Really fascinating piece from the DotEarth blog on New York Times about a new book on science and narrative from Randy Olson called ‘Houston, We Have a Narrative.”
It contains a good writing theme lifted from Trey Parker, the creator of South Park, who revealed in the documentary Six Days to Air his editing formula:
______ and _____, but _____, therefore ______.
As in:
“I can tell you that in my laboratory we study physiology AND biochemistry, BUT in recent years we’ve realized the important questions are at the molecular level, THEREFORE we are now investigating the following molecular questions….”
Or, for my purposes:
“Asian carp have taken over the Mississippi River basin AND threaten to enter the Great Lakes, BUT the real problem is that we’ve allowed our waterways to become so degraded that one invasive fish can colonize them so easily, THEREFORE we need to better protect our aquatic ecosystems as the best defence against future invasive species.”
Huzzah! It works!
You can pick up a copy of Olson’s book on Amazon here.
andrew reeves 