Expert tips to improve scientific communication
By Ashish Avasthi
Successfully communicating your thoughts and ideas, irrespective of the modality, to the masses has been a long-standing tradition and a mark of great leaders. However, in science it is difficult to get your ideas across the table just by being eloquent or writing purple prose, because, IN SCIENCE, the writing or verbal skills can’t just be esoteric but must be comprehensible to a much wider audience which may or may not lack the knowledge of the subject but at the same time maintain a certain level of obscurity, making scientific communication operose.
I attended a workshop organized by the MCAA communication workgroup’s vice-chair Ruben Riosa which involved experts in scientific communication from Polytechnique insights (James Bower) and Agent Majeur (Alexia Youknovsky) and here’s what I gathered from it which I’d like to share with all of you.
So, here goes: Doing absolutely anything requires some prior thinking because thoughts precede action. Science communication is no different. It requires thinking before doing or rather some sort of strategy. You need this strategy to make the most out of your and other people’s time, money, energy, and even resources.
Experts suggest asking yourself 5 critical questions prior to presenting your work –
1) Why are you communicating?
To give you a purpose for your efforts it is important to know the reason to communicate prior to doing it. Are you communicating to get funding? Are you showing off the latest discovery you have made? Are you communicating to enhance the scientific knowledge of people? Or are you communicating to create a buzz in the audience regarding your scientific field? All these things are important, so, bear in mind if it’s one or the other, your script is supposed to be directed by it. Now, it is possible that you want to do all the aforementioned things in one go — it is quite difficult, but it is doable.
2) Who are you communicating with?
It is imperative to know who your target audience is, making this question a vital one. For this purpose, try to put yourself in the shoes of your audience and try to write down whatever you want to know if someone else is communicating, also, write down things that might be boring or too technical.
While communicating to a wider audience there are certain things to remember –
(a) Clarity
Keep the message you want to give concise and clear. Try to avoid the use of jargon unless absolutely necessary, in which case explain the term/technique a bit.
(b) Connection
It goes without saying that communication becomes easier if you connect with someone, doesn’t it? So, try to connect with your end readers/audience. You may use storytelling techniques or give an example with which the majority of people resonate. Don’t be shy to use emotions or scare tactics to connect with people. For example, read the following sentences and guess which one is bound to create more impact :
- “If we do ______, we save 1 person” or “Each day we wait to do _____, we lose 1 person”.
- “If we do ______, we make x$” or “A Day waited to do ___ means y$ lost”.
To me as a person or as a potential investor 2nd sentence seem more impactful.
(c) Context
Try to define your script with respect to the goals and base your message on it. These goals can be defined as the application of your project or its economic impact, social impact, scientific impact, etc.
(d) Concreteness
We, as humans are more fascinated by tangible things rather than images or ideas, so if you can have, add prototypes or another way of demonstrating your work or have an animated video of your work to create maximum impact.
(e) Colour
Colour scheme is one of the things often overlooked during scientific communication but opting for the right colours to make figures, graphs or schematics can really engage the audience.
(f) Conversation
Make the tone of your script conversation like, interact with your audience, keep them enticed, ask them questions, and wait for their response. Remember, your job is to make people talk about your science, so the more people listen to it, the better it’ll be for you.
Just like you can’t skip the benefits and returns slide if the target audience is funding agencies, similarly, you cannot use jargon in front of people who have no idea what you are talking about. For instance, you need to keep it very simple for the kids if they are your audience otherwise, they will lose interest. In every case, simple yet relatable metaphors always work. Keep the aforementioned 5 Cs in mind and you are prepared to nail it.
3) What are you communicating?
Now that you have your agenda for communication clear along with the target audience — here comes the slightly difficult part — what is the message you want to convey, what are the objectives of your research. To some people, it may seem very easy but to make it short, precise, obscure, and audience-friendly will require churning those wheels up there. If you are preparing to speak in public or making a presentation, it is recommended to jot down this idea using pen and paper and, edit it multiple times before moving to the computer. This will give you a lot of options and also prepare you for questions that may come your way.
4) Where do you plan to communicate?
In the modern era, several sources and modes of communication are available, so it becomes important to know which mode are you using — is it a brochure, a blog post, tweet on Twitter, media, scientific or casual talk, a poster, an article, seminar, conference presentation? In each case, the specifics pertaining to detail and science will vary. Imagine writing a whole paragraph in a tweet, only to realize later you are not able to post it.
5) When are you communicating?
This is the last but certainly not the least important question. It is very important to be aware of the time you are communicating. It may mean, how popular your topic is at the moment (of communication), how much do people know about the topic in a broader sense, is it a relatively new topic in which case you will need to layout a foundation first. Are all the studies related to your topic finished? Did you already file the patent (if you needed it)? There will be times, you cannot or do not want to reveal everything, so it is highly advised to use terms such as preliminary data suggest that or more studies are required. You could also say “you are not sure if you can tell that” — honesty is your best friend here.
Bear In Mind, everything can be communicated — some things more easily than others but nonetheless — it can be done. So, plan, think, and be creative to show people the importance of your work.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, take it easy and keep trying and keep learning from your mistakes. If you are interested there are ways to evaluate the impact you made — both qualitative and quantitative. You can check if your readers/audience are people from your field, what part of the world are they from? Also, you can check the metaphorical altmetrics for your blog post or article. This can be anything from numbers to tweets, shares, readers, etc. You may also use the old-fashioned approach and ask people for their feedback or where you can improve.
#KeepMovingForward
About the author:
Ashish Avasthi is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie early-stage researcher currently pursuing his Ph.D. at BIONAND, University of Malaga, Spain. His research is currently focused on molecular targeting of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) for early diagnosis and treatment using surface-functionalized nanoparticles. He likes to distribute his time among his varied interests of science, sports as well as writing.
