mark dantonio - MSU Alumni Association - Michigan State University

ROBERT GOLDBORT:
WRITING FOR SCIENCE
Writing for science has surged
in importance in this era of multiple
breakthroughs. Few people
are more qualified to talk about
it than Robert Goldbort, M.A.
’81, Ph. D. ’89, an English professor
at Indiana State University
who boasts two degrees in biology
and two degrees in English,
and whose doctoral thesis at
MSU was titled Scientific Writing
and the College Curriculum.
And, in fact, Goldbort has just
published Writing For Science
(Yale University Press, 2006),
which is receiving worldwide
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distribution. “The key to
scientific writing is that you
need absolute objectivity
along with utmost clarity
and simplicity,” he explains
from his office in Terre Haute,
IN. “You cannot afford to be
somewhat unclear in conveying
scientific fact. Ambiguity can
enrich literature, but not scientific
writing.” Robert says that
today’s scientist needs to do a
better job writing. “Many find
writing a bother,” he notes. “Scientists
prefer to be in a lab. But
they need to communicate what
goes on in the lab because much
of today’s research is funded by
the taxpayer.” A native of New
York, Robert became enamored
of scientific writing at MSU
when he had to teach a freshman
sequence as a graduate assistant.
“I found that, first, that the field
existed, and two, that it was an
exploding field,” he says. “I fell
in love with the whole area.”
He touts his MSU advisor Stephen
Tchudi (formerly Judy)
for having encouraged him. “I
can’t give you enough superlatives
about him,” he says. “He
continues to be a model for me
today.” Robert is now working
on a book about “Third Culture
Rhetoric,” dealing with works of
fiction by scientists. “There will
be a chapter about (the late MSU
molecular biologist) Leonard
Isaacs, who taught in Lyman-
Briggs,” says Robert. “He was
involved in the Clarion Science
Fiction Workshop and was very
much into the use of fiction to
teach basic biology.”
JEMELE HILL:
ESPN PAGE TWO
How do you become a sports
columnist? Be a good sportswriter,
and also—apparently—be
male and white. A recent
survey of 305 newspapers found
only one black female sports
columnist. That was Jemele
Hill, ’97, a sportswriter with the
Detroit Free Press who was hired
in 2005 as a sports columnist by
the Orlando Sentinel. “That was
an absolutely startling stat,” says
Hill, 31. “And now, there are
none.” In December, Jemele left
the Sentinel to become a columnist
for ESPN Page 2 and a writer
for ESPN The Magazine. “This
is a great job and I’m meshing
well and having a lot of fun,”
says Jemele. “ESPN brings
two things no one can match.
One, the audience. Two, the
web site. It’s international.
You write something, and
you might get 1,000 emails.”
Jemele’s initial columns have
been pretty edgy, but creative
and compelling, and
at times humorous. She is
not afraid to tackle racial
angles. “I like to push the envelope,”
she notes. “Sometimes
you need that to make people
think. I’m able to bring a take
that’s different or maybe that
people will talk about behind
closed doors and are afraid to
bring out into the mainstream.”
A native of Detroit, Jemele knew
at a very early age she wanted to
become a sportwriter. At age 15,
she had an internship with the
Detroit Free Press. “Everybody
that worked for them were from
MSU,” she recalls. “I found out
that the MSU journalism program
had a very strong professional
network, and that’s why I
went to MSU.” She joined the
State News, becoming managing
editor, but did not cover
sports—opting instead to get a
strong news foundation. “(Journalism
professor) Steve Lacy
was a terrific mentor,” she says.
“He taught me a lot about the
business.” She considers herself
fortunate for her meteoric rise
to columnist. “I certainly didn’t
expect it to happen so early,” says
Jemele. “I feel blessed that my
career has unfolded this way.”
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