04 April 2023

Writing for Gwerddon

A popular assignment we set our students is to let them write an article in the style of the Conversation; an online popular science journal written by scientists themselves; not journalists. There also is the Welsh equivalent; Gwerddon. And the lady who is organising the Cymraeg + project had sent me the task to write an article for them. About foraminifera.

Unrelated foram

I had booked the latest timeslot she had available for going through it. That would buy me some time to write it! It is a sizable task. And it wasn't really that quiet a time. I admit that some of it I wrote during a dull meeting I had to be in. I submitted it in the morning and we discussed it in the afternoon!

When we were done discussing it, she revealed that her intention was that we would actually send it to Gwerddon. That threw me a bit! It was written in a bit of a hurry, and I hadn't vigourously checked anything. I did give a number I wasn't entirely sure of. It is, of course, quite easy to check it, but still! Publish this? Crikey!

Another issue is that generally, you submit something to a journal like that when you have just published (in peer-reviewed literature) some interesting research you think more people should know about. And I haven't published anything about foraminifera in a while, and nothing about this particular topic at all. But whether that is a problem or not is, of course, the decision of Gwerddon. I am sure they would be quite happy to tell me if that is an actual requirement.

She asked me to add one paragraph. I haven't written that yet! By the time I have, we can contact the editors. But who knows; I might be spreading the word where I never expected it!

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