Bringing opinion essays into being / The Chronic Migraine Chronicles

To welcome spring we kicked off an opinion-essay writing drive, then workshopped sections from a forthcoming memoir-and-science-guide for general readers about living with chronic migraines.

Benefits of opinion-essay writing

Opinion essays about science for the general public can appear in newspapers or blogs and have many advantages. Writing them forces us to clarify the social context of scientific studies, and to articulate what is novel in this work and why we think a particular perspective and contribution are worthwhile. They can also help inform the public.

We have workshopped drafts of opinion essays at NeuWrite Nordic in the past, but our inspiration for starting a spring drive to produce more of them came from a recently published article for scientists in Nature: "Opinion writing is a win-win: sharing your perspective and ideas can benefit general readers and your career."

First, our director Trevor Corson gave a presentation he often uses in external workshops:

• "Transforming a science question and answer into the foundation for a story-based opinion essay: From 4 bullet points to 5 elements".

Starting to write is often the hardest part, so Trevor's guide could provide a template to get going.

Then as a group, we discussed examples of published opinion essays about science selected by our participants. Some were examples from the “Viewpoints” section of Undark Magazine. See below for the full list of examples we chose from.

As a group, we had mixed reactions to the example essays we studied. We got some ideas for writing approaches to try, but also some ideas about things perhaps to do differently.

Non-fiction book writing about science

The second half of our workshop this month we dedicated to providing feedback on draft material from an exciting in-progress book project, The Chronic Migraine Chronicles: A neuroscientist’s journey to understand her brain and help it heal by Elina Jacobson. We gained many fascinating insights about the pain-sensing apparatuses of the human head, and in the process, developed a lot of empathy.

We also got revved up about possible ways of reaching everyday readers with complex science by weaving personal narrative with concrete explanation. We look forward to workshopping more material from this promising project down the road.

Example opinion essays

Below are example opinion essays dealing with a variety of scientific fields from the “Viewpoints” section of Undark Magazine, some of which we discussed.

The practice of science:

• “How Science Can Adapt to a New Normal” by C. Brandon Ogbunu
• “The Unsung Role of the Research Coordinator” by Lance Roller II
• “Boosting Gender Equity in the Sciences” by Lisa M.P. Munoz
• “Fund Young Scientists to Boost Innovation” by Aman Majmudar
• “Graduate Programs Should Embrace Failure” by Brittany Trang

Biology:

• “Reflecting on the Risks of ‘Mirror Life’” by Michael Kay
• “The Post-Genomic Age is Here” by C. Brandon Ogbunu
• “The Incongruous Origin of Plant Specimens” by Daniel Park
• “My Life-Changing Foray with Fungi” by Louise Fabiani

Climate/environment:

• “The Problem with Carbon Capture Storage” by Christian Elliott
• “The Value of Greenland Is Its Ice” by Paul Bierman
• “We Need Better Data for Hurricane Threats” by Brian Glazer
• “Climate Hope is Overrated” by Katarina Zimmer

Computer science:

• “Preserving Good Data in the Age of AI” by Peter Hall
• “Rethinking Authenticity in the Age of AI” by Victor Lee

Physics/astronomy:

• “Saving the Chandra X-ray Observatory” by Katherine Laliotis
• “Embracing Uncertainty in Astrobiology” by Julie Novakova
• “Small Nuclear Reactors’ Big Flaw” by Paul Hockenos

Medicine/public health:

• “Local Mpox Responders Need Direct Support” by Ben Smilowitz and Ankush Bansal

• “Reframing the Incentives for Rural Health” by Arjun V.K. Sharma

• “Healthcare Pollution is Killing Us” by David Introcaso and Eric Reinhart

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Image: Ahasanara Akter, Vecteezy