To share how CEE faculty, researchers and students are working to address challenges of the 21st century, news articles and feature stories are shared with media outlets and the engineering community.
Learn more below about what makes for good feature and news stories. Story development may take several months, so please reach out as early as possible with ideas and suggestions.
What makes a good news story?
A paper that has been accepted for publication is often a good time to begin working on a press release with the UW News Office. Reporters usually write about something once there are results to share. They tend to be interested in developments that are surprising, firsts in the field or related to hot news topics. Examples include:
- Major scientific advances or discoveries
- Research that affects people's lives or that anyone can relate to (privacy, arsenic in wine, package deliveries)
- Research published in a major scientific journal or presented at a conference with interesting findings and/or beneficial applications. Papers that are an “important step on the way” to something cool and newsworthy are generally of less interest
- Research tied to current news events (fake news, cybersecurity, natural disasters)
- Quirky or fun research (physics of grocery store displays, science of relationships)
- Community-based research with impacts beyond campus (mapping barriers for people with disabilities, transportation safety, crunching data to identify drivers of homelessness)
- Good photos and videos drive coverage!
Examples:
Check out the news page on the CEE website; look for articles posted in UW Today.
How to work with the UW News Office:
For additional details, please view a handout.
UW news contact
Please contact engineering writer Sarah McQuate 3-4 weeks before publishing, presenting or demonstrating new results, or earlier if you have advance notice.
Sarah McQuate
Engineering writer
smcquate@uw.edu
206-543-2580
What makes a good feature story?
Feature stories tend to focus on the student experience, compelling research that has demonstrated effect, new start-ups, or anything that lends itself to in-depth coverage. To help identify a good feature story idea, ask the following questions:
- Will the story be of interest to broad audiences?
- Is there an interesting challenge being solved?
- Are students involved?
- Is there an interdisciplinary/collaborative component?
- Is it relevant or timely? Why tell the story now?
- Are there upcoming opportunities for photo shoots?
Examples:
Check out the Our Stories page on the CEE website.
Feature stories contact
Please reach out with feature story ideas anytime.
Julia Davis
CEE marketing and communications manager
jdaviskc@uw.edu