Course description
Science dissemination has the potential of achieving global public engagement, along with related societal and political impacts. Students across different disciplines need to build skills in both inward and outward-facing science communication to reach out to people not only within but also outside the scientific community (Illingworth 2020). Within the scientific community, scientists must follow specific and internationally understood modes of communication to convince other scientists of the quality and rigour of their research, their investigation methods, analysis and results. General audiences however tend to respond to scientific information when it is presented in a meaningful, memorable way. Across cultures, stories are one of the most effective ways to convey meaning, raise interest and foster recall. Scientific story telling is of course very different from fabrication and conflation of empirical evidence (Dahlstrom, 2014, ElShafie, 2018). Scientific literacy and awareness, along with engagement with the general public and lay audience(s) are essential elements of compelling scientific communication. Therefore, scientists need to acquire multimodal rhetorical skills such as abstract writing, story-telling techniques and framing, along with oral communication strategies. In a globalised world, this also means using English as a lingua franca (ELF) to reach out to a larger audience.

Science students whose first language is not English face an additional challenge in international academic communication settings. However, native speakers of English also need to make themselves understood by non-Anglophone audiences. In multilingual environments such as the Venice International University, students need to be able to use English for specific purposes (ESP) to adapt their disciplinary discourse to the general public in a clear, compelling, and convincing way. Recent research (Illingworth 2020, Hafner 2020, Carter-Thomas & Rowley-Jolivet 2020) shows greater rhetorical adaptability can be achieved by integrating different semiotic resources (visual, oral and written modes) in order to covey meaning effectively (Carter-Thomas & Rowley-Jolivet 2001, ElShafie, 2018, Illingworth 2020). Students therefore need to be able to handle and switch between varieties of multimodal genres (Carter-Thomas & Rowley-Jolivet 2020, Hampel & Hauck 2006) and adapt their discourse to cater for interdisciplinary audiences, as well as native and non-native speakers of English.
This course aims to equip students with the theoretical background and practical strategies to develop their skills as science communicators. The key focus of the course is how to communicate science in ELF, using story-telling techniques and switching between visual, oral and written modes effectively. The multilingual and transdisciplinary student body will provide the opportunity for students to share their knowledge, cooperate to build and negotiate meaning and adapt to a variety of audiences. Students will receive and provide direct feedback on their communicative strategies in an authentic interdisciplinary context. Venice itself is an ideal setting to inspire students to find creative solutions to the challenges faced by the city in relation the global issue of climate change. This topic allows for transdisciplinary approaches and to focus on a range of sub-themes such as rising water levels, pollution and food safety just to name a few. The academic context of VIU can also be an opportunity for the content of students’ research to be presented in the form of a poster presentation to other academic circles and/or to the general public, thus providing them with an authentic and challenging context to put what they have learnt into practice.

Learning outcomes
This course aims to provide students with an overview of contemporary definitions of science communication and their relevance to today’s society. Students will be familiarised with the concepts of inward and outward facing science communication (with a focus on the latter), scientific story-telling, framing and multimodal rhetorical features of scientific communication. Students will examine and experiment with a range of semiotic modes, including written and oral abstracts, oral presentations and poster presentations. This course will also help students to develop strategies and practical solutions to decode and deliver scientific content with greater rhetorical adaptability. More specifically, students will learn about story-telling techniques, syntactic differences between oral and written communication, develop oral presentation skills along with practical and rhetorical strategies to adapt their discourse to a multitude of audiences. They will also develop their creative skills when working on visual aids and scientific posters. In order to complete their final project (an abstract, a poster and an oral presentation), students will also refine their research skills.

Teaching methods
The course will be taught through a blend of lectures, seminar discussions, workshops and small-group activities, along with individual and group assignments. The course will begin with a series of lectures and seminars to introduce the main topics and key terms, giving students the opportunity for small-group discussion of the weekly readings/videos along with hands-on exercises. There will be one or two readings/videos per week. Students may be required to do some of the reading in advance of seminars. A succession of workshops will follow, each focusing on a specific communication skill or mode through a combination of awareness-building exercises, student-led activities, individual and group work, pre- and post-workshop tasks and feedback sessions. The first and second workshop will focus on story telling/narrative techniques and how these can be applied to scientific content. The third and fourth workshops will focus on written and oral communication by analysing the syntactic linguistic/syntactic between abstracts and oral abstracts or presentations and experimenting with these rhetorical modes. A workshop aimed at adapting to the audience through framing activities and by avoiding jargon and technical terms will follow. Throughout these workshops, students will have the opportunity to give short 3-minute presentations on a variety of topics, so as to develop their confidence presenting in front of an audience, with a focus on stance, assurance, voice and eye-contact. Peer-to-peer feedback is strongly encouraged throughout the course. The last two workshops will focus on visual aids, focusing on power-point/visual aid design and giving an overview of scientific poster layout and presentation. The tutor will monitor students’ final group project throughout the course.

