Writing for a non-specialist audience:
Scientific writing competitions
Dr Helen Webster
Writing Development Centre
The Impact Agenda
Accountability
and funding:
RCUK
Employability
and transferable
skills
Impact
Public
engagement: NCL
as civic university
Quality:
The
REF
Scientific Writing Competitions
 Routes to public engagement and impact:
 Broadcast media (print, television, radio)
 Social media
 Public outreach events
All of these benefit from training and support
Scientific writing competitions are a good way to promote
your research and your profile on a large scale and in a
supported way
Major science writing competitions
Europe PubMed Central Access to Understanding 2014
http://europepmc.org/ScienceWritingCompetition
PhD and Pdoc, pre-selected topics, closes 9th Dec
Medical Research Council Max Perutz Award
http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Sciencesociety/Awards/index.htm
MRC funded PhD, your own research
The Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize
In association with the 'Guardian' and the 'Observer‘
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Public-engagement/ScienceWriting-Prize/index.htm
Professional scientists, Non-professional writers
(UG>Pdoc) Any area of science
Science writing competitions: What do they
have in common?
They all want to see
 800 words
 Clear writing
 Writing that is accessible to a general, non-specialist,
but interested audience
 Writing that goes beyond description (of the problem
and of what the researchers did)
 Writing that effectively communicates the contribution
of the research (Why does the research matter?)
 Writing that is engaging
Starting with your audience
“clear” “accessible” “engaging”
Writing for a non-specialist audience: What
do science writers say?
“If in doubt, assume the reader knows nothing. However,
never make the mistake of assuming that the reader is
stupid. The classic error in journalism is to overestimate
what the reader knows and underestimate the reader's
intelligence.”
Tim Radford’s Manifesto for the Simple Scribe: The 25
commandments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/jan/19/manifestosimple-scribe-commandments-journalists
Meeting in the middle: knowledge, interest,
intention
Scientist
Reader
• What is your
message?
• What is your aim?
• What is the interest?
• What do they want?
• What are their
expectations/needs?
• What will they do with
it?
The science
writer’s role
The Food Chain
 Academic scientific peer
reviewed publishing
 Stakeholder reports
 Popular science
books/blogs/magazines
 Textbooks
 Quality press (broadsheets,
national news channels)
 Tabloids, ‘in brief’ news sites
 Online clickbait, listicles
Structure
The research paper: Diagram of structure
Introduction and
literature review
Methods
Results
Discussion and
Conclusions
The news report: Diagram of structure
The ‘inverted pyramid’ model
Most important/attention-grabbing
information
Elaboration and detail
Least important information? Return to
why it’s interesting/important?
What’s the story here?
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Isn’t science/nature amazing/weird?
Plucky researchers strike a blow against disease
So that’s why....now we understand.
Bet you’re glad this isn’t you!
 What story do you want to tell about your own
research?
What makes a good opening?
What did you think of those openings?
The hook:
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Connection to real or possible personal experience
The Unexpected, The Mysterious and The Weird
Or both!
An emotional reaction
A good opening paragraph: Example
Studying blindness? There’s an app for that
Everything is hazy; I can’t even see my glasses. I keep my eyes
closed; it doesn’t seem to make much difference opening them. My
hand feels clumsily around the bedside table, knocking my mobile
phone to the floor, and eventually I come across my glasses. On they
go, and I can see again. Those brief few seconds as I awake each
morning serve as a continual reminder of how much I value my sight.
Andrew Bastawrous, winner of the Max Perutz Science Writing Award
2012
The Middle Bit: finding a balance and
getting to the point
 How much knowledge does your reader really
need to understand the research and its
significance?
 Where is the point in these texts where they move
from setting the scene to describing the research
breakthrough?
Academic Paragraph structure
Topic sentence:
Introduction of
the paragraph’s
main idea
Main body in
which the
initial
assertion is
developed
and
explained
Conclusion
to be
drawn
from the
above
points
Signpost word
Self assessment can also develop skills which make a
student more attractive to prospective employers.
