Conciseness: Valuable Visually as Well as Verbally

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.

As some of you know, I coordinate the science communication master’s program at my university. Students in this program must either do an internship or write a thesis. A few students do both.

The internships give students practical experience related to their coursework. Our students have done science communication internships at a variety of sites—for example, magazines, public information offices, research institutes, and a university press.

To receive course credit for an internship, our students must keep a daily journal, give a presentation about the internship, and submit a portfolio of internship work. Once a week the students email me their journal entries.

Last month I read an insightful journal entry from a student of mine who is doing an internship at a planetarium. The student had drafted a planetarium presentation, and his supervisor at the internship had reviewed it. The supervisor advised the student not to show so many images.

The student wrote in his journal that he had remembered from our program that writing concisely is important—but had forgotten also to “be concise when using visuals”. A good point well stated!

In visual as well as verbal communication, conciseness is valuable. Including too many images, like including too many words, can confuse the audience. Also, making an image too detailed, like providing too many details in text, can interfere with understanding.

Consider your audience and your intended message, and be selective about which images to use and which details to include in them. Doing so can help make your communication stellar!

Until the next post—

Barbara