The People Behind the Words

After reading many archaeological articles in magazines, newspapers and books, we thought we would look back at the authors who wrote them. Authors can write impressive articles filled with helpful information, interesting tid-bits, catchy quotes, experts, diagrams and photographs. Others may skimp on the details and use information from other secondary sources instead of using the primary source. We thought that it would be interesting to research the different authors of some of our articles and see just who is being hired to write them.

Here are some of authors who, through our perilous journey through countless magazines and newspapers, we found to stand out against the rest.

Author John Wilford from the New York Times was a science correspondent for the Newspaper and covered a multitude of topics from the Apollo missions to the DNA analysis of King Tut's mummified body. His writing is extremely strong as he clearly reads and understands the primary sources. He brings in experts to share their opinions and writes in a way that is clear and interesting to readers. For example, In 2012 Wilford wrote an article covering the findings of DNA analysis of King Tut. Entitled, “Malaria is a Likely Killer in King Tut’s Post-Mortem,” Wilford effectively pulls readers in and suggests a cause of death rather than making a grandiose, definitive statement as to what killed the king. Use of the words “a likely killer,” is powerful as they suggest rather than state that malaria was the killer. Additionally, Wilford tells readers that, “scientists have now determined the most likely agents of death: a severe bout of malaria combined with a degenerative bone condition” (Wilford 1). This sentence, again, suggests rather than states absolutely that malaria was the killer by using the words “most likely agent”. This is important as the Journal of Tropical Medicine & International Health primary article made no definitive claim as to the effects of malaria on the King (Timmann and Meyer, 2010). With strong primary research, an objective journalistic voice, Wilford is among the best authors that we have seen thus far. While not a professional archaeologist, Wilford's extensive research skills and multitude of experience in the field has made him an expert archaeological author. -Jessie

Julian Smith, a travel-writer was found to be a very well-written author about archaeology in Smithsonian. Specifically, he wrote "Tomb of the Chantress," an article about the dicsovery of an ancient tomb in the valley of the Kings. This was a very well-written article, full of detail, photographs, expert opinions and explanations for the less-arcaheologically inclined folk. As a travel write, Smith has had a lot of experience writing for magazines that cover archaeology such as National Geographic. His experience in the field is evident in his clear writing, interesting story-telling and scientific example. While not a professional archaeologist, Smith tackles archaeological discoveries like a pro. -Jessie

In one of the earlier posts on this blog, I wrote about an article in National Geographic written by Sarah Zielinski. According to her professional webpage, she is a freelance writer and editor. She boasts that she is an "award-winning science writer and editor with 10 years of experience covering a wide breadth of science." She has done a lot of work with Smithsonian, Science, Science News, and NPR.com. Although there is no mention of her degrees or her special areas of interest, it is obvious that she is qualified to write about science. She has had lots of experience writing about a wide range of scientific subjects and has spent time working for well-known media sources. I guess that I should not have been surprised that National Geographic would have good authors for their articles, even ones that are just short pieces for their daily news section.     -Xue

I also thought it would be interesting to get a feel for who Mary Pope Osborne, the author of Magic Treehouse was. She has a big fan base, children and adults (who read the series to their children or read them as children themselves), and thus has a great influence on youth. She wrote a few of her books about archaeology and dinosaurs. It is interesting because on her webpage, she has a biography about her life. In it, she details her adventures. But she also mentions that she became a religion major so she could learn "as much as I could about other cultures." Although this is not exactly an archaeology major, and she does not specifically have a background in science or archaeology, she is a fictional children's writer. Her main goal is to write easy-to-read children's books that are popular and accessible to everyone. She does this brilliantly with Jack and Annie, the adventurers of her series. I think that although her books including archaeology are not scientific, they are a great way to get young readers excited about the subject matter and encourage them to read more about it. She has an interesting story and series that captures youth and provides adventures of children during their early years. -Xue

Authors can come from different backgrounds, and yes, some are less qualified to write articles or books, but for the most part, it appears that many are well informed and educated in writing scientific news. It would be great if more archaeologists were also authors but it is difficult to try and get archaeologists to take on so many tasks (there are only so many of them). The main thing archaeologists need to do now is to get more material out there or encourage their peers to write different types of articles and stop using the same exact sources when writing.