Shin, Eliza. “Star Material.” JAMA 281, no. 6 (1999): 493.

Groopman, Jerome. “Flesh-and-Blood Decision Making.” In How Doctors Think. Mariner Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780547053646. [Preview with Google Books]

Ofri, Danielle. “Acne.” Annals of Internal Medicine 132, no. 11 (2000): 919–20.

———. “Incidental Illness.” Health Affairs 23, no. 4 (2004): 197–201.

Ofri, Danielle. “Tools of the Trade.” The New England Journal of Medicine 349 (2003): 1693–4.

Durso, Samuel C. “Trust.” Annals of Internal Medicine 137, no. 12 (2002): 1004–5.

McClenahan, John L. “Drop-in.” Annals of Internal Medicine 137, no. 4 (2002): 293–4.

Ross, Carolyn. “Rhetoric: Writing About Personal Experience.” In Writing Nature: An Ecological Reader for Writers. St. Martin’s Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780312103910.

Gawande, Atul. “When Doctors Make Mistakes.” In Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. Picador, 2003. ISBN: 9780312421700.

Nuland, Sherwin B. “Mistakes in the Operating Room—Error and Responsibility.” The New England Journal of Medicine 351, no. 13 (2004): 1281–3.

Mukherjee, Siddhartha. “A Precarious Exchange.” The New England Journal of Medicine 351, no. 18 (2004): 1822–4.

Fadiman, Anne. “Preface”, and “The Eight Questions.” In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. ISBN: 9780374525644. [Preview with Google Books]

Sample Student Narrative Essays

“Faith and Medicine (PDF).” (Courtesy of Dima Mirkin. Used with permission.)

“The First Sip (PDF).” (Courtesy of an MIT student. Used with permission.)

Nisbet, Matthew C., and Dietram A. Scheufele. “What’s Next for Science Communication? Promising Directions and Lingering Distractions.” American Journal of Botany 96, no. 10 (2009): 1767–8.

Pineda, Diego. “Editing a Science Documentary: More Than Words (Literally!).” (PDF) Science Editor 27, no. 2 (2004): 47–49.

Varner, Johanna. “Scientific Outreach: Toward Effective Public Engagement with Biological Science.” BioScience 64, no. 4 (2014): 333–40.

Reynolds, Julie. “When Communicating with Diverse Audiences, Use Velcro To Make Science Stick.” Bulletin Ecological Society of America 90, no. 3 (2009): 297–304.

Select and view a pair of documentaries from this list: Critical Review Documentaries (PDF)

Sample Student Critical Review

“Why Should I Care?: Analyzing the Effectiveness of an Environmental Documentary (PDF).” (Courtesy of an MIT student. Used with permission.)

Find and read three articles on the subject of your documentaries. Look for carefully researched articles. Steer clear of news articles.

Hancock, Elise. “A Matter of Attitude.” In Ideas into Words: Mastering the Craft of Science Writing. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780801873300. [Preview with Google Books]

Penrose, Ann M., and Steven B. Katz. “Reviewing as a Genre: The Review Article.” In Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication). 3rd ed. Longman, 2010. ISBN: 9780205616718.

Diekelmann, Susanne, and Jan Born. “The Memory Function of Sleep.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11, no. 2 (2010): 114–26.

Stickgold, Robert, and Jeffrey M. Ellenbogen. “Quiet! Sleeping Brain at Work.” Scientific American Mind 19, no. 4 (2008): 22–29.

Select and read carefully an article from the following list on a public health topic that interests you and might provide a starting point for your own Scientific American Update:

Preparation for your Scientific American Update (PDF)

Sample student Scientific American Updates (Courtesy of MIT students and used with permission):

“Cancer Causing Fat - Why Postmenopausal Obese Women Are in Danger (PDF)”

“Scientific American Update: Sea-Level Rise and Its Potential Impacts (PDF)”

No assigned readings