Q & A session with Siri Carpenter (The Open Notebook)

With so many journalists working freelance, the relationship between editor and freelancer is a crucial part of the process. If the synergy is right, it may lift a story up. But cooperation can also come with challenges. For example, along the way it may turn out that both parties weren’t quite on the same page when they agreed on doing the article. Or sometimes the editor struggles with how to ask a freelancer for revisions on a first draft, while the freelancer doesn’t always agree with edits. How do you communicate effectively with each other and build a steady, lasting working relationship? What are the dos and don’ts for both parties throughout the process, from pitch to end product?

Science journalist and editor Siri Carpenter from The Open Notebook is happy to tell us her tips and tricks in an online Q&A session on May 12, hosted by the Dutch association for Science Journalism and Communication (VWN). Carpenter will reflect on the success behind good working relationships based on experience on both sides ánd her background in psychology.

Q&A Session – the details:

When: Wednesday 12 May, 8 PM until 9 PM Central European Time (UTC+1)
Where: online, via Zoom

Costs: FREE
For whom? Every member of an association that is part of EFSJ can join – whether you are a freelancer, editor or anything between.
How to apply? Send an email to Anouk Broersma (anouk@anoukbroersma.nl) with your name and the national association you’re a member of. You’ll receive a link to the Q&A session a day in advance.

About Siri Carpenter
Siri Carpenter is an award-winning science journalist and editor based in Madison, Wisconsin. Her writing and editorial work has appeared in The New York Times, Science, Discover, Scientific American, bioGraphic, Science News, Science News for Students and many other publications. Carpenter is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Open Notebook, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping science journalists improve their skills (e.g. via free online Master Classes, the first of which became available last February). She’s also the editor of The Craft of Science Writing, published by The Open Notebook in 2020. A social psychologist by training, she received her PhD from Yale University in 2000.

This session is organised by the Dutch association for Science Journalism and Communication.