Build a City: How to Communicate Research Effectively
Good research involves time and effort. The best research is rigorous, and survives critical scrutiny. But a lot of your hard work can easily go unnoticed if it is poorly communicated. When we researchers encounter this challenge, we often tell ourselves ‘it’s not my job to communicate effectively. I’m a researcher, not a communicator’. Some of us then end up writing for ourselves, or for small academic bubbles. But then our research would have little impact in the real world. In this short article, I share some thoughts on how I’ve approached this challenge.
Let’s work with an analogy. Whenever you produce a piece of writing — say, a journal article or a blogpost — think of what it takes to build a small city. You would need to plan each individual house, the streets and neighbourhoods, and of course, the overall metropolis.
Houses: the sentences
Each sentence in your piece needs to be carefully crafted. A sentence, like a house, should have a solid foundation. Once you have a solid foundation, you can add flourishes to introduce your unique personality and style. But style comes after you learn to communicate in clear, direct sentences. Here are four tips I’ve picked up from effective writers:
1. Short sentences: There are two good reasons for keeping sentences short. First, shorter sentences are more reader-friendly. They allow your reader to ‘breathe’ after each sentence. Longer sentences can be very taxing, and readers would often be compelled to re-read them. Second, shorter sentences leave less room for error. The longer the sentence, the harder it is to keep track of proper grammar and syntax.
2. One idea per sentence: Try to ensure that each sentence conveys only one idea or thought. The less complicated the sentence, the better. Empathise with your readers. Remember they are reading your work for the first time, and don’t have the benefit of the background thinking that underlies each sentence.
3. Prioritise: Sometimes you may need to include more than one idea in a sentence. When this need arises, make sure you present the primary idea first, and the secondary idea later. Remember, a reader’s attention thins as they make their way through a sentence. Don’t keep your reader in suspense. Lead with the central point, and conclude with secondary points, such as reasons, caveats, and clarifications.
4. Simplify: The more sophisticated our vocabulary, the more impressive our research, right? Well, not quite. The ability to communicate complex ideas in simple terms is a highly desired skill in the research community. Some of the most brilliant research never reaches the audience it deserves because it isn’t communicated in a simple manner. So drop ‘big words’, and unnecessary adjectives. There are some great open source tools that could help you achieve simplicity. For example, check out: http://www.hemingwayapp.com/.
Let’s take an example. Take the sentence: ‘Notwithstanding the fact that Sri Lanka is a small nation, it defeated much larger nations, and won the cricket world cup in 1996’. The reader is compelled to reach the very end of the sentence to arrive at the actual point. Such sentences are often tedious to read. The same ideas can be conveyed through a shorter, sharper sentence: ‘Sri Lanka won the cricket world cup in 1996, despite being a smaller nation than its competitors.’ The trick is to use the least number of words to convey your thoughts.
Neighbourhoods: paragraphs
A lot of the hard work is already done if you’ve built sound houses. But individual houses don’t necessarily make a good neighbourhood. They have to relate to each other, and be organised in a sensible and aesthetically pleasing manner. Here’s where rhythm matters. Whenever you complete a paragraph, read it out aloud, and check how it sounds. Once again, it’s important to assess how someone else experiences your writing; put yourself in the shoes of a reader. I often make use of the ‘read out loud’ function offered by Microsoft Word to playback what I write. I can then assess the rhythm of the sentences, and how they sound in sequence. The function offers the added benefit of detecting typographical errors, which I’m quite prone to committing.
Specific types of words can make your paragraphs better. For example, ‘conjunctive adverbs’ can help connect sentences and improve the flow of your paragraph. Common examples of such adverbs include ‘then’, ‘however’, ‘therefore’, ‘nevertheless’, and ‘moreover’. But, sometimes, sentences that don’t actually need to begin with a conjunctive adverb sound better without one. Take the two sentences: ‘Sri Lanka has not won a world cup final in twenty-four years. Therefore, I hope 2023 is our year.’ The adverb ‘therefore’ is not needed in the second sentence. Also, stylistically, the second sentence sounds better without it. Apart from conjunctive adverbs, you can use words such as ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, and ‘finally’ to connect ideas that are part of a sequence. Such words help readers keep track of your points.
The city: the completed work
Once you’ve begun to construct your sentences and paragraphs, it’s time to zoom out and take a bird’s eye view of the entire city. The city plan matters. Your completed piece of writing should have a coherent structure that helps a reader navigate your research easily and enjoyably. Structure requires planning. But it can also be an iterative process. You can improve by trial and error. Unlike building a real city, you can press the delete button and restructure your piece at any time.
A couple of techniques can help you structure your piece of writing. First, you can use signposting. Similar to how you would name your streets in a city, it helps to name your arguments, and provide a map of the arguments upfront. Your introduction should specify what arguments the reader can expect in the piece. Second, you can use specific terms and phrases to label arguments clearly. Such labelling helps the reader remember what to take away from your research. For example, in a journal article on majoritarianism, I mentioned three drivers of majoritarianism: ‘entitlement complexes’, ‘existential fears’, and ‘exceptionalisms’. Now, hopefully, readers will identify and remember these labels whenever they encounter them in the article. Also notice that I used an alliteration — three words/phrases starting with ‘e’ — to label my three points. So signposting and labelling can help the reader absorb your main arguments without having to re-read the article.
Let me add one last thought before I end. It’s important not to be too wedded to your sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes, great sentences, or even paragraphs, don’t really work when you consider the piece in its entirety. The answer is almost always to send in the wrecking ball. If it doesn’t add value, or takes the reader on a needless detour, it probably shouldn’t be there. You ultimately want your reader to comprehend your research, and be convinced by it.
A well-constructed piece of writing is like a well-planned city: easy to navigate, and enjoyable to visit.