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Scientific communication

 

 Scientific communication is essential for helping people use and take care of this earth. Researchers who discover the wonders of science must tell someone about their findings in clear, complete, and concise terms. To add to the pool of scientific knowledge, scientists must synthesize available information with what they discover. If a scientist garbles words or leaves out important points, messages become unclear, and the progress of science suffers.

 No special talent is required nor is magic involved in clear scientific com­munication. It is simply a skill developed for exchanging meaning by use of words and other symbols within a social and scientific environment. Meaning associated with those symbols must be the same for both the sender and the receiver. But either the author or the audience can manipulate the meaning and both probably will. Communication is the vehicle that carries progress, but it also carries disputes and disruption of progress. Generation gaps, wars, and prejudices result, at least in part, from something communicated.

 On the other hand, bridges across generation gaps, peace, and understandings are also results of communication. In scientific communication, be ever wary of the human element, and communicate as concisely, conventionally, and clearly as you can with your audience in mind.

 Writing or speaking about scientific research is no more difficult than other things people do. It is rather like building a house. If someone has the materials he needs and the know-how to put them together, it is just a matter of hard work. The materials come from his own study and research. Any attempt to commu­nicate in science is fruitless without valuable material or content.

 In any sort of work, speaker must learn the names of the tools he uses or how to operate the instruments in the processing plant, the lab, the construction site, or the field. He must learn what care has to be taken with equipment and with data, or else he should not be working in that area. Writing or speaking, like chemistry or biology, requires cautious skillful work with the tools available and understanding of the content and premises upon which messages are based.

 But more so than constructing a house or carrying out scientific experimen­tation, communication contains much of the human element and is far more subjective than is science and less attentive to empirical data. So to work with communication, speaker has to recognize that it exudes from the individual human into a social context in which it can become either clarified into meaning or polluted into confusion. That means that what he says or writes is modified or tempered by his own personality and beliefs, and its reception depends upon the audience and the other important elements.

 Developing communication skills is a combination of mental and physical activity. It requires regular exercise or practice to move toward perfection. The same is true with writing or speak­ing; only with continual practice can speakers develop and maintain the skills they need.

 People have been in school for many years of their life; they know how to talk and write. They may or may not have had much of the needed practice in scientific writing, but they probably have had all the grammar and rhetoric courses they want. Basic instruction in language use is a good foundation for writing and speaking so long as they don't let that instruction inhibit their communication. Sloppy grammar, punctuation, and spelling can distract from a scientific message.

 First of all, speaker needs to come to terms with his purpose. Why is his writing or speaking about a certain subject? Obviously, several motivations stimulate his communication. A general purpose is the exchange of scientific knowledge; speaker’s specific purpose will depend upon his subject and his audience.

 Any communication, and especially information exchange between scientists, is a matter of asking and answering questions. Answering the question before it is asked often averts many problems. In scientific communication, asking ques­tions is the foundation for discovery.

 All forms of scientific communications have a great deal in common. Variations in content and organization are imposed by the questions from different audi­ences and the answers the speaker gives.

  In addition to the questions from a given audience and the conventions that have evolved in language, speaker’s success in communications depends upon knowing who that audience is, knowing his subject and pur­pose, and recognizing his own abilities and convictions.

 The audience is most important to the interpre­tation and understanding of scientific message. However hard the speaker tries to send a clear message, the completed communication rests with them. The speaker can't control an audience entirely, but since he is initiating the communication effort, he is responsible for presenting information in a way that is easily interpreted and understood.

 Regardless of their prestige and education, members of the audience are human. Human beings are rarely logical, fair, and unemotional. No matter how much the speaker tries to keep scientific communication strictly factual and objective, the human element is present. For example, if someone is making a speech, the audience will notice his appearance and his voice before they hear a word he says. When readers look at a page, they may notice its appearance: the size of type, whether paragraphs are short or long, whether there are headnotes or illustrations. People have certain expectations about how a speaker should dress and sound and about how words on a page should look.

 Once words are introduced, the reading audience or listeners have further expectations about meanings and patterns for those words. Most educated people expect Standard English diction and sentence construction. If either is substandard or foreign to them, a break in communication results whether the speaker is talking or writing, if he first gives the receivers what they expect or what they find familiar, they can feel comfortable. He can then lead them to his point even if it is unexpected or unfamiliar. No word can be fully defined except with the context in which it is sent and how the audience receives it. The extent to which a word or idea reaches the audience with the same meaning it had when it left the sender constitutes clarity in communication.

 An interaction of author and audience with subject and purpose through technique produces communication. In this complex of influences, develop the skills to keep it as simple as possible.

 

References:

1.Postman, N.  (1976). Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: How We Defeat Ourselves by the Way We Talk—And What to Do About It.

2. Silyn-Roberts, H. (2000). Writing for Science and Engineering: Papers, Presentations and Reports.

3. Herbert L. Hirsch. (2003). Essential communication strategies for scientists, engineers, and technology professionals.

4. Meryl Runion (2003). How to Use Power Phrases to Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say,; Get What You Want.

5. B.N. Jansen. (2007). Teaching information and communication technology                         skills.

6. Martha Davis.(2005). Scientific  Papers and Presentations.