If there’s one thing that scientists could do to improve releases, I would suggest that they first try to summarize their take-home message to an educated, non-scientist friend or relative before writing up the sales pitch. Use that discussion to ask: what makes the biggest impression on the listener? What’s confusing? Is a metaphor or example needed early on to help get the point across? That verbal interaction could really help refine the written title and lede; if your friend is unconvinced or bored by your sales pitch, chances are good that most of your target audience will be too.
-Brynn Nelson. Seattle-based freelance writer and editor- From Journalists Comment on Science Press Releases COMPASS Blogs
Download the Pitch Worksheet and Resources pdf to print out and use for brainstorming
At this point in the workshop, we spent about 20 minutes working on identifying the main story in our research, which audiences might be more engaged with that story. Once everyone had spent about 5 minutes brainstorming their ideas, we paired up to practice this basic ‘pitch’ of our science. Partners worked together to suggest other ways the story could be told, additional audiences who would relate to the research, and to identify and replace jargon. I suggested the common ’12-year old’ test, which is to imagine telling an intelligent 12-year old about your research, but thinking about explaining what you do to your grandparents is another good trick.
It’s really good practice to go through this exercise before you talk to a communications expert or the media about your research. In fact, it’s good practice to do this before talking to any general audience about what you do. This doesn’t have to be done in a workshop either, take a few friends (preferably who don’t study the same thing you do), head to the pub, and work on your stories over a beer.
-Brynn Nelson. Seattle-based freelance writer and editor- From Journalists Comment on Science Press Releases COMPASS Blogs
Download the Pitch Worksheet and Resources pdf to print out and use for brainstorming
At this point in the workshop, we spent about 20 minutes working on identifying the main story in our research, which audiences might be more engaged with that story. Once everyone had spent about 5 minutes brainstorming their ideas, we paired up to practice this basic ‘pitch’ of our science. Partners worked together to suggest other ways the story could be told, additional audiences who would relate to the research, and to identify and replace jargon. I suggested the common ’12-year old’ test, which is to imagine telling an intelligent 12-year old about your research, but thinking about explaining what you do to your grandparents is another good trick.
It’s really good practice to go through this exercise before you talk to a communications expert or the media about your research. In fact, it’s good practice to do this before talking to any general audience about what you do. This doesn’t have to be done in a workshop either, take a few friends (preferably who don’t study the same thing you do), head to the pub, and work on your stories over a beer.
Our second activity followed our discussion of the key elements to adding content to your science story. Once you've established your key messages and audience, it's important to think about the components of your story that will help to draw people to it. See the Key Elements page for more discussion of what you can think about including, and some examples.
We worked on our own to think about good analogies, anecdotes, and visuals that would make our stories more compelling for the audiences we identified in Activity 1. We then worked in small groups, and with the advice of our 3 speakers, to share our ideas and brainstorm new ones.
This activity in particular was really fun and the 20 minutes allocated for it wasn't enough, even for small groups of 2-3 people. It turns out there are lots of great ways to talk about each science story.
We worked on our own to think about good analogies, anecdotes, and visuals that would make our stories more compelling for the audiences we identified in Activity 1. We then worked in small groups, and with the advice of our 3 speakers, to share our ideas and brainstorm new ones.
This activity in particular was really fun and the 20 minutes allocated for it wasn't enough, even for small groups of 2-3 people. It turns out there are lots of great ways to talk about each science story.
