August 1st, 2008 • Quill Archives
Freelance: Freelancing advice from the ivory tower

One word: plastics. When I was in college, my journalism professor (and now colleague) Marcia Hurlow put me in contact with a university research magazine called Odyssey, whose editor asked me to write about “the world’s longest plastic-deck bridge.” I knew relatively little about bridges, and less about plastics, but I wanted to set myself apart as a writer who could translate scientific jargon for readers.