Our one-year program focuses on introducing students to science communication in a broad range of formats, including news articles, long-form features, investigative reports, archival projects, radio and video documentary, data visualization, podcasting, and interactive projects, as well as developing fundamental research and reporting skills students will use throughout their careers.

Our program’s position within MIT provides our students with access to a world of groundbreaking research unfolding all around them. Students are also supported by our program’s commitment to creating a personalized educational environment through small classes, a low faculty-student ratio, alumni networking and mentorship opportunities, professional development workshops, multiple internship opportunities throughout the year, strong relationships with top employers in the science communication field, and partnerships with MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Fellowship Program for mid-career journalists.

What is Science Writing?

Science writing means writing about science, medicine, mathematics, engineering, or technology for general readers. Science writing appears in magazines and newspapers, popular books, television and radio programs, museum exhibits, educational games, online documentaries, and in multimedia projects. Science writing makes highly technical research about anything from genetic engineering to artificial intelligence to quasars understandable to readers who do not have a scientific background.

Science writing is not the same thing as scientific or technical writing, which is written for other specialists within a certain field. You might find technical writing in lab papers, how-to manuals, and peer-reviewed research articles in scientific journals, but producing this type of work is not the focus of our program.

Our program provides students with the skills they need to critically examine scientific research as well as its larger social and historical contexts, question scientists and engineers without treating their work as immune to criticism, and keep the public informed about pivotal science and policy issues that shape modern life.