Mini-module: Communicating with a Lay Audience

Skills for Success / Academic Skills / Mini-Modules

3. Vocabulary 

1. Don’t avoid personal pronouns.

In academic writing you are often encouraged not to use personal pronouns so, for example, rather than saying “I did the research by telephone” it would be more academic to say “The research was conducted using a telephone survey.” For lay communication, you can be less formal and more direct.

2. Use visual and concrete language and avoid abstract concepts.

• Concrete words are things you can touch or see, for example people, places and things, like a teacher, a bus, a tree
• Abstract words are not physical objects, for example ideas or concepts, like education, transportation, forestry

3. Don’t change verbs into nouns (“Nominalisation”).

Academic writing often uses verbs that have been changed to nouns. This is where you change a verb, like boil, to a noun, like boiling, for example:

Next, boil the water (Verb)

Next is the boiling of the water (Noun)

4. Try to notice whether you are using clichés, buzzwords and jargon and avoid them. 

These can sound inappropriate and annoy the audience. For example:

“I ran our proposal up the flagpole to see if anyone saluted.”

“Our approach was outside the box.”

“We are pushing the envelope with our DNA profiling results.”

5. Be careful about technical terms

Think carefully about the words you choose. Will the audience understand? This means be careful about using technical terms. If you can explain something in simple English, it is probably better. If you do use a technical term, be sure to explain what it means. 

Now, do this quick activity to summarise the above points.

Academic words often have a different meaning for a lay audience. For example, an anomaly in science just means a change from a long-term average, but to a lay audience it might suggest an undesirable event, which is very different.
Now, try to match the academic vocabulary with the most appropriate equivalents for a lay audience.