As well as in-class work, students will contribute to a “Shaping scientific narrative” padlet. The idea is to share and comment on examples of science story-telling techniques, along with digital tools and technology to create compelling visual aids and poster layouts.
A discussion forum will allow students to ask any questions on the course or the course materials.

Course evaluation
Non-graded intermediary assignments: A 3-minute oral abstract and written abstract on a given subject related to their research area.

Students will submit:
- 1 written abstract (150-200 words) linked to a topic of their choice (20% of their mark) – individual work
- 1 10-minute oral presentation of their chosen topic, including a visual aid (40% of their final mark)
- Group project (40% of their mark): In small groups of 2-3, students will submit a poster and give a 5-minute presentation on a topic related to original research or research projects to tackle climate change in Venice (group and individual marks).

Bibliography and recommended reading

Barry R. Bickmore and David A. Grandy, (2014). Science as Storytelling, BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 4, pp 37-60. https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/science-as-storytelling/
Bourne PE (2007) Ten Simple Rules for Making Good Oral Presentations. PLOS Computational Biology 3(4): e77. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030077
Carter, M. (2012). Designing science presentations: A visual guide to figures, papers, slides, posters, and more. Academic Press.
Carter-Thomas, S. & E. Rowley-Jolivet. (2020). Three-minute thesis presentations: Recontextualization strategies in doctoral research. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 48, DOI: 10.1016/j.jeap.2020.100897.
Carter-Thomas, S. & E. Rowley-Jolivet. (2001). Syntactic differences in oral and written scientific discourse: the role of information structure. ASp 31-33, 19-37.
Côté IM, and Darling ES. (2018). Scientists on Twitter: Preaching to the choir or singing from the rooftops? FACETS 3: 682–694. doi:https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2018-0002
Dahlstrom, M. (2014). Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 111(Supplement 4), 13614-13620. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1320645111
Davies, S. R., Franks, S., Roche, J., Schmidt, A. L., Wells, R. and Zollo, F. (2021). The landscape of European science communication. JCOM 20 (03), A01. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.20030201.
ElShafie, S. (2018). Making Science Meaningful for Broad Audiences through Stories. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 58(6), 1213-1223. https://doi-org.docelec.u-bordeaux.fr/10.1093/icb/icy103
Erren TC, Bourne PE (2007) Ten Simple Rules for a Good Poster Presentation. PLOS Computational Biology 3(5): e102. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.0030102
Goldacre, B. (2010). Bad science: Quacks, hacks, and big pharma flacks. McClelland & Stewart.
Hafner CA, Pun J. (2020). Editorial: Introduction to this Special Issue: English for Academic and Professional Purposes in the Digital Era. RELC Journal. 2020; 51(1):3-13.
Illingworth, S., Allen, G., (2020). Effective science communication: A practical guide to surviving as a scientist, Institute of Physics. Second ed., IOP ebooks.
Illingworth, S. (2021). Science Communication for Researchers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z__440RuATY (Accessed August 2022)
Joubert, M., Davis, L. and Metcalfe, J. (2019). Storytelling: the soul of science communication JCOM 18(05), E. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18050501
Leibniz Information Centre for Economics. (2021). Science communication with social media – the choice of the proper tools, PRACTICAL GUIDE 2, Open Science Magazine. https://open-science-future.zbw.eu/en/science-communication-with-social-media-the-choice-of-the-proper-tools/ (Accessed August 2022)
Luisi, M. (2019). Experientially learning how to communicate science effectively: A case study on decoding science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 56(8), 1135-1153.
Schneider, Simon & Heinecke, Liv. (2019). The need to transform Science Communication from being multi-cultural via cross-cultural to intercultural. Advances in Geosciences. 46. 11-19. 10.5194/adgeo-46-11-2019.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2014). Critical discourse analysis and multimodality. Contemporary critical discourse studies, 281-295.
Villar, M. E. (2021). Community engagement and co-creation of strategic health and environmental communication: collaborative storytelling and game-building. JCOM 20 (01), C08. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.20010308.
Williams, S., Gilson, C., Brumley, C., Mollett, A. (2017). Communicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Video. United Kingdom: SAGE Publications.
Yu, H., & Northcut, K. (Eds.). (2017). Scientific Communication: Practices, Theories, and Pedagogies (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315160191

Required preliminary knowledge
Though no specific preliminary knowledge is required, some basic knowledge of audio and video editing tools is required

Last updated: February 14, 2024