Mini-module: Communicating with a Lay Audience

Skills for Success / Academic Skills / Mini-Modules

7. Structure 

Think about the general structure of your work (whether it is written or spoken) because the best way to deal with a topic could be very different for a lay audience compared to an academic audience. Here is an example structure to illustrate this point:

1. Lay audiences want to know why something is important and what implications it could have for them, so it might be appropriate to start by dealing with those areas. 
2. Then they might want to know how you know all this, so you could tell them about some evidence or results that show it.
3. This could then lead you to describe the research that produced the evidence.
4. This could lead to describing the background and reasons why researchers were looking at this area in the first place.

The above structure is very different from what is usual at university, in fact it is almost the reverse order, but it could be more appropriate for a non-academic audience.

So, think about the most appropriate structure for your audience and your purpose. 

Now try the activity below which contrasts a typical academic structure for a paper with the example given above of a possible piece of lay communication.