Less really is more

I think my biggest challenge as a scientific communicator is that I find it difficult to be concise. My natural writing style has verbose tendencies and I am not accustomed to expressing the bare minimum to get my point across. For example, I find writing Methods sections to be particularly challenging as I am always unsure which steps can be conjoined, and which steps can be assumed by someone with biological knowledge. However, I found the assignment where we peer-review a classmate’s Methods section to be very helpful. It gave me some ideas on where I could shorten my own Methods section.

I also ran into this challenge during my preparation for Journal Club. I found myself gravitating toward including small details behind the experiment/data collection, when in reality, some of the details were not necessary for the audience to understand my overall story. Brevity was another challenge I faced in my JC presentation, as I had to be very selective for which data figures and points I chose to make, as the time limit is constraining. Overall, the assignment of having to do a journal club presentation was a valuable experience, as it combined many of the skills we have learned thus far into one assignment. I realize that there will be many times in life when I need to communicate a scientific/technical topic to an audience, and the ability to summarize the key information will be crucial.

-Katie Williams