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Write a story
Kim Burtnyk
Astronomy writer, science communicator and astronomy program and exhibit developer and evaluator, South Pasadena, California, USA
Do your homework! If you don't have some education or training in the field, always ask an expert to review your work when you're done. Small errors or seemingly trivial changes in words can make a huge difference. I once wrote an article about a meteorite. I used the word, "interplanetary" (because the meteorite apparently originated in the asteroid belt) but my editor changed it to "interstellar" without my consent. I was so incredibly humiliated and embarrassed by that slip. It may have seemed completely trivial to my editor, but it was not at all trivial to the geologist I interviewed for the article.
Furthermore, don't take any changes from the astronomer personally. You are partnering with the scientist to help educate the public, whether you or the scientist are consciously aware of that fact. If you don't understand a change, then ask for an explanation. You might as well learn something too!
Understand your audience WELL. There is a fine line between alienating people and empowering them. While you don't want to talk over their heads you also don't want to patronize them by assuming they're completely ignorant. Invite the reader to travel on a journey of discovery with you (as you've learned about the subject), reassure them that they don't need to be an expert; they just need to keep an open mind and trust that their own experiences will help them understand as much as they can. If you hook their interest, they'll seek out more information.
Following on that, don't expect people to jump from the proverbial point A to point G in one giant leap, or for that matter be disappointed if they don't. Incremental steps in understanding are not trivial; learning is a cumulative, "constructive" process.
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