One of the best things about being a freelance writer, in fact the thing that really makes it worth leaping out of bed with glee on a cold, wet Monday morning – is that you get to mix passion with work. I love science, though I have neglected my second blog ILPPS in recent months, my desire to write about science has not wavered – merely my time.
As many know, I have an MA in Landscape Archaeology which can be classed as an environmental science. The difference between that and conventional archaeology is that it treats the landscape as a historical record along with its features and monuments, using all elements as part of a topographical record. This can include, but not be limited to, historical stratigraphy, the botanical record, animal bones, urban topography, pollen studies, historic maps as well as the surviving historical elements – features of the Roman, medieval and modern landscape and how they interact.
Most of you will know I briefly studied GIS at a time of personal difficulty and my struggles to find any graduate work led me to exploring the world of freelance writing. In all my rambling, where am I going with this? Though a terrible economic downturn forced my hand to self-employment, I feel fortunate that I have a talent and passion for writing. I feel lucky that so many of my clients allow me the creative freedom to write about what I like within the confines of the product or service they are selling.
Now, once of them appears to be gaining a lot of popularity. Environmentalscience.org (click the image above to visit the site) is a resource for North American students looking to study the environmental science. It is a site of information about the various courses – for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and showing how diverse the environmental sciences can be.
For the last month, I have been writing primarily about GIS as they seek to dominate Google listings with information about this technology that is really starting to take off. It’s not the only subject I have written about, in the six months or so since starting the contract I have written about aerial photography (this is the top of the Goggle list for aerial photography environmental science keyword), urban landscapes, palynology and more. Most of this is within my academic comfort zone, but I have been allowed to stretch myself a bit too by writing about biotech, nuclear power and fracking.
It’s contracts like this that make working for myself worth it!