September 9, 2004 - Volume 37 Number 01

     Hot Sparks glow warmer
Maeve Haldane | Linda Cooper has a mission: To make every newspaper,
magazine or scholarly journal's research story engaging, clear and easy
to read. This is a tough task in a world filled with bloated jargon,
academese and dangling participles.

  Linda Cooper
Owen Egan

She has held workshops on science writing for medical professionals
around Europe and North America, and teaches Science Writing and
Publishing at McGill for graduate students. Since 2002, Cooper has run
the Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge program (SPARK),
a writing workshop for students to teach them the skills for
communicating scientific research through the media to an intelligent
readership.

Cooper, affiliated with the faculty of science, believes it's crucial
for writers and academics to be able to convey complex ideas to the
general public: "Not to oversimplify what people do, but to keep the
[research's] meaning intact, to make it as accessible as possible," she
says.

This year, SPARK is expanding to WARM-SPARK (Writing About Research at
McGill) to include social sciences and the humanities. Originally, the
SPARK initiative was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council. When McGill's vice-principal (research) office
received some money from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council as reimbursement for a consultation exercise, they decided to
reinvest it in human sciences communications, said research
communications officer Jennifer Towell. Cooper's success and her ability
to mentor the students made the question of where to put the funds a
no-brainer, she added.

Under Cooper's enthusiastic guidance, students choose research-ers to
interview and write about. The stories are then pitched to different
media, from McGill's Reporter to the Globe and Mail. The group meets
once a week to go over each other's writing and discusses the tangled
aspects of scholarly work at McGill. Not only do the students explore
different disciplines through the researchers they talk to, they are
also exposed to the varied backgrounds of the group members.

The experience of crafting the stories is as valuable to the students as
it is for those who end up reading them. Cooper says, "It helps you
learn about diverse areas of research at McGill and is a really good way
to foster awareness of interdisciplinary, groundbreaking research at
McGill."

They put good use to the skills they learn. Past SPARKers have gone on
to freelance successfully for major papers, continue graduate studies in
top-notch schools, and one got an internship at a UN organization.

"When they deconstruct each other's text, it gives them a whole new
understanding of the subject. Everyone asks clarifying questions,"
Cooper says.

Kim Krieger, who went on to intern at the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and is now a freelance writer, states in an
email: "Before SPARK I had no idea good writing about science was
valued, much less that anyone would pay me to do it. Now communicating
scientific ideas by the written word is my career.

"Every day I get to ask world-famous scientists stupid questions - and
then tell the world what they say. It's the ultimate job for someone
with endless curiosity and a talent for storytelling."

"It's always good to have a writing community," Cooper adds. "And it's
fun! It's a lot of fun. The students are bright and curious. They're
dynamic. There's an energy to the group."

See www.spark.mcgill.ca for past work. Interested in joining? Get in
touch with Cooper at [log in to unmask] Open to undergraduate and
graduate students.


Public and media > McGill Reporter > Volume 37: 2004-2005 > September 9,
2004 > Hot SPARKS glow warmer
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