Pop Scholar
Your research deserves more readers.
Pop Scholar helps academics translate expertise into op-eds, popular articles, and public platforms.
Write like a scholar. Sound like a human.
You're an Expert in Your Field. So, Why Does Writing for a Public Audience Feel Impossible?
You've spent years building your expertise. You have the research, the credentials, the ideas that could genuinely change how people understand the world. But every time you try to write for a general audience, something goes wrong.
The draft feels thin. Or worse, it feels like everything you've ever written – dense, hedged, and readable only by the few people who share your subfield.
You're not alone. And it's not your fault.
Academic writing is a specific skill built for a specific audience. Public writing is a completely different craft. Nobody taught you how to make the switch. Until now.
Introducing Pop Scholar
Resources, editing, and coaching for academics who are ready to matter beyond the academy.
Pop Scholar exists for one reason: to help scholars like you unlearn your academic voice and build a public one – without dumbing down your work or betraying your expertise.
You Already Have Everything You Need Except This
Here are four things that stop most scholars from breaking through to public audiences:
The structure is completely foreign.
Academic writing buries the argument. Public writing leads with it. The conventions you've spent a career mastering are working against you.
You're saying too many things at once.
Academic writing rewards complexity. Public writing rewards clarity. One argument, made well, is worth more than five arguments made carefully.
You're burying the lede.
Your most interesting sentence is on page four. Public readers are gone by paragraph two.
The news moves faster than your writing process.
By the time you've crafted the perfect pitch, the moment has passed. There's a way around this. It's learnable.
Sound familiar? Good. You're in the right place.
Start with the Newsletter
The Pop Scholar newsletter lands in your inbox every week with one big idea about public writing, practical tips & tricks, examples & analysis of what makes a particular piece work, and one thing to do to move forward.
It's free. It's practical.
Want to go deeper?
Developmental Editing
Your academic work has a public argument. I'll find it for you.
Send me your writing (up to 40 pages), or schedule a free discovery session. I'll show you:
The public argument(s) buried in your work
The jargon barriers + how to translate them
The structure for your content
Pitch strategy + templates
Where to pitch it
The Developmental Edit includes a 60-minute live session + a written editorial.
Timeline: 1 week from booking
Format: Zoom + written summary
1:1 Coaching
Four weeks. Four sessions. One published article. Pipeline planning.
We meet weekly (60 min) to transform your research into a published piece. You get:
Scholarship review + brainstorming
Developmental editing of your draft(s)
Revision guidance between sessions
Pitch strategy + templates
Where to pitch it
Email support
By week 4, you're submitting. By week 8, you're often published.
Investment: $1,200
Timeline: Four weeks
Format: 1:1 coaching
Workshop
Coming Summer 2026
Two Day Live Cohort + Workshop Prep & 1:1 Follow Up
Learn to write for public audiences alongside your peers in this two-day live session.
Small cohort (max 15). You'll leave with:
A polished article
A pitch + strategy
A supportive community
The skills to keep publishing
1:1 Follow up support
Format: Live group program (Zoom) – $497
Bespoke programming and institutional pricing available.
The Workbook
Coming Spring 2026 – Free with paid subscription to Pop Scholar’s newsletter.
Everything you need to write your first public essay, pitch it to an editor, and finally know what you stand for as a public intellectual — in one practical, no-nonsense workbook.
Here's what's inside:
What is public scholarship? Understand the landscape, the venues, and the difference between writing for colleagues and writing for the world.
Claiming your expertise. Overcome the imposter syndrome that keeps brilliant scholars silent. You earned your seat. It's time to say something.
Structure from the ground up. From the bare bones op-ed to explanatory and investigative journalism — the formats, how they work, and how to choose the right one.
Write like a scholar, sound like a human. The specific techniques for translating your expertise without losing your intellectual authority.
Hook a general reader. How to write for slow thinking in a fast-moving news cycle — and win.
Kill your qualifiers. Stop hedging. Start writing with the authority your research has actually earned you.
Craft the pitch. The exact formula for a pitch that gets editors to say yes.
Venues to pitch. A curated list of publications actively looking for public scholars — with submission guidelines, payment information, and what they're looking for.
By the time you finish this workbook you will have a complete draft of your first public essay, a pitch ready to send to an editor, and clarity on who you are as a public intellectual.
