68109 Advanced Communication Skills in Science
Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a
particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
Scientists of the 21st century must communicate effectively with other scientists and the public. This includes an understanding of the different models of science communication and requires you to consider the background of recipients so that the knowledge they are sharing with their target audience or readers is clearly understood. Acknowledging the potency of Indigenous Knowledge systems, different to the Western system of empirical, lab-based science, but equally valid and productive, is part of ensuring effective science communication.
Scientists work in teams and need to explain complex concepts to those with different scientific backgrounds. Scientists also need to request funding for their programs, equipment or staff or promote their findings to the public via media interviews, generalist publications or blogs. To be effective in these activities, scientists need communication skills: to speak directly, concisely and informatively about their work to colleagues and supervisors, conference audiences or specialist panels or the general public; to write reports, memos, academic papers, reviews and online material to promote their workplace; to apply for jobs or promotion and to communicate within their workplace with their supervisors and work colleagues. All of these activities require effective written and oral communication skills.
This subject aims to provide postgraduate science students with integrated professional language skills in written and oral communication and text-based research skills. Students are encouraged to take a critical and analytical approach to evaluate and produce written and spoken texts appropriate for different professional purposes. This subject focuses on critical reading skills, effective paraphrasing and summarising to avoid plagiarism, selecting and evaluating reliable information sources and their correct acknowledgement, developing a clear and convincing writing style to promulgate arguments, and presentation skills. Cover letters, resumes and interview skills are also addressed, given their importance to career development.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Use the different types of communication modes used by professional scientists and apply them appropriately in your own field. |
|---|---|
| 2. | Practise a critical approach in your reading of scientific information and evaluate it for the presence of bias and lack of scientific evidence. |
| 3. | Use a clear and effective written and spoken style of communication that always acknowledges the background knowledge of your target readers and audience, be they scientists or the public. |
| 4. | Avoid committing plagiarism as part of your professional and ethical approach in science communication to other scientists and the public. |
| 5. | Reflect on your learning process and use feedback to improve your professional communication skills. |
| 6. | Employ effective workplace communication skills to enhance your career development. |
| 7. | Effectively manage your time to enable you to comply with deadlines set for your assignments and in your workplace. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of following course intended learning outcomes:
- Assess, argue for, and conduct independent research and solving complex problems by applying a research methodology to address a research need in a relevant professional context. (2.1)
- Develop, prepare, and engage, at times collaboratively, in safe, ethical, organised and transparent work practices that mitigate risk and contribute to solving global health problems in the context of science and medical biotechnology. (3.1)
- Reflectively discover, create, and evaluate processes used to determine the value, integrity, and relevance of multiple sources of information to derive innovative solutions to complex science and medical biotechnology problems. (4.1)
- Present and communicate complex ideas and justifications using appropriate communication approaches from a variety of methods (oral, written, visual) to communicate with discipline experts, scientists, industry, and the general public. (5.1)
- Critically reflect on Indigenous Australian contexts to inform professional cultural capability to work effectively with and for, Indigenous Australians within Science and medical biotechnology. (6.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
Graduate Attributes addressed
There are six graduate attributes that are expected to be gained by students on completion of their studies in the Faculty of Science. This subject focuses on developing five of these attributes, as detailed below.
2.0 Research, Inquiry and Critical Thinking
In this subject, you will be encouraged to improve your critical analysis skills when reading scientific documents. Both the Oral Presentation Skills Task and the Topic Outline for the Critical Review will require you to evaluate published material by using the criteria of sources' reliability and the scientific method's rigour. You will continue to use this approach in writing your Critical Review.
3.0 Professional, Ethical and Social Responsibility
This subject's learning and teaching activities will enable you to gain several generic professional skills essential in your future workplace. They include a superior level of comprehension and analysis, time management skills, the ability to work effectively in groups, interest in topics of current scientific interest and ethical professionalism.
As a professional scientist, you must communicate using many different communication modes. You are likely to address a wide range of target groups of different backgrounds who may not understand the jargon unique to your discipline. You will gain insight into current communication modes and how to apply them successfully for a target audience in the assessment tasks. As students in this class come from a range of science backgrounds, you will be encouraged to share your experiences in class discussions to appreciate different points of view that arise from different scientific disciplines.
Because scientists mostly work in groups, you will undertake collaborative peer review in class in this subject. You will be provided with advice on making peer review successful when working in class to prepare your Critical Review, Workplace Skills Task and Oral Presentation.
Plagiarism is unacceptable in scientific communication, and it must not be committed by an ethical scientist – the ethical attitude in your professional roles is strongly emphasised in this subject. You will practise how to paraphrase and summarise texts without committing inadvertent plagiarism and will have an opportunity to check your writing using Turnitin software that detects plagiarism.
4.0 Reflection, Innovation, Creativity
The extensive feedback you receive on your work is typical of professional, scientific practice and aims to motivate you to continuously improve your communication skills. This ‘doing and improving’ approach will enable you to use your feedback on your Critical Review, Workplace Skills Task and Oral Presentation to improve your communication skills.
Self-reflection allows you to critically evaluate your process of learning new skills and doing new tasks so that you can apply this self-knowledge to future learning processes at university and in the workplace. You will be able to practise this through submitting a completed checklist evaluating your performance concerning the assