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Your URSS project is an opportunity to share your research with people beyond your subject area. At the URSS showcase, you will be speaking to an audience from a wide range of disciplines. They may not be familiar with your topic, but they will be interested in finding out what you’ve discovered and why it matters.

Being able to explain your research clearly to a non-expert audience is an important skill for any researcher. The URSS is a great opportunity to practise this skill and build your confidence in communicating your ideas.

Top tips for writing for a non-expert audience

• Think about your audience
  What would someone who knows nothing about your subject want or need to know? Focus on the ideas, questions and findings that will help them understand your research.

• Focus on the bigger picture
  You don’t need to include every detail of your project. Instead, highlight the key points: What did you investigate? What did you find? And why does it matter?

• Keep it concise
  Choose the information that is most important to your audience and leave out anything that might distract from your main message.
  Avoid jargon
  Try not to use specialist terms unless they are essential. If you do need to use technical language, explain it in a way that someone outside your subject area can understand.

• Keep your writing clear and accessible
  Use straightforward language and relatively short sentences. Aim to explain your research in a way that feels natural and easy to follow.

• Test your writing
  Ask someone who isn’t familiar with your subject to read your project description. Could they explain your research back to you? If not, think about what you could clarify or simplify.

Writing for a non-expert audience doesn’t mean making your research less interesting or less academic. It means finding a clear and engaging way to communicate why your research matters.

You may need to edit and redraft your project description several times — but the time you spend making your writing clear and accessible will be well worth it.

Tools

You may find these tools helpful when writing for a non-expert audience:

 : challenges you to explain your idea using the most common words

: will check your writing and highlight any sentences that are too long or complex