Re-presenting Research

In their open access publication Re-presenting Research: A Guide to Analyzing Popularization Strategies in Science Journalism and Science Communication, researcher Florentine Sterk and assistant professor Merel van Goch take a closer look at popular science texts and communication strategies.

Popular science texts

Every day, new scientific discoveries are communicated to a broad audience, for example in newspaper articles. In these popular science texts, scientific results are presented in such a way that it becomes clear to readers what they mean for their daily lives, or what the socially added value is.

But how are popular science texts constructed? How is science presented in an understandable and interesting way? This is what Sterk and Van Goch wrote a book about. A writer could, for example, tailor the information to the reader by adding an example from daily life or a metaphor, or use humor and questions to attract the reader’s attention.

In Re-presenting Research, Sterk and Van Goch discuss 34 of these communication strategies. The book also contains a framework for analysing the use of these strategies in popular science texts. If you find popular science texts interesting, would like to write them yourself, or if you want to know more about text analysis, then this book is worth reading.