To ensure your writing is understandable to a broad audience, you need to use language that most people will understand. While scientific, academic or philosophical jargon certainly serves a purpose within academic communities, it can limit the impact of your work even in other disciplines, and certainly outside of academia. To ensure your writing is as clear to as many people as possible do the following:
- Avoid Jargon. Scientific or academic language, when used in an academic context, can help you to be more precise. But outside of your discipline, it can confuse people or cause them to tune out. Use more common terms to describe what you are attempting to say. Take out some of the complexity in order that others may more easily comprehend your key points. When necessary, use analogy or metaphor to help make your key points easier to understand.
- Use Metaphor or Analogy. People can’t always understand the complex concepts that you have spent your life studying, but the use of metaphor or analogy can help them to paint a mental picture that will help them see the importance of what you do. In this TED talk, James Geary speaks about metaphor in communication. It is a secret weapon for science communicators. Watch the embedded video here, or if your device or web browser doesn’t support embedded video, access the video on the TED website at this link.
- Use Direct Writing and the Active Voice. In scientific writing, we often use the passive voice to try to let the results speak for themselves. But the passive voice is often dry and less clear than taking a direct, active voice in your communication. This video helps show how to use the active voice in your writing. Watch the embedded version here or if you have issues with your particular device or web browser, use this link to access it on YouTube. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) also has a fantastic resource at this link [Purdue Online Writing Lab Active Voice Link]
The next section will discuss how to make your science communication more accessible using personalization.