5 years ago science communication wasn’t what it is today. There are different ways to get into sci comm and with all the different formats it can be intimidating on where to start. As a sci commer still finding her voice here are a few tips.
I got into scicomm accidentally
I got into scicomm accidentally. In my second year of university I was asked to write about DNA. DNA is known as the molecule of life. How could I write about something while making it unique and relatable? I didn’t want to write about just any form of a DNA test, so I took on the challenge to search until I found something that clicked. To my surprise this 750 word essay was one of the hardest things I had written at the time. After loads of brainstorming I had an idea and a title. I was going to write about mitochondrial DNA. This ended up being a post I am still proud of : The Great Human Road Trip.
That quick exercise on simplifying science taught me all the key skills I would go on to later use for my blog.
- Finding a narrative
- Searching the literature
- Simplifying without losing the meaning
- Writing for a specific audience
I’ve used these points when I started writing science articles again with more consistency in 2020. The Pandemic led to a lot of sci comm and most notably my Youtube Channel where I began to explore video content. In the #BenchToBedside Series I explained scientific research papers on topics that I found most interesting. In addition to the article ,using social media is where I learnt even more key sci comm skills
- Try different formats: written, audio and video
- What message do you want to get across
- Everything has a level of bias to it: how are you checking your biases and making a fair argument.
- How to know if your content is doing well?
- Connecting with people
Now I’ve just listed points but what do I mean?
Finding a narrative
Science communication is essentially story telling. Humans for decades have learnt and passed on information in the form of stories, whether that be through song, dance, written or other art forms. Science communication is giving lab science a story, context and meaning to people that otherwise wouldn't engage with it daily.
Why are you writing this post or sharing the science, why is it important ?
Searching the literature
I mentioned earlier that the 750 word article was the hardest thing to write. Writing scientific work for a scientific audience can be slightly easier as you know what you are looking for and the level of science of the main audience. Most times you want to get across a specific project you have worked on with people that have good background knowledge.
It can be daunting when searching as science grads, the scariest thing is getting something wrong, especially if you are just starting. Advice for this is to take your time and also realise you are allowed to make mistakes, as long as it isn’t detrimental to any community or persons. If you are dealing with sensitive information, its best to double, and triple check !
Simplifying without losing the meaning
Oftentimes simplifying is used as a synonym for “dumbing down”. Good sci comm isn’t removing all the “science” words. You have to be able to keep the key words. Not all science words are jargon. Understanding the fine line between explaining and oversimplifying.
E.g : You wouldn’t use p<0.005 in a sci comm article but instead explain what “significant” means in the context of what you are trying to put across.
Writing for a specific audience
Identify the audience you are writing for ! This is the first step ! People write and expect everything to just be easily translatable. Even when writing for the same age group. A twitter audience will like things written differently from an Instagram audience and the same applies for any social media platform.
Are you writing for a specific community or country? In your writing you have to prioritise who you want the main message to be aimed at. This allows you to focus as you can’t accommodate everyone !
When writing about vaccines, I knew my main audience wasn’t particularly opposed to vaccines but just lacked information in some areas. I knew I was writing to people that I didn’t have to convince people “vaccines are good and not microchips” but more “ vaccines are good and this is how and why”
Try different formats: written, audio and video
Writing is my safe space and where I started with sci comm. I feel most like myself, I have time to edit and can just disappear. I don’t have the anxiety of my face being out there. I can write at anytime and all I need is my laptop.
What past me didn’t realise, I would come to enjoy making video content. I made my YouTube channel as more of a personal development challenge that turned into something I wish I had more time to explore. Through launching this I learnt how to edit videos, write a script for my videos and even just gain overall confidence in speaking and articulating my thoughts concisely.
My key to trying new formats is understanding everything doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to keep it in that format. For my #BenchToBedside series, there were posts that were just videos and some just blog posts and a mix of both.
Male Contraceptives : Video, Blog post
The great African Genome project blog post
What message do you want to get across
This is very similar to creating a narrative. You start by knowing what story you want to tell. The message should be clear. It’s like the aims part of a paper. What should they understand? Before I start writing I lay out my message I want and edit according to my reading and research.
E.g In my African genomes project: Africans are important in science and making great steps. Genomics is a growing field for understanding ancestry but only complements what historians and archaeologists have already done.
Everything has a level of bias to it: how are you checking your biases and making a fair argument?
This was something I hadn’t noticed till I went on many twitter rants because of Covid19 articles. I slowly began to see a pattern depending on the news source. UK major media outlets had biases in making the situation seem better. There was a western narrative of Africans being so behind and sort of a hunt for why their populations weren’t dying like the west.
As a writer myself, my biases in vaccine writing was that I wholeheartedly believed they were good. I had to really think and continuously question why people wouldn’t want to take it. You have to remove yourself and personal opinions when giving a balanced argument. Try and ask questions even if they seem so “simple” and “pointless” to you
How to know if your content is doing well?
Everyone wants recognition
Do people like my writing. Is anyone reading? Only one person read my article… should I stop? In the age of viral videos and worth equated to likes and followers. It is difficult to gauge what is good and bad. I have a personal rule of not checking any stats for at least a week.
As a good scientist I do monitor trends and see where my content is doing best and what worked and what didn’t. This can save you a lot of time. I realised spending more time on optimising my SEO and website descriptions paid off than making pretty Instagram posts even if I enjoy the latter more.
I understand that posting the same thing in different ways attracts different people and with my Covid Sci comm, even if one person took the vaccine I had done enough.
Social media is very unpredictable and a lot of times, the posts you spend the most time on don’t do the best and things you think aren’t important do so well. It’s all about trial and error and understanding it takes time to grow an audience that engages and interacts if you are starting sci comm like I did.
Connecting with people
You will learn something different everyday. Conversations with people will allow you to see things from a different view, grow your audience and maybe even gain mentorship. The sci comm community is incredibly welcoming ! A few pages I have found essential are listed below.
To end If you are thinking about getting started in sci comm my top 5 tips and as I don’t have all the answers, here are career profiles from amazing sci commers or similar I have interviewed: Fikayo, Sam, Will, Nidhi, Sheeva, Danielle, Haniah
1. Just start !
2. Take breaks if you need to and don’t force time pressure on you
3. Try different forms of content
4. Don’t be scared to sway away from the original plan
5. Schedule your content and look away !
