Introduction

Ever more people are interested in reading about scientific findings. Many have only a basic education in science but are eager to read about research. Others are reading across different fields from their own training. For many, English is not their first language. You may already be making your research accessible through lay summaries and popular write-ups in simpler English. But how accessible is it really?

If you are reading this, you probably want to communicate your research to a wider audience. Most people writing about science know to avoid their field’s jargon when writing for the public. However, in an effort to make their popular writing livelier, many scholars use informal language, metaphors, or pop-culture references which are not easy for everyone to understand.

This article highlights some common types of words, idioms, and even grammar that can slow down people who did not grow up with English-language media and culture. For example, some article titles are based on informal phrases, song titles, famous novels, or even phrases from advertisements. I found articles in my library with titles including ‘Lather, rinse, repeat’, ‘dodged the … bullet’, ‘What's trust got to do with it?’, ‘Apples and Oranges?’. Any of these might be unclear to an international audience.

You can have a catchy title without opaque idioms and culture-specific phrases. From my library: ‘Detect and destroy: CRISPR-based technologies for the response against viruses’, ‘Releasing hope—Women’s stories of transition from prison to community’, ‘Should Black Humor Be Put to Death? Examining Student and Staff Views on Black Humor in Anatomy Labs’, ‘Stigma and HIV Are Like Brother and Sister!’.

You can improve the readability of your work for international audiences by examining your writing for elements which can easily be misunderstood. Below you will find examples and explanations that will help you to see the issues.

Tangible Tips

• Location specific — seasons: Name months, not the season. Different parts of the world have seasons at different times. Descriptions of research sometimes refer to a project starting in e.g., ‘the summer of 2020’, even if it was not related to the weather. Summer is not the same all over the world. March – May is summer in much of Southeast Asia, and December – February in much of temperate southern hemisphere.

• Easily misunderstood scientific terms: Remember the ordinary meanings a non-scientist may think of first. The need to be careful with the use of ‘significant’ is widely known. But other scientific terms can be misunderstood, too. Think of the meaning of ‘rational’ or ‘rational actor’ in economics and political science. A more subtle case is ‘snowball sampling’. ‘Snowballing’ does not bring up a clear image in much of the world. Snowball sampling could easily be understood as standing for a method that was like throwing snowballs, rather than making a snowman. You can call it ‘chain sampling’ instead. Your field might have other such words that are culture-bound.

• Hard to define vocabulary: If you can’t explain a word easily, try to find a clearer way to communicate what you mean. Write what you mean in simple words. Some words are very hard to define clearly in a few words. These words may well have no exact equivalent in many languages and are hard to interpret. Examples: sophisticated, vulnerable, granular.

• Culturally specific — be aware that many do not have pop-culture or classic references, and that some expressions are hard to look up.
• Sports and games talk: Just drop this ball. Even people who are fluent in English may not know the rules or terms that are often used in sports and games. No sport or game is universally known. If you have expressions like ‘in the ballpark’, ‘good innings’, ‘three strikes’, ‘ducks in a row’, ‘do not pass Go’ many people will have to guess what these mean.
• Advertisements and products: Catchphrases won’t be recognized by an international audience. A number of expressions from advertisements or products have become so famous they are recognised by people who have never seen the original ads. A Canadian example is ‘It tastes awful. And it works.’ (From Buckley’s cough syrup). An example from the USA is, ‘Lather, rinse, repeat.’ (From shampoo directions for use). An example from the UK is, ‘Oh Ambassador, you are spoiling us!’ (From Ferrero Rocher)
• Expressions and idioms: Only use idioms in which all words have their common meanings. You know not to use slang in popular writing, but some expressions which are not slangy are not as international as many people think. When a catchy expression has been applied to a new context, people can forget that it might not be well understood by people from a different culture. If all the words are used in their usual senses, then a reader can understand the meaning. When there is a different meaning to a word, these slow the reader down. Examples: ‘Pass the buck.’ or ‘The buck stops here.’ (What’s the ‘buck’ here? A dollar? A deer?) Another example is ‘At arm’s length’ (means ‘far away’ but can easily be misunderstood as ‘within reach’).
• Titles: Don’t rely on cultural knowledge for the meaning of a title. Any title, no matter how famous it seems, will not be universally recognised. You can use an expression or title that refers to a famous title as long as it makes sense without knowing the reference, but some will be confusing. ‘A Tale of Two _____s’ is very popular in scientific writing.

