Among the ocean of scientific articles found online, National Geographic is known for its high quality articles. Not only are they interesting topics, but they typically appeal to a large audience. For example, let’s take a look at Asia London Palomba’s article “Meet the ‘Giant’ River Crabs that Live Beneath Rome’s Ancient Ruins.”
A Claw-verly Crafted Article
See what I mean? Before you even click the article, the title pulls you in! It’s expertly crafted to pique interest and get you asking questions. For me, it was that word “giant” put in single quotes near the beginning. Almost immediately, I found myself wondering why it was put there. What’s giant about these crabs? If they’re so big, how do they live beneath Rome’s ruins without attracting attention? Where did they come from? All these questions, and many more, come to my mind before I start to read. In short, a good article gets the reader asking questions that they must have the answer to.
Pinch-Perfect Styling
Then there’s the formatting, another thing I noticed pretty quickly. Paragraphs are separated by spaces, pictures, or subtitles. Keeping everything uniform makes the words easier to digest than a well buttered claw. You can save your place and come right back to it with little struggle. These deliberate design elements prevent the reader from becoming overwhelmed by a smattering of text. Design matters. Not every article follows the same set pattern, but I’ve noticed that most of my favorite articles have similar designs to Palomba’s article.
Crab-tivating Captions
Another good example is how Palomba uses her images. Instead of simply leaving them there for the reader to view, each image has an interesting caption. This elevates the images so that they stretch beyond visual elements, instead becoming part of the narrative. For example, the article shows an image of a crab standing on the skull of an animal. The caption beneath says “Rome’s freshwater crabs, like this female in the sewers of Trajan’s Forum, sometimes consume the remains of animals, including hedgehogs (shown).” In effect, the caption ties the story of the image into the story of the article, adding to the delivery in a way that keeps the reader engaged.
Shell-ebrated Citations
Finally, Palomba does a great job at including relevant sources in a way that adds to the narrative of the piece, as opposed to simply presenting facts. It’s easy to see this when the author quotes a naturalist that is more involved with these “giant” sewer crabs. Instead of gathering information on what the crabs look like or their habits, we get information on what the cities are doing to help prevent the crabs from dying out: “They don’t care about the crabs, they care more about tourists going to see the Colosseum.” Quotes like that help the reader understand that this isn’t an info pamphlet, it’s a story with a purpose. In this case, the purpose could be to help spread awareness, and encourage change to protect these sewer dwelling Crustaceans.
While I think Palomba’s article could be spiced up a bit more with personal experience and more narrative, it checks a lot of boxes and kept me hooked. More importantly, it taught me how to be a better writer.
Science Writings 