If you listened carefully, attendees at the Science of Science Communication Colloquim held recently at the National Academies of Science learned of a website entitled “Talk Nerdy to Me”.  A contributor to that site is Melissa Marshall, a faculty member of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State. According to her biography, Marshall aims to teach great communication skills to scientists and engineers so that they can effectively share their work.  She offers her advice on communication in a short TED talk available online (see below). What is striking are the similarities between the concepts presented by the keynote speaker Kathleen Hall Jamieson at the Colloquim and the tips shared by Melissa Marshall, in particular, the importance of respecting the audience to get them on your side as a speaker.

Her short hand equation for success is:

Science minus (Jargon + Bullets) divided by Audience Relevance multiplied by Speaker Passion equals Understanding by the audience.

Here is some of her advice as presented in the TED talk

1.     Explain the relevance

The first task of a speaker is to answer the so what question by making clear to the audience why the material being presented is relevant to them.

2. Beware of jargon

As is obvious from its place in her equation, Marshall considers jargon to be taboo in presenting to lay audiences.

3. Do not dumb down the material

This is also part of the respect for the audience. Marshall quotes Einstein to remind speakers to keep things as simple as possible but no simpler.

4. Use stories and analogies

This is another form of respect because by analogies, the speaker is building on something the audience already knows. This reminds us of the importance of the “lock-down” metaphor which was highlighted by Jamieson in her talk at the Colloquim.

5. Drop bullet points

This seems counterintuitive since bullet points help to avoid lengthy text on a slide. However, Marshall is quoted as saying that bullets kill, and they will kill your presentation.

To listen to the short entertaining talk on video, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/9392l27

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