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One of the most valuable skills you can learn through undergraduate research is how to communicate effectively with an interdisciplinary audience. At URI, we encourage interdisciplinary research and communication through programs such as our Undergraduate Researcher Stipend and the Undergraduate Research Symposium. But how do you communicate effectively with people outside of your own discipline? This session will provide tips for students on how to handle the most common challenges in interdisciplinary communication -- from understanding your audience to taming technical jargon.
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Talk nerdy to me: Interdisciplinary communication for undergraduate researchers
Crystal Snyder October 16, 2014
Communication is not what you say, it’s what your audience understands.
Here’s the take-home message:
Topic (e.g. your research)
AudienceSpeaker (e.g. you)Message
Academics gone wild – this actually happens…
“The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.”
~winner of the Philosophy & Literature bad writing contest, 1997
…even in publications meant for a general audience:
“The scale of the human socio-economic- complex system is so large that it seriously interferes with the biospheric complex system upon which it is wholly dependant, and cultural evolution has been too slow to deal effectively with the resulting crisis.”
—Paul R. Ehrlich is president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. (In SEED Magazine)
Translation:
Humans are messing up the planet faster than we’re fixing it.
What do they already know?
What do they want to know?
Why do they care about your message?
What barriers might interfere with their understanding?
How can you connect with them?
Who is your audience?
Your job is not to “dumb your message down” or “talk down” to your audience.
Your audience is smart, educated & curious – they just may not know the same things you know.
Your goal is to translate your story into language your audience understands – finding a shared vocabulary.
Your audience is NOT dumb.
How do we connect with our audience?
•Ethical appeal•Can they trust you?
•Logical appeal •Does it make sense?
•Emotional appeal •Do they care about it?
1. Tell a story.
• People are hard-wired for story.
• Think about your research, not just as a body of data, but as a process.
• Remember the human element, especially with non-academic audiences.
Some practical tips:
“Maybe stories are just data with a soul.” ~Brene Brown
• Charts, figures, graphs, tables
• Infographics
• Photos/images
• Visual comparisons
45 ways to visualize two quantities:
http://blog.visual.ly/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/poster75and37.pdf
2. Use visuals
• Understand the purpose of jargon
• Don’t use jargon to compensate if you don’t understand something clearly yourself
• Use acronyms & abbreviations sparingly
3. Use jargon with intention
• relate quantities to familiar objects
- e.g. 1 square cm = a sugar cube- http://htwins.net/scale2/
• use analogies to make abstract (or difficult to visualize) concepts more concrete:
- e.g. cells as “biological factories”- e.g. hydrophobic interactions oil/water analogy
4. Use analogies and familiar comparisons
• How does the concept relate to the real world?
• e.g. nanomaterials research
· Are nanomaterials used in any everyday objects now?
· Where might they be used in the future?· What everyday product might they
replace or improve?
• e.g. math research· Might be a theoretical problem – but can
you compare it to any problem/phenomenon in the real-world?
5. Put abstract concepts in a more familiar context
As we get deeper into our own discipline, it can become harder to recognize what is or isn’t “common” knowledge.
• Have you seen this topic or terminology in the popular media?
• What other “common” usage exists for the terms you’re using?
• e.g. “significant”, “proven” – does not mean the same thing to everyone
6. Know your own blind spots
7. Use the “grandmother test”
• Get technical feedback from those familiar with your research
• Then get feedback from people outside of your discipline
8. Get feedback
• If you are presenting in-person, gauge their understanding – ask them questions.
• Pause to give them an opportunity to absorb & ask questions
• Be prepared to explain things in a different way, if necessary
9. Check-in with your audience
• Your supervisor or mentor
• URI staff
• U of A Library: Undergraduate Research LibGuide
• Student Success Centre (upcoming seminars!)
• Centre for Writers
Where to go for more help
4th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium
November 13, 2014 in CCIS
Visit www.uri.ualberta.ca for details
October 21 – drop-in session for URI Stipend applicants
October 22 – Keeping up with the Grants
October 23 – How to design a research poster
October 27 – Deadline: URI Stipend applications (for Winter 2015)
October 30 – Poster design “bootcamp”
Visit www.uri.ualberta.ca for details and to register!
Upcoming events & seminars
Crystal SnyderUndergraduate Research Coordinator, URI
2-701 SUB
www.uri.ualberta.ca
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