• Confusing vocabulary and grammar – Some expressions are not so easy for people around the world.
• Negative questions: Don’t use negative questions. Negative questions function differently in different languages. In some languages, two different words for ‘yes’ make negative questions clearer. One is for answering positive questions (‘Did you see that?’ ‘Yes, I did.’) and one for answering negative questions. English has only one ‘yes’ (‘You didn’t see that?’ ‘Yes, I saw it.’ or ‘Yes, I did see it.’) In English, we would answer ‘no’ to a negative question to agree with it. (‘You didn’t see that?’ ‘No, I didn’t.’) This agrees with the sense of the question. But in many languages, the answer to a negative question agrees with the grammar of the question. (‘You didn’t see that?’ ‘Yes, I didn’t see it.’)
• What causes what: Choose carefully the verb for the relationship between variables. The range of influence from correlation to causation is the point of much research. Many verbs can express ‘X therefore Y’: implies, predicts, increases, decreases, makes, etc. Sometimes these are used as though they are synonyms, but they are not. For example, Y can be ‘predicted’ from observations of X. For causation, the value of Y needs to change according to changes in the value X — most clearly, by manipulation of X. When you are sure you have chosen the right verb, check your writing to be sure you state it in clear positive terms, e.g., ‘If it were not for’ is a potentially confusing phrase.
• Sanction: Avoid this word that has opposing meanings. Better just to avoid this word. ‘Sanction’ can mean to permit or allow something: ‘The Ministry of Health sanctioned prescription of drug X for…’ or to punish: ‘The Ministry of Health sanctioned physicians for inappropriate prescription of…’
• Often: Save ‘often’ for ‘many times’. ‘Often’ is commonly used where ‘many’ would be a better choice. To be clearer, restrict ‘often’ to descriptions of how many times something happens (‘drug X often causes adverse effects’) not how common something is (‘drugs often have multiple formulations’  ‘many drugs have multiple formulations’)
• Once: Use a different word for meanings of ‘once’ other than ‘one time’. ‘Once’ has several meanings. One of them is more clearly expressed with ‘when’ or ‘after’. ‘Once the participant starts the test…’  ‘After the participant starts the test…’ Contrast with a meaning similar to ‘previously’, ‘in the past’: ‘Once participants were called subjects, and experiments were performed on them. Or: Once popular, this method has now been superseded.
• Since: Best to avoid ‘since’ at the beginning of a sentence. ‘Since’ has several meanings. One of them is more clearly expressed with ‘because’ or ‘as’. ‘Since the series of experiments began in a laboratory setting …’  ‘As the series of experiments began in a laboratory setting….’ Contrast with: ‘Since the series of experiments began in 2001 more sensitive tests have become available.’ It is not grammatically incorrect to start a sentence with ‘since’ but readers may have to re-read a sentence if they started with the other meaning.

Useful Resources

https://www.bates.edu/biology/files/2010/06/Word-Usage-in-Scientific-Writing.pdf

This is a scanned 5-page document by a journal editor, listing in alphabetical order words which can cause confusion. While the original resource is about biology, much of it is more general.

https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/taboo-words/

This blog post gives some words that are too informal for academic writing, with suggestions of more suitable words.

https://theunscientificmethod.ca

Look on the ‘workshops’ page of The (un)Scientific Method website for more science communication principles and examples. Listen to their podcasts for those examples in action.

https://www.stat.cmu.edu/~larry/=sml/Causation.pdf

This document has some good explanations of the precise use of terms related to association and causation. Association, prevention, and causation are notoriously difficult to convey to the public with an appropriate level of scientific certainty. Have your explanation as close to unmistakable as you can get it.

N. Haber et al., "Causal language and strength of inference in academic and media articles shared in social media (CLAIMS): A systematic review," PLOS ONE, vol. 13, no. 5, p. e0196346, 2018, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196346.

This article reviews the use of different vocabulary for causation in scientific papers. Reading it will have a a casual effect on your descriptions of association and causation.

Acknowledgment:

Thanks to The (Un)Scientific Method podcast and SciCATS for hosting this workshop series, with funding from NSERC Science Communications Skills Grant.