Writing

Why You Must Publish for Non-Specialists

Insights, Moving from Expert to Public Expert, Public Expertise for Research Organizations / By

Let me be blunt: if you hope to increase the public impact of your expertise, but don’t want to frequently publish content for non-specialists beyond your colleagues, you should abandon that hope immediately.

Publishing frequently for these audiences is the way, the crucible for becoming a much more effective public researcher as quickly as possible.…

Tuesday Teardown: Direct Authority Quotes

Insights, Issues Public Experts Face, Tuesday Thought Leadership Teardown / By

Researchers can make three kinds of quotes that add authority to their outreach content:

  1. Citations of other works, which might or might not be attached to an actual verbatim quote from the source;
  2. Maxims — those over-familiar sounding quotes worn so smooth by so many previous quoters that they’re almost pre-digested; and
  3. Direct authority quotes — quotes from conversations with colleagues or other authorities, used by permission.
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Cultivating Better Writing Skills: What Research-Based Organizations Should Do

How To, Insights, Public Expertise for Research Organizations / By

How can individual researchers assess their writing strengths and weaknesses (and improve on those weaknesses)? Last week I gave you four ideas.

How can research-driven organizations/institutions help with that assessment and improvement? In many of the same ways:

  • Hire a staff editor with some domain expertise to work with its researchers;
  • Hire a professional writing coach to evaluate manuscripts and the strengths and weaknesses the researchers are displaying in those manuscripts;
  • Put on two- or three-day writing workshops for its researchers, led by a scientific writing coach and scientists who write well (the manuscripts might be peer-reviewed papers, pieces for non-specialists, or a mix of both);
  • Develop an internal communications platform where researchers can get candid, supportive feedback on their writing from their peers;
  • Develop an external-facing platform (OK, a blog) where researchers can publish at low stakes.
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Assessing Your Writing Skills

How To, Insights, Issues Public Experts Face / By

A list member writes:

This morning while working on a proposal with some super collaborators I found myself thinking that my writing skills could use some work. I know they always can, for everyone, but then I wondered:

How can I assess my writing skills to highlight current strengths and weaknesses without going back to college?

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