Pruneski Justin A
Heidelberg University, Tiffin, OH 44883.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2018 Mar 30;19(1). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1417. eCollection 2018.
Overcoming the complex and technical language used in science is a major barrier to scientists being able to communicate their work with the general public. This can lead to misunderstanding and mistrust of science, with many negative consequences. Scientists are increasingly seeking to improve their ability to communicate their work effectively with a variety of audiences. As such, students should recognize the challenges and importance of communicating science with nonscientists. This short classroom activity takes advantage of a free, web-based tool, called Simple Writer (https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/), which facilitates the writing and revising of text using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in English. Students are asked to write a paragraph in response to a prompt and use the Simple Writer tool to convert it into a form using only the 1,000 most commonly used words, while still maintaining the same message. By experiencing the difficulty of converting a relatively simple paragraph to meet to this criteria, students gain an appreciation for the challenge of removing jargon from scientific and other technical writing. Beyond the initial activity, the Simple Writer platform can be used in various other ways to engage students in learning science and developing essential writing skills.
克服科学中使用的复杂技术语言是科学家与普通公众交流其工作的主要障碍。这可能导致对科学的误解和不信任，并产生许多负面后果。科学家们越来越多地寻求提高他们与不同受众有效交流工作的能力。因此，学生应该认识到与非科学家交流科学的挑战和重要性。这个简短的课堂活动利用了一个名为“简易写作器”（https://xkcd.com/simplewriter/）的免费网络工具，该工具仅使用英语中最常用的1000个单词来促进文本的写作和修改。要求学生根据一个提示写一段文字，并使用“简易写作器”工具将其转换为仅使用1000个最常用单词的形式，同时保持相同的信息。通过体验将一段相对简单的段落转换以满足此标准的困难，学生们能够体会到从科学和其他技术写作中去除行话的挑战。除了最初的活动外，“简易写作器”平台还可以以各种其他方式用于让学生参与科学学习并培养基本的写作技能。
