How to turn your research into a good story without sacrificing depth or complexity
- Hannah Booth
- 2d
- 4 min read
Many people think that communicating complex research well is about simplifying, stripping things back to the bare essentials and glossing over any tricky details or nuances.
Of course, this is true to some extent. We can't expect to be able to share every last detail of our work in a twenty-minute talk or short blog post. And anyway, that wouldn't be what our audience or readers want. But oversimplifying is actually just as bad — for whoever is hearing or reading about our work, as well as for ourselves.
Audiences and readers can be left feeling at best indifferent and at worst short-changed if they sense they're not getting the full story. After all, if they're showing up for your talk or being drawn to your post in the first place, they're probably already expecting a certain level of depth and complexity, to learn something new and interesting.
Of course, we also want to stay true to ourselves and honour all our hard work at the computer or in the lab, in way that is authentic. It's not like we suddenly transform into a slick marketing guru or salesperson the moment we walk out on stage or start writing a magazine feature or social media post! Authenticity is one of the most important ingredients in successful communication, and people can easily sense when it's not present in the room or on the page.
This is why it's so important to avoid falling into what I call the oversimplification trap when communicating your research: the temptation to smooth everything away that makes the work actually interesting. Instead, what we're really after is a clear, compelling story which has just the right amount of depth and complexity.
So how do you actually do this?
Below are eight things to think about when preparing your next talk or post.
1 | Be up front with people
Far from undermining you and your work, being up front with people and letting them know you're focusing on just one part of a bigger picture actually shows respect towards your audience or readers. It's a great way to signal honesty, and opens up a natural way to direct people towards the full story if they're interested: you can point people to your publications, invite questions in the Q&A or coffee break, or offer to continue the conversation via email or social media.
2 | Don't skip the context
Of course, you don't want to take people through your entire literature review or the full history of the topic, but a bit of context goes a long way when it comes to engaging audiences. Just because people aren't familiar with your field doesn't mean there aren't some ways to contextualise your work and make clear why it matters. A small detail that people can recognise from their own lives and experience in the world can help them connect with your work, and provide a familiar anchor point to ground a talk or blog post.
3 | Anchor points
Speaking of anchor points, they're a great way to give people something to hold onto as you guide them through your research: a simple image, analogy, anecdote or datapoint, for example. Returning to that anchor throughout your talk or blog post helps listeners and readers stay oriented as you move through complex ideas, findings and claims.
4 | Layering
In terms of building up complexity in a natural and easy-to-follow way, layering your information is a good way to achieve this. For each slide or paragraph, focus on the absolute essentials that an audience or readers need to know in that specific moment — and leave anything else for later, if at all. This approach gives people space and time to absorb each layer of information in turn, helping them experience the depth of your work without feeling overwhelmed.
5 | Keep some key terms, but use them with care
Don't feel like you have to banish absolutely every technical term — sometimes there just won't be a good alternative. Some jargon is ok, but make sure to define it clearly the first time you use it, and remind people what it means later on when it inevitably comes up again. How many times have you been ten minutes into a talk and found yourself struggling to remember what that long acronym from the beginning stands for again? That's definitely something you want to avoid!
6 | Show not tell
Get people to appreciate some of the complexity of your work by letting them discover it for themselves: a nice data visualisation, a live demo of a tool or method, or a short video clip, for example. This often works much better than relying on long, wordy explanations. That said, don't leave people completely on their own: give them a helpful hint or the information they need to be able to interpret what you're showing them.
7 | Serve up a caveat sandwich
People generally understand that our world is complex, so there's no need to hide this aspect of your research in a talk or blog post. Still, we need to think carefully about how we introduce the complexity. One good way to do this is to serve up a caveat sandwich: start with a clear, simple claim, follow it up with the nuance or limitation (the caveat), and then return to the claim and why it matters. This way you can honour the depth of your work while still keeping people engaged and on board.
8 | Use the fellow expert test
Finally, as you prepare a presentation or a piece of writing, make sure you regularly apply what I call the fellow expert test to help you avoid falling into the oversimplification trap. For every slide, paragraph or image, think of a fellow expert in your field and ask yourself: Would they read this and think it's inaccurate or misleading? If the answer is yes, then chances are you have oversimplified. The goal is to craft a compelling story that draws people in, but one that another expert would still recognise as accurate and fair.
I hope you found this post useful!
I'm Hannah, a former academic in linguistics, and in my work at Smart Phrasing I help researchers communicate their work with confidence, clarity and impact, so their ideas and discoveries reach the people who most need to hear them.
Editing, writing & communication coaching
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