Being able to communicate complex scientific information with non-science audiences is important because most Americans or humans do not have a lot of scientific experience outside of high school. Most people if they are not science majors, really have not taken a higher education science class before. If they have it is usually a Gen Ed which typically people tend to forget what happens within their Gen Ed classes. Also, if you are talking to someone older than you who might be a businessman then there is a high chance that they have not taken a science class in a few years and probably have no idea what you’re talking about if you’re spewing scientific lingo.
One example of a general audience scientific paper would be the general audience paper about children’s syndrome that I wrote in biology 288. This paper basically took scientific articles and turned it into a more generic writing. So, most of the scientific jargon was cut back or changed to be something more people-oriented, in a way. This paper basically talks about what exactly Sjogren’s syndrome is and what could possibly be the cause. Since the cause of Sjogren’s syndrome is unknown this paper takes those scientific articles that discuss what could possibly be the cause of Sjogren’s syndrome and turns it into a general audience-friendly way of informing the general public of what the cause of Sjogren’s syndrome could possibly be.
BIO 288 General Audience Paper.docx
Another example of being able to communicate with non-science majors and an audience outside of a scientific setting would be the pamphlet made in Biology 304. The pamphlet that I made was about the hepatitis B vaccine. This pamphlet was supposed breakdown what exactly hepatitis B or HBV is, who affects it, the symptoms of HBV, and what exactly the vaccine is. This pamphlet took a complicated topic and broke it down into sections that most people would be interested in. When most people look up hepatitis B or HBV, they are looking for how it affects them or how they could possibly have common contact. Most people are looking for how it affects them rather than how it affects others. I do not know many people who would want to go coming through information on Google about something that could be more complicated than they thought it would be. So, this pamphlet basically breaks down the most important information about HBV and the HBV vaccine for easier access to the information.
This baseline presentation done in biology 488 about the creation of a 3D lacrimal organoid could be considered a general audience type of presentation. This presentation looks at a scientific article that was turned into a Science News article. This presentation basically breaks down the scientific article and parts of the Science News article and turns it into a general audience presentation about how this Japanese team made a 3D lacrimal organoid or tear duct organoid. Sometimes it is hard to break down scientific jargon, like organoid. This is due to that there really is not a general audience word for organoid, so one of the struggles with this assignment was trying to turn scientific jargon into everyday English. It is OK to have scientific jargon in general audience papers or presentations as long as you’re able to explain what exactly that jargon is without getting too bogged down in details. That was one of the things I was learning how to do in this presentation.
Baseline Presentation Nothing to cry about The development of tear duct organoids.pptx
Being able to write for a general audience is really difficult as a science major because the way we’re taught to write would not make sense to most of the general population. When the science professor sends us to the writing center general audience writing and scientific writing clash. Scientific writing is done in a passive voice while general audience writing is generally done in a more active voice. So, trying to make something that scientific into a general audience thing is difficult because not only are you changing tenses, but you are also trying to change words without changing the meaning. Finding words that match or are similar enough to the scientific jargon can be exceedingly difficult. Being able to provide scientific information to the general population is really important because we’re not trying to gatekeep scientific information. Science is about growing and change in whatever field you are looking at occurs. I know some people who like science, but they are not scientists. They enjoy learning about science, but they do not have the same training or journal article reading skills as most scientists have. So general audience information about science comes in handy for those types of people.