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.
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.
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
after
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
the pareto principle
build your community
keep iterating
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
resources
The Artful Process of Effective Scientific Communication
Eric J. Ma (MIT)