Workshop 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

How to Write About Positive Psychology for a Popular Audience: Lessons from Greater Good Magazine (#446)

Jason Marsh 1 , Jeremy Smith 1
  1. Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA CALIFORNIA, United States

Positive psychology research is full of practical insights and actionable tips that could interest a huge general audience, yet it can be challenging to distill and communicate these findings in writing. This workshop will offer successful techniques for writing about positive psychology in a way that engages a popular audience. It will be led by editors of Greater Good, the award-winning online magazine that reports on positive psychology findings to more than half a million readers each month. They will identify the pitfalls and challenges of writing about positive psychology for popular audiences, including making the research feel too jargony or dense, on the one hand, or "dumbing it down" in a way that´s misleading or even harmful, on the other. They'll also offer concrete examples of effective (and not so effective) writing techniques and break down the key components of good science writing. Specific topics they'll cover will include:

  1. How to frame positive psychology findings so that they feel timely and relevant, captivating a reader's attention;
  2. How to avoid common pitfalls when writing about positive psychology;
  3. How to craft a pitch for an article that you can send to editors--a big step toward getting published.