions of your abstract to make sure that I am flying in the correct direction.
Owmapow
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James:
Attached please find your paper, edited. Given that I made over forty comments on your paper and that I made literally dozens and dozens of edits, I think we can consider this version a “first pass.” At your convenience, please address the questions listed in the comments.
Overall, you and your colleagues’ ideas were well organized and were well explicated. Most scientists are not as adept at in expressing themselves as are you and your research team. I look forward to joining you.
Owmapow
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Dear Dr. Amoeba:
It is bad enough that I dream about documentation when I am compiling the results of my own research. For the last few nights, I have been drifting to sleep thinking about my edits to your work and about corrections I would like to make to those edits. I’m glad I prefaced that I considered my communication to you a “first pass.”
I am eager to work with you on a more polished version of the article and to help finesse additional reports on your research. I was sincere when I expressed that I enjoy manipulating fascinating ideas. Your team’s research certainly, and appropriately, commands attention.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Owmapow
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Dear Owmapow,
Thanks. I am in Cancun, now, at the International Ichthyology Conference and will, hopefully, get to check some of your work between meetings. If you have changes, please send them. Although I did not get to review your editing I must tell you that the most important issue for me is hiring someone to write so I can use my time elsewhere on the project.
I am looking for a person who can read relevant material and do more than editing, maybe that person can even refer to very relevant papers we did not cite in our manuscript. In brief, I must stop spending time on writing. So, please remember, in your editing and in your remarks, to be very concise. Please.
Thanks,
James
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Dear James:
I hope your conference was productive. I find such meetings are usually most valuable for the connections that they afford me, rather than for the opportunity to present or to listen to research; most of the reliable studies find their way into print, anyway.
Speaking of print, I offered to provide you with a two hour sample of my content. I certainly can, as well, search and read materials that are relevant to, but not yet include in, your manuscripts. However, doing so would require more than the two hours we negotiated.
Moreso, since I am also an academic with my own research, I need to know whether or not you want to hire me. If so, we can discuss schedules/deadlines. If not, I’ve already given you much more than two hours of my time and can’t afford to give you more.
Sincerely,
Owmapow
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Owmapow:
Agreed! Per conferences’ value, though, I disagree. Conferences enable me to learn a lot about new developments before they get into print.
James
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James:
I spent some time creating a document pertaining to hiring me. I wrote out a job description, a salary chart, and more. Please forgive me if any of this material is extraneous to your needs. I know you are pressed for time and, accordingly, thought it would be more sagacious to send you lots of data than to volley limited data back and forth.
I proposed a starting date of December 2nd as a compromise between your need to get your science writer working “yesterday,” and my need to “batten down the hatches” of my life’s schedule. Please feel free to communicate any questions, concerns, or corrections.
Sincerely,
Owmapow
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Copyright © 2020 by Channie Greenberg
