It's a Jungle Up There – Writing for Technical Versus Public Audiences

Scientific writing is an important mechanism for communicating sound science. Now that the “world is flat," scientists are challenged to publish scientific findings for diverse audiences – citizens, students, policy makers, colleagues, and even armchair naturalists. A good public science book can lead to the transformation of policies on conservation, ecology or science education; hence, writing for nontechnical audiences is time well spent in any ecological career. With the current national decline in science literacy, and dismal statistics about the nature-deficit disorders facing youth, ecologists need to prioritize the diversification of their writing skill sets with different types of science communication. I provide examples of how technical science can be transformed into public science, and “walk” through the sequence of an initial proposal to a book publisher to its final marketing in both technical and public science arenas, including the time and effort expended for each effort. Young ecologists are advised to think in terms of dual publications – a technical document plus a parallel public science book – because this may increase the efficiency of the writing process.