Engaging the audience - How to write for the public - Doing other writing for publication

How to write and publish a scientific paper - Barbara Gastel, Robert A. Day 2022

Engaging the audience
How to write for the public
Doing other writing for publication

Readers of journals where your papers appear are likely to be already interested in your topic. Or at least they are deeply interested in science. Thus, beyond perhaps noting the importance of the topic, you generally need to do little to attract readers.

When writing for the public, however, you typically must do more to engage the audience. One key to engaging the audience is analyzing it. The public is not uniform. Rather, readers of different publications have different interests. Ditto for users of different websites and audiences of different broadcast programs. Consider what the audience members are likely to care about, and relate what you say to those interests.

Regardless of other interests, most people care about people. Thus, use human interest to help engage the audience. For example, tell about the people who did the research. If there are technology users or patients, tell about them as well. When appropriate, also include almost-human interest, for much of the public likes animals.

Include quotes from the people in your piece. Doing so contributes to human interest and can keep readers’ attention through varied voices and lively wording. To obtain quotes, of course, you generally must do interviews, even if you are well versed on the topic about which you are writing.

People generally like stories, which often combine human interest and suspense. So consider including some narrative. For example, show how a line of research developed—and do not omit the difficulties encountered. Or include some anecdotes illustrating your points.

Especially with regard to technologies, costs may interest and be important to the public; consider including economic context. Likewise, if relevant to your subject, provide social and ethical context.

Science is full of wonder as well. Use it to help engage the audience. Draw on the audience’s curiosity. Too much gee-whiz can cheapen science, but a little can enliven a piece.

In a popular article, unlike in a scientific paper, you may be able to engage in wordplay and other humor. If, for example, puns are your passion, now may be your chance. Be sure, however, that any humor would be understandable to the audience; avoid scientific in-jokes.

Think visually as well as verbally. Editors of popular pieces for print, the web, and television generally want to use photos or other graphics. Even radio stories benefit from description of visual aspects. If a piece is to include visuals, the editor can tell you whether to provide them yourself or merely provide ideas.

To maintain interest, pace the article carefully. Think of a popular article as a chocolate chip cookie. Just as each bite of the cookie should contain at least one chocolate chip, each few paragraphs of the article should contain something tasty—for example, a good quote, a lively anecdote, or a deft analogy. Keep your readers wanting one more bite.