{"id":754,"date":"2019-08-22T16:08:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T23:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/?page_id=754"},"modified":"2019-09-17T12:46:34","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T19:46:34","slug":"plain-language-summaries","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/plain-language-summaries\/","title":{"rendered":"2.3. Plain Language Summaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes when you submit to a journal, or in the course of doing work for someone in a more senior role, you are asked to submit a plain language summary of your article or conference talk. For many scientists or researchers, this request seems like a make work project, or another requirement on top of an already mammoth workload. However, plain language summaries are a great way for a non-specialist audience to be able to understand and benefit from the work you do &#8211; and if you work in the public sector, whether for the government or a university, they are arguably part of your duty to the public.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 2170px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sharingscience.agu.org\/creating-plain-language-summary\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sharingscience.agu.org\/files\/2016\/08\/Jargon-Barrier.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2170\" height=\"2733\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 2170px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 2170\/2733;\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Creating a Plain Language Summary: From AGU.org: https:\/\/sharingscience.agu.org\/creating-plain-language-summary\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Unsure how to write a plain language summary? Use the following tips from the <a href=\"https:\/\/sharingscience.agu.org\/creating-plain-language-summary\/\">American Geophysical Union [link]<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msfhr.org\/news\/blog-posts\/plain-language-summaries\">Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research [link]<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know your audience and keep them in mind when you write.<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate jargon as much as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Adopt a conversational tone.<\/li>\n<li>Use shorter sentences and no more than one idea per paragraph.<\/li>\n<li>Use clear formatting with whitespace and bulleted lists.<\/li>\n<li>Take your time &#8211; plain language summaries may be short, but they take time to write well.<\/li>\n<li>Test your plain language summary on non specialist readers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is good to get into the practice of writing plain language summaries every time you complete a journal article or conference paper. You can then include these summaries with your work in an online repository, or post the summaries on your blog or website so others can understand the work you do. A plain language summary is just the first step to making your work truly accessible, however. Whether talking to your neighbour at the summer BBQ, or speaking to a local journalist or communications professional about your science, there are ways to make your communication interesting and engaging, so that others want to know more. Next, we&#8217;ll discuss how to craft a narrative for your work, and later on, will get into interesting and unconventional (but effective) approaches for research communication such as\u00a0 improv, gamification, and the use of humour.<\/p>\n<h6>&gt;&gt;Next: <a href=\"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/finding-a-narrative-in-your-work\/\">Finding a narrative in your work<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6>&lt;&lt;<a href=\"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/chapter-2-tips-and-challenges-for-science-communication\/\">BACK TO CHAPTER 2 TOPIC LIST<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><a href=\"http:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/communication-in-the-public-interest-resources\/science-communication\/\">&lt;&lt;&lt;BACK TO MAIN TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes when you submit to a journal, or in the course of doing work for someone in a more senior role, you are asked to submit a plain language summary of your article or conference talk. For many scientists or researchers, this request seems like a make work project, or another requirement on top of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"parent":732,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-754","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1079,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/754\/revisions\/1079"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/jhodson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}