Over the last few years the Blue Wagon team has become especially adept at writing for medical and/or scientific organizations. This type of copy crafting requires a unique set of skills.
Who are we kidding? It’s like cramming for a college exam.
We try quickly to become subject matter experts in the core area(s) of focus assigned to us. Our team can tell you the chemical formula of styrene (C8H8) as well as whether it is an ototoxicant – and what an ototoxicant is. We can tell you about the hypertension rates among urban and rural pre-pregnancy women between 2007 and 2018. Don’t get us started on how the coronavirus affects people with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes.
Your project becomes our dissertation. We research. We research terms we don’t understand, and when the definitions don’t make sense, we research some more.
Public relations professionals and copy writers alike looking to break into this type of work must be willing to get “friendly” with the science. You must tell yourself that it’s okay to be uncomfortable with the subject matter and work toward understanding it before you can write about it. (You should also factor in additional time when agreeing to meet a specific deadline.)
Clients hire you to, presumably, make their jargon more digestible. Don’t be afraid to speak up and offer feedback on ways to make the “science-y stuff” appealing to a more general audience. Conversely, you can’t be afraid to craft a release or copy that is specifically directed at a very science or medicine-friendly audience, like health care journalists. Help yourself and help your client on the front end of the assignment by asking who that audience is.
Given our current climate, it is paramount to communicate scientific information clearly and accurately. If you mix the right science with the right words, we can almost guarantee you will see a “positive reaction.”
(You see what we did there?)