In Nov. 2020, I attended ComSciConCanWest, a competitive-admission science communication workshop for grad students in western Canada. Part of that was creating a piece of scicomm. Mine started out as a clunky infographic, but during the workshop I got to work with the wonderful Julia Krolik! She encouraged me to restyle it as a series of installments leading to an article. The end of the series includes a complete cheat sheet of 12 tips for communicating science effectively. These 12 tips are broken into 3 groups: planning, writing, & polishing.
First up we have “stories.” Most of us intuitively try and create a narrative with our information so that people can follow the flow. Typically, stories have a beginning, middle, and end. But more than that, they often have a starting context, some kind of complication or choice, a transformation, and an outcome. Using these components can help you create a compelling piece that is interesting to read!
If you’re sharing research, start with some background information (context). Then explain what problems still exist that you’re trying to solve (complication or choice). Describe what work you’ve done (transformation). Finally, tell the audience how this affects the field (outcome).
Stay tuned for the next 11 tips!
