Personal. Direct. Spontaneous. Responsive. Emotionally vivid. In all their workshops and courses aimed at helping people build their muscles of communication and connection, Center for Communicating Science (CCS) faculty focus on five core goals.

    Now each of these five pillars of effective communication is highlighted on the CCS website's Resources page, along with recommendations for additional reading and exercises for building and practicing skills. Each "brief" is also available as a printable, downloadable document.

    “These five pillars of communication come from experimenting and observing the ways that theatre practices support connections among people and from learning from scholarly research on human interaction,” says CCS director Patty Raun, “We think about them in all that we do. We’re glad to be able to share them in writing now with our communities.”

    The CCS focuses on helping researchers make their communication more  

    Personal. When communication feels personal, the message itself becomes more meaningful.  The Personal page provides information and exercises to help scientists share their research not only as experts or professionals, but also as passionate, caring, and trustworthy sources.

   Direct. On the Direct page, you'll find resources to help make your information concise and easily understandable. You’ll learn to shift complex terms, definitions, and jargon into language that can be more easily understood by the public, providing effectiveness and clarity in your communication.

    Spontaneous. The Spontaneous page focuses on finding the balance between being prepared while still remaining flexible and genuine in your delivery, rather than sounding over-rehearsed in a way that could come across as lacking confidence or being bored with your own research. Spontaneity creates opportunities to engage and interact, building a genuine connection with your audience.

    Responsive. This pillar is not just about how to say what you're trying to say, but also about assessing who you are talking to. It provides information on the effects of audience awareness and nonverbal communication. You’ll also find skill-building exercises to help develop and use nonverbal communication and awareness of your intended audience and environment to create an even greater impact.

    Emotionally Vivid. Here, we help you articulate the passion for your research when communicating the work you do, sharing your commitment and your emotions with your communication partners and audiences. Emotionally Vivid will show you how to transform an “information dump” and turn it into a story that resonates and is remembered.

    In addition to these five important communicating science concepts, other helpful tactics, resources, exercises, and ideas to think about are provided in “General reminders about communicating science and research." This sixth resource page will teach you how to apply the framework of five core concepts and connect it all to ensure that your communication is clear, thoughtful, engaging, and impactful.

    Each of the five resource pages provides exercises designed to help users strengthen these pillars of effective communication in practice.

    "Our approach at the Center for Communicating Science is very interactive and experiential," says CCS associate director Carrie Kroehler. " With this new resource, we provide some of the exercises we use in classes and workshops but in a form that people can try on their own or with a friend or colleague." The result is a collection of exercises that participants can keep in their back pocket so that they not only learn about and build communication skills, but also can put them into use.

By McKenna Slocum, Center for Communicating Science student intern

The new resources were developed as an extension of the center’s work last summer with pandemic prediction and prevention researchers in the U.S. National Science Foundation COMPASS Center.