Employers value students with skills in self assessment
because these types of skills are relevant to a wide range
of employment contexts. They want graduates who can
accurately assess their own competencies in performing
tasks. Students who can do this are well placed to take on
responsibilities and adapt readily to roles in work places.
The value in developing these types of assessment can be
seen to go beyond meeting immediate educational needs.
Students who have developed an autonomous
approach to learning are well set up for life-long
learning which will continue throughout and beyond
their working lives.
Language
Writing about science: Complex material
simple expression
“Whenever I write about science, I imagine a parrot on my
shoulder saying ‘can it be said more simply’?”
Attributed to Dr Max Perutz, 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry,
after whom the Max Perutz Award is named
‘Simply’
Avoiding Jargon
“A plain English summary is a brief summary that has been written for
members of the public, rather than researchers or professionals. It
should be written clearly and simply, without jargon and with an
explanation of any technical terms that have to be included.” –
INVOLVE
Jargon is simply precise technical language which is used in an
inappropriate context, in which the audience does not share the
common and professional language the terms belong to.
Writing for a non-specialist audience: What
do science writers say?
“The shortlisted authors did a great job of using eyecatching imagery to snare our attention.”
Jenny Rohon (Judge, Max Perutz Science Writing Award 2012),
in Mind the Gap blog
“Some of our writers used metaphor to really good effect. But
there were examples of some metaphors that were a bit off-piste.
So think clearly about whether the metaphor is too tenuous, or
simply extended beyond its useful life.”
Sharmila Nebhrajani
Using Imagery
 Simile
 Metaphor
 Extended
metaphor
 Symbolism
 “research is like a journey”
 “research is a journey”
 “research is a journey. As
we travel, we may find we
do not arrive at the
destination we anticipated,
or by the paths we
planned”
 We cannot know the
destination of the Journey
The uses of metaphor: the spices in your
dish
 Metaphors can enable you to make a strong
connection with the shared experience between you
and your audience
 It can create a strong ‘visual’ or concrete impression,
which helps to explain the more abstract aspects of
research
 It makes your writing more engaging and interesting
Metaphor: leaving a sour taste
 You need to be sure that both you and your
audience share the same common
understanding of the metaphor
 Extended metaphors can break down as your
meaning is twisted to fit the metaphor
 Mixed metaphors are confusing
 Too much metaphor can seem overly poetical
and make the text too abstract
Voices – scientist, writer, reader
 Scientist: Quotations from the
scientists can change the pace, add
a ‘human’ element, give a sense of
the excitement of research
 Reader: Using questions as
paragraph openings can include the
voice of the reader
 Writer: do you want your own voice
to reflect that of the scientist or that
of the reader’s perspective?
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater
Scientific communication –
 What values and features
of academic scientific
writing do we want to
preserve?
 Which hinder scientific
communication to nonacademic readers?
Europe PubMed Central Science Writing
Competition: Comments from two judges
“… we are looking for accurate, balanced representation of the
research.”
Anna Kinsey (Europe PMC Engagement Manager and Access to
Understanding organiser)
“The best writers made complex science accessible, without
patronising the reader. They drew out the ‘so what?’ question – why
should I read this, why should I care? They were frank about the
unknowns and the limitations of the science. And they created energy
and excitement about the research, but without hyperbole.”
Sharmila Nebhrajani
Further reading: Writing for news media
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Cole, P. (2008) New writing. The Guardian 25 September. Available at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/25/writing.journalism.news.
Evans, H. (2000) Essential English for journalists, editors and writers. Revised
edition. London: Pimlico
Giles, C. (2011) What's the point of this story? Handy tips for science writers. The
Guardian 9 May. Available at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/09/handy-tips-science-writers.
March, D. (2007) Guardian style. London: Guardian Books
Parry, V. (2011) You want to know more, I know you do. The Guardian 3 May.
Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/03/secrets-good-sciencewriting.
Radford, T. (2011) A manifesto for the simple scribe – my 25 commandments for
journalists. The Guardian 21 January. Available at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/jan/19/manifesto-simple-scribecommandments-journalists.
Vitae: the Engaging Researcher
Other routes to impact
 Public outreach events