Three non-obvious ways to use your comms skills as a scientist
You don’t have to be an aspiring media star to get value from communications training.
Good comms training constantly reminds you to keep the audience front of mind. And as a scientist, there are many tasks you will really excel at if you always remember to do this.
“Audience?” some of you may ask. “What audience?”
There’s always an audience.
1) Academic papers
For paper writing, the term audience refers to your target paper readers (and this means the reviewers, in the first instance). For these audience members, you’ve gotta convince them your science is good and you have interpreted the results in a reasonable manner. That you are aware of the other pertinent research in your field. Take care to confront any controversies in a considered, polite way: some of the people involved in that particular research may be the ones reviewing your work, so it pays not to irritate them too much.
But with all this in mind, you don’t have to shy away from a narrative necessarily.
As much as you can – within the bounds of the journal’s structural guidelines and scientific objectivity – take the reader on the discovery journey with you. Try and sweep them up in the ideas, the experimental design and your passion for the work.
Randy Olson’s And. But. Therefore. structure can be super useful for keeping an audience with you in all types of writing, including for papers and for grants.
2) Grants and other applications
For grant writing, fellowship applications and prize entires, I recommend scientists picture an exhausted reviewer sitting up beyond midnight and who has a list of similar documents that must be reviewed by COB the next day. This is your audience. Unless you grab them quickly, you risk a rapid transfer to the “not for further consideration” pile.
A strong lede (sometimes called the nutgraf) is critical. This is a concise, upfront paragraph that gives the audience an intriguing snapshot of what they’re about to read, but does not reveal all the details. Hook your reader. Convince them they can’t afford to put this document down.
A strong sense of narrative is also important. Within rules guiding accepted scientific practise, get a bit creative. Take the reader through the story of your research. Make it easy to read. A joy to read, even.
Strong, precise headings and subheadings can help the reader navigate their way through the document. The reviewer may chose to scan forwards and back through the document, and accurate subheadings will assist this process.
3) Emails
Stop. Before you press send, have you done absolutely everything you can to ensure this piece of writing is tailored to the target reader(s)? That’s your audience.
All of our inboxes are full to the brim. When you send something to a potential collaborator, to a possible new employer, to your supervisor, picture that email sitting in their inbox unread for days.
As the target reader scans down the list of unread correspondence, which one will they open first? The one with the enticing title. Not a clickbait title though – a strong, scientifically accurate line of information that helps them see this is a must-read email. This is your foot in the door. Make them want to read it. Help them see it’s important.
As an example, consider these two hypothetical email titles:
Job application for postdoctoral research position in your lab
I am an experienced cancer researcher with a strong publication track record and confirmed funding for 2020
I know which email I’d open.