Resources On How To Improve Your Science Communication Skills

So, you are a busy scientist, but you love sharing your work. You may have realized that you could stand to improve your science communication skills. Maybe your graduate program did not provide formal training. But where do you begin?

During my PhD, I didn’t know that so many science communication resources were available. As a graduate student, you can easily get bogged down by the never-ending to-do list (keeping current on the scientific literature, preparing experiments, attending classes, meeting with your advisor, and it goes on). So, unfortunately, seeking out science communication resources was not a priority for me. It wasn’t until my postdoc that I began my journey of science communication self-improvement.

Because I wish I had known about these resources long before I discovered them, I’m sharing a couple here. I hope they will equip you at whatever stage you are. (By the way, there is no shame in starting now, no matter how far along you are in your career.)

So, now you know there are many resources, including articles, books, webinars, courses, and eBooks. But where should you start?

Here, I’m sharing two resources that helped me improve my science communication skills. I’m only sharing two in this post because I want to give you a starting place. If you want more resources, don’t worry. At the end of this post, you will find a link to a longer list of science communication resources to help you along the way. 

The first resource I’m sharing will help improve both your basic and science-specific writing. The second resource will help improve the structural aspects of your communication and teach you how to tell stories about science.

1. Writing in the Sciences on Coursera

Coursera offers free online courses taught by university professors. Writing in the Sciences on Coursera is a course I wish every science graduate program offered. The instructor, Dr. Kristin Sainani, an Associate Professor at Stanford in Health Research and Policy, provides training in writing for both academic and non-academic audiences. She begins with the fundamentals of writing and moves on to science-specific writing for research papers, literature reviews, and grants. The course also discusses ethics and the peer review process as well as how to write news articles, social media posts, and blog articles.

Don’t get me wrong; this course requires a significant time commitment. But it’s 100% worth it. I know that graduate students have that never-ending to-do list I mentioned above. So, if you want to know where to invest your limited time, I’d start here. Even if your graduate program includes a similar course, I’d still recommend taking this one. It’s always helpful to learn the same concepts in multiple ways.

2. Houston, We Have a Narrative: Why Science Needs Story by Randy Olson

The book Houston, We Have a Narrative by Randy Olson (this an affiliate link — see my disclosure policy) really helped me understand how to tell stories about science. I had heard science communicators stress how we need to tell stories to communicate science effectively, but it was never clear to me how to execute that. Stories? What do they mean by stories? Are we talking about stories where people are the characters or where scientific topics or ideas are the characters? 

Randy Olson proposes in this book that to write good stories, we should use the ABT method. ABT stands for “And,” “But,” and “Therefore.” If you can describe something following that template, your story will be interesting. The “And” part is where you provide background information on the topic. The “But” part states the problem. And the problem is resolved in the “Therefore” part.

Each part of the ABT matters. However, I’ve noticed that scientists often start with the “but” part of the scientific story. They state the problem without explaining the background information that is necessary to understand the relevance of the problem in the first place. 

Here’s a super short and simple example of an ABT: 

(And) Antibiotics are crucial for treating bacterial infections.  
(But) But bacteria are becoming resistant to the currently available antibiotics. 
(Therefore) So, we must discover new antibiotics and be good stewards of the ones currently available.

You could jump to the “bacteria are becoming resistant” part, but it’s better to stress why antibiotics matter in the first place. That way, the reader actually knows why we need to have antibiotics available. Yes, this is an overly simplified example, but hopefully, you can see how the “And” part of the story is crucial. 

So, the ABT method guides scientists to structure their stories in a way that helps the audience or reader care about the characters in the story.

By the way, after reading this book, I discovered that the characters can be many different things, including the scientist, research subjects, or the organisms being studied. So, you can feel free to be creative in crafting your scientific stories.

One point I have to stress, though, is that I think for the ABT method to really sink in, you must read the whole book. Even though Olson explains the ABT method at the very beginning of the book, it took a while for it to really sink in for me.

Lastly, I’ll share a couple of other points I found helpful in the book. First, stories are not merely a list of facts. When you string together pieces of information, and it begins to sound like “and, and, and,” you are not telling a story. Second, Olson stresses that we have to answer the questions “What are you trying to say?” and “Why do I need to know this?” Answering these questions makes the story compelling. Aren’t we all asking, “what is the point?” when we read something? In science, we have to make sure we answer these questions and not simply serve up a list of facts connected by “ands.”

So, there you have it. Two science communication resources I wish I had known about during my PhD. I highly recommend both. And if you want to learn more, I compiled a list of science communication resources based on suggestions from the #SciComm community on Twitter.

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Looking for more science communication resources? Check out my resources page.