Home for the Holidays: Telling Your Research Story to Non-Scientists
It’s a familiar situation for many scientists. You’re at a social function with family and friends outside your field, when the conversation turns to you and you’re faced with the question: “What are you studying?”
With the holiday season upon us, it’s now more likely than ever that you’ll encounter this or a similar question at a dinner, party, or other social engagement. But how do you condense months or years of critical evaluation of literature in your field, frustrating experimental troubleshooting, and painstaking data analysis into a message that someone outside of your field can understand? And how can you do this without oversimplifying to the point of misinforming your audience?
Enter science communication: the process of communicating your work to a lay audience in a clear and concise, yet still correct way. While scientists are heavily trained in communication skills within their field, such as drafting research manuscripts, giving seminar talks, and presenting posters, we often get less practice explaining our research to an audience of non-experts.
Don’t get stuck the next time an eager family member asks you to explain your work! Read on to learn how to tell your research story in a way that satisfies both you and your audience.
1. Start with the point
As scientists, we’re accustomed to leading into our key findings in a stereotyped way. First we describe the state of the field and the current gap in knowledge. Then we summarize the experimental techniques that allowed us to attempt to fill that gap. After that, we meticulously explain the results from several sub-experiments, discussing graphs and other figures in pristine detail. It’s only when we reach the “discussion” portion of the paper that we finally get to The Point — that is, the whole reason we should care about this work in the first place.
But when you’re talking to non-scientists, you have to turn this paradigm on its head. No non-scientist is going to care (or, frankly, understand) why your particular protein isn’t well characterized or how it’s been studied previously. What they do care about is how your experiment is relevant to them.
When forming your research narrative, begin with the “big picture.” First, what is the main result that you have found (or are trying to find)? What is the one-sentence description of what you’re aiming to study? For example, “I study how cells in the brain respond to more than one sound at the same time.” Stating this explicitly will ground your audience in the topic so that they have some context through which to view the rest of what you say.
Then, briefly establish significance. What is the broader relevance of your work to the average person? Why is it important? Why should your audience pay attention?
This serves as your “hook” to pull in the listener, and sets them up to value the rest of your story. Starting with the point will help you focus your message so that you communicate your work concisely and efficiently. It’s only after establishing the point that you can go further into the details.
2. Understand your audience
While your main point likely won’t change based on the people you’re speaking with, the way you frame your main point certainly will. You wouldn’t describe your research to your parents in the same way that you’d describe it to a professor in your department (unless your parents happen to work in the same field as you). Different audiences will have varying degrees of familiarity with your research topic, and you’ll need to gauge this knowledge level to know how much background information to provide, and how much detail you can give in your explanation.
One good way to do this is to think about your project at the level that you normally would while you’re in the lab or writing about your research. Then go one step backward by asking yourself what someone would need to understand, at a minimum, to know what that level means. If your audience is unlikely to understand your work at that level, move a step backward again. Do this until you feel confident that you’re explaining things at a level that won’t leave your audience behind.
If you’re unsure of how far back to go, ask! Your listeners will probably be glad that you asked them whether they’re familiar with a particular concept or technique. If they are familiar, you’ll connect over that shared knowledge and can go into more detail. If they’re not, you now have an opportunity to clear things up before you dive into the intricacies of your own work.
3. Avoid jargon
Now that you’ve identified your hook and decided how to frame your message for each situation, it’s time to communicate your work!
As you plan your explanation, you’ll likely find yourself using terms that are common in your field but might be unknown to someone outside of that area. In the lab, we use these words so frequently that we might not even realize we’re using them. Be alert for words that sound like they came from a textbook. If you can avoid those words by replacing them with a more common alternative, this will make your message easier to understand.
If you find that you have to use a technical term, define the word first, then give the word for the concept you just described. If you first say the technical term and then give the definition, your audience will likely be thinking, “That sounds like a big word!” and will miss your definition entirely. But if you define the concept first, the listener has already developed an understanding of the concept to which they can easily apply a new word and then keep listening.
Finally, be careful of words with double meanings. Some words have a field-specific definition that is quite different from the meaning in everyday usage. Using these words without clarification could confuse your audience. Check out this video from NPR’s Joe Palca for some examples of words to watch out for.
4. Tell a story
At this point, you have your main idea and an audience-tailored conceptual framework to support it. From here, you can finally build your explanation with the words you’ll actually say.
This is best done in a narrative format. People understand and remember a message most easily when it is told in the form of a story — an arc with a beginning, middle, and end. This doesn’t mean that you have to assign personified character traits and a thrilling plot to the elements of your project, but it should help you organize your thoughts in a logical way. For example, you may find that the most concise way to describe your work is not in the order that the events actually happened chronologically. Or you may need to create a situational metaphor which you can use to make your research more concrete. Make it easier for your audience to follow your train of thought by giving them a memorable scaffold to help build their understanding of your topic.
What if you don’t yet have an ending? Research is an ongoing process, and you may not have any stunning results to wrap up your story. This is quite common, and you can still create a coherent narrative. Try ending by explaining what you hope to find, and what those results would mean. Your audience might even be more excited about an unfinished project than a project with the results set in stone. A narrative with an uncertain ending can lead to great questions and a fun conversation that you might not anticipate.
In Conclusion
Talking to non-scientists about your research can be a challenge, especially if you’re not used to condensing your work into a less technical but still meaningful form. Distilling your research into a story without jargon doesn’t have to mean that you oversimplify the important points. On the contrary, learning how to communicate your work in a more concise way can actually clarify your own understanding of your project and help you see your field from new perspectives. By leading with your central message, tailoring your explanation for each audience without using field-specific terms, and creating a memorable story, you’ll be well on your way to helping your family and friends when they ask (again), “So…what exactly do you do all day?”
Meredith Schmehl is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University, and a STEM advocate in science communication efforts such as outreach, writing, policy, and multimedia. Follow her on Twitter @MeredithSchmehl and visit her website at meredithschmehl.com.
