Introduction

 

This module will contextualise scientific and laboratory practice by asking you to think about the different kinds of people you talk to in the laboratory setting, and by conceiving of them as “audiences” for your work. In this module we will identify four types of audiences, and work on strategies for communicating with each one.

Learning Objectives

 

By the end of this module you will be able to identify four audiences you encounter in a professional laboratory setting:

1. Experts
2. Technicians

• Management

1. Laypeople

 

As well, you will be able to articulate the best communication practices for each audience, and generate frameworks for oral and written communication forms for each audience

Audiences

 

            Overview

 

Before you write or present information generated by your laboratory, you need to understand to whom you are communicating. This is a process of audience analysis, wherein you distinguish and parse three things:

 

1. What your audience knows about the subject
2. Why your audience is interested in the subject
3. What your audience will do with the information on the subject

 

If you are a working in the lab and a technical issue arises, you address the technical issue in a different manner with a fellow scientist, than you would with a lab technician, or a project manager. If you were to talk to your family at a holiday gathering, you would explain your lab practices in yet another manner. There is always, in communication about scientific work, a tension that must be navigated between what people are interested in, and what they can comprehend about the subject.

            Audiences

 

Below are four profiles of general audiences you will come across, as well as an explanation of why they might read your work and what requirements any communication you have with them will be.

                        Experts

 

This group of people will be the easiest for you to communicate with. The audience will understand the technical details of your work and will have the skill-set to problem shoot with you.

 

Who are they?

 

• Colleagues who have extensive knowledge in the field
• People who are familiar using technical language, techniques and/or practices of the lab

 

Why are they interested in your work?

 

• To advance their own expertise
• To obtain research information
• To evaluate technical content

 

 

What do experts need in your communication with them?

 

• Tables, charts, graphs, compiled data
• References to other work in the field
• Thesis statements
• Clear research methods
• Formal tone

 

 

                        Technicians

 

Who are they?

 

• People who work in the lab fixing, operating or constructing things
• They know why stuff works, but perhaps may not know the scientific or technological theory behind it

 

Why are they reading the technical documents?

 

• To learn how to perform a task
• To learn how to solve a problem

 

How do we write for them?

 

• Keep background information brief
• Use the active voice
• Carefully label steps
• Include little to no data

 

Managers/Executives

 

Who are they?

 

• People who are going to make decisions based on your laboratory results
• May have differing degrees of technical knowledge
• Supervisors of projects

 

Why are they reading technical documents?

 

• To make well-informed decisions
• To recommend certain actions

 

How do we write for them?

 

• Avoid jargon
• Use plain, directed language
• Explain the impact of data, graphs, results but do not include them
• Use a formal tone

 

Laypeople

 

Who are they?

 

• People with no technical knowledge, but may have interest in the subject

 

Why are they reading technical documents?

 

• To understand how something works
• To enhance their general knowledge
• To help them make better decisions as consumers or investors

 

How do we write for them?

 

• Give them extensive background knowledge
• Organize the material from the familiar to the unfamiliar
• Explain all technical terms with analogies