EFFECTIVELY WRITING AND SHARING YOUR RESEARCH IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

In today’s world of short attention spans and soundbites, being able to explain in a few simple sentences why your research matters is an essential skill for scientists. Writing a Plain Language Summary is one of the best starting points for describing your work in simple terms.

A Plain Language Summary is used to explain a journal article, its findings, and relevance in much simpler language than the article’s abstract. Many people read the Plain Language Summary before any other part of the article. This includes people browsing articles online looking for something of interest, people new to the scientific field such as students, and journalists who are scouring articles for interesting and newsworthy research findings. The content and tone of the Plain Language Summary influences whether people want to read more, thus it is vitally important to write something that is succinct, simple, and free of scientific and technical jargon. This clear and concise explanation can then be reused and repackaged for broader audiences.

Using real examples, this presentation will demonstrate how easy it is to construct an effective Plain Language Summary by breaking it down into four elements: topic overview, paper overview, findings summary, and key takeaways. You will be challenged to identify technical terms and scientific jargon that you use without realizing, as well as words that have different meanings to non-scientists. Since Plain Language Summaries are ideal for sharing on social media, we will also explore how to repackage them for different platforms to maximize the attention and impact of your work.