Communicating science/introduction
Communicating science effectively requires authors to write with their specific target audience in mind. Because science is becoming more popular in non-specialist publications, such as newspapers and blogs, it is important to recognize how to simplify a complex story for such mediums.
Journalists and producers often use press releases when writing science stories for newspapers and online sources, but research shows that poor quality press releases often lead to even poorer quality news articles1. Because media coverage often fails to provide the information needed for the public to understand the scientific findings2, 3 it is important to teach the skills needed to convey this information appropriately in press releases to help ensure science news is reported more accurately. Science communication also frequently takes place on Youtube, Facebook and via other social media platforms4 nowadays, which means that sometimes there is no intermediary between the original author and his/her audience (e.g. blog posts)5.
As a result, assignments that teach related skills are both important and likely to appeal to students, who should see the real-world applications of press releases and blogs. We have designed a standalone in-class lesson/workshop to help teach these specific science writing skills (‘Communicating Science’). The in-class lesson/workshop encourages an interactive, conversational approach to completing the activities; this should help students to resolve any confusion while giving them the chance to discuss the importance of the writing skills they are learning to master with their peers and instructors.
We provide student worksheets for the in-class activities, as well as TA and Instructor versions of these worksheets, which also include suggested solutions to the activities. We also provide a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the lesson/workshop, and a timing guide with teaching prompts to help instructors encourage students to get the most from these sessions.