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A style guide for journalists who want to write about something covered on Southern Fried Science

Posted on May 8, 2014May 9, 2014 By Andrew Thaler
Blogging

Thank you for your interest in one of our articles. Please feel free to contact any of our authors for further information but do keep in mind that we are all science writers. If your publication is looking for a more than a brief (less than 300 word) interview, please consider contracting one of us to write the piece.

For press queries, please contact southernfriedscientist at gmail with the subject line PRESS QUERY.

A few key points of style.

1. The name of the website is Southern Fried Science. The URL is southernfriedscience.com with no capitals. Our writers are either correspondents, senior correspondents, or editor-in-chief. You can find out who is what on our author page. If unsure, please refer to them as either authors or scientists.

2. Andrew David Thaler’s last name is spelled THALER. There is no ‘y’, no ‘o’, and certainly no ‘s’. In print, he appreciates being referred to as Dr. Thaler, however, he’s very friendly, and you’re more than welcome to address him as Andrew in correspondence.

3. David Shiffman’s last name is spelled SHIFFMAN. There is no ‘c’.

4. Amy Freitag’s last name is spelled FREITAG. Remember “e before i if you want a reply”. In print, she appreciates being referred to as Dr. Freitag, however, she’s also very friendly, and you’re more than welcome to address her as Amy in correspondence.

5. Chuck Bangley, Mike Bok, Iris Kemp, Lyndell Bade, Sarah Keartes, and Kersey Sturdivant have not had the joy of seeing their names consistently spelled wrong in print. Please endeavor to maintain this tradition.

6. Drs. Kersey Sturdivant and Mike Bok both have doctorates and appreciate being referred to by their titles in print.

7. When you e-mail southernfriedscientist at gmail, you’re e-mailing Andrew Thaler. Hello! Please be aware that I teach classes, conduct research, and am likely in the middle of preparing 4 or 5 articles myself, so I may not be able to respond immediately. Please do not call my cell phone unless we have previously conversed via e-mail.

8. Please be aware that is is considered extremely poor form to quote tweets out of context, or to quote in such a way that it creates the impression that you interviewed the tweet’s author. When quoting a tweet, you should either embed the tweet such that it is clear where it came from or link directly to the tweet in question.

Southern Fried Science is tracked as a news source by Google News and archived by the Library of Congress’s historic collection of Science Blogs. By following these simple style rules, you can help maintain the long term fidelity of current and future archives.

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