I am taking another Centre for English Communication (CELC) module, i.e. “Communicating with the Academy”. This module gives a general background on how knowledge is constructed and disseminated in the scientific community. I also learnt how scientific information is communicated to the community in general.
One of our tasks is to write a 3000-word journal article of which NUS undergraduates will be our target audience. Communicating scientific information to a general public is difficult as we need to tone down our usage of scientific terms and jargons, as they may not understand them. We can assume they have the general idea of a certain topic but not the details of it.
It has not been easy for me to analyse many texts from many different sources and put them in writing as it is my first time writing a scientific article. Otherwise, I am learning. Indeed, communicating with the academy and professional communication complements each other.
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Hi Fabian,
While working on my core module project, I have come across the same problem too! It is indeed very difficult to communicate scientific ideas across to the public, especially when they know nothing about Science and its works.
For example, my project was on the measuring of Air quality using PSI model. We realised that we cannot tell the public that "the air is of PSI 80", because they know nuts about it! So instead, we posed it as "the air is of satisfactory health level" which infers to as "ok, we are able to do sports outdoor and elderly just have to be extra careful." etc.
These meanings corresponds better to the public because at least now they understand! So well, I believe it just gives us, scientists, more job in explaining to the public what these scientific jargons mean.
Agreed. I would cause my readers to lost interest in my article. Imagine I include all the protein names, such as p53, mdm and hdm.
Hey Fabs!
I totally understand what you mean by how hard it is when you can't use technical terms! But sometimes, use of technical terms and jargon can boost the credibility of your article or essay. On top of that, the target audience becomes very important so that's when the "lay man" terms come into play or if it's an article for a science journal or sorts, then you have to be more scientific than general.
Yes, I have to balance between jargons and lay-man terms. If certain terms are important, I would have to include them with proper definitions.
Hi Fabion,
The ability to identify your readers (or audience) is probably one of the more important skills in effective communication. I mention audience since this applies to speech as well.
Also the ability to communicate between people with different levels of knowledge on a particular subject is important as well. Take for instance Steven Jobs, his key-note addresses and talks at product launches are extremely well received. Most of the time the audience is a mixed one; with both layman and techno-enthusiasts included.
Good luck with your journal :).
Anushangi.
This sounds like an interesting course and demanding too as in three thousand words it must be difficult not to stray into using scientific terminology.
It is also increasingly important that scientists explain their work to the general public as (probably irreversible) changes to our way of life are taking place that may not be welcomed if the the full facts were known.
Mrs Richardson
Hey Fabian,
It seems like you've walked yourself into a warzone with plenty of land mines and you are kinda afraid of triggering them. Granted that in any essays, there are bound to be words/jargons that we arent that sure of it ourselves. I dont think it's a crime or anything that if you do mix some jargons when you do these essays, as i think that sometimes it is inevitable that you do go down to that level. Just make sure that it is simple enough for the target audience to be able to understand and it would be fine. A good way to test it is to ask our parents or friends who arent that well learned in English to read your text and see if they can make any light outta it. If they can comprehend about 70% of the work, you are fine.
Hi Isaac,
Jargons are fine in some context, depending on what topic that is covered. I just have to explain these terms mean in a more digestible form. If it's a relatively new area of science, jargons less used since the general audience do not fully understand yet.
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