The Artful Process of Effective Scientific Communication

Eric J. Ma (MIT)

slides are available online!

about myself

UBC Vancouver, Integrated Sciences
MIT, Biological Engineering
Research on viral evolution, ecology, and biochemistry
Developer of computational tools.

why this talk?

Your future will involve communication at many levels of technical difficulty:
- to other specialists
- to non-technical audience
Let me share with you a taste of what that process may look like.

main ideas

Communicate your idea as simply as possible, but no simpler than necessary.
Find a safe space and time to develop your thoughts.
Strategically select colleagues to help give you feedback.
Multiple rounds of rewriting is inevitable.

simplicity

temptation

You've done a ton of work.
You want to include everything.
这样才能对得起自己的付出，对吧？

reality

Your audience won't necessarily have enough background.
Your reviewers may not have enough time.
Nobody but you knows best the details of what you've done.

the artful principle

How do I structure the communication of my idea, such that:

it and nothing more is sufficient for my audience to know what I'm saying
it and nothing less is necessary for my audience to know what I'm saying?

Who is my audience, and how do I know what they know?

my story

before

All four figures from my first set of submissions to Nature, Science and eLife.

after

The final figure that told the main point of the scientific story, in the submission to PNAS

word diet

before: 2794 words in main text.
after: 1847 words in main text.

what happened?

space & time

spaces

I found spaces where I could write and think in isolation.

Yet, there were other people doing work in those same spaces.

time

My advisor let me set the tempo, and I repaid the trust with regular updates.

details matter

Take charge, experiment, and design your environment to fit your needs.

core idea

Take initiative.
Toy with your idea, formulate it, find its limits.
Develop confidence to explain it.

feedback

advisor

"Does it make sense to my advisor?"

Advisor is responsible for packaging your story into research group's overall scientific direction.

colleagues & collaborators

"Does it make sense to my colleagues & collaborators?"

Colleagues & collaborators will tell you where your logic is not clear.
Can sometimes provide alternate perspectives.

specialist outsiders

"Does it make sense to a specialist outsider?"

A specialist outsider: someone who shares your foundational knowledge but doesn't know more than that.
You should be able to communicate the general implications of your research, without the detail.

your mom

Don't bother.

rounds and rounds of editing

fundamentals matter

Master English grammar and specialized vocabulary.
Imitate papers written by native English writers.

let it go

First drafts are always going to be unsatisfactory.

each round gets better

"Show me your first draft and I'll show you where you're wrong."

Each rewrite clarifies the scientific idea further.

summary

go simple

What makes it into the main paper figures is only a fraction of what you've done. A lot of life is like that too.

the pareto principle

80% of my results will come from 20% of my effort. Perfection is not required at the beginning.

build your community

Find a community of trusted allies to help you along.

keep iterating

Progress comes from iteration, execution, and feedback. "Failure" (also known as "negative feedback") should be expected.

contact

thank you!

let's chat!

可以换语言了，但如果交叉"chinglish"的话，请多多包涵！

prepping for grad school
thriving in grad school
learning programming
life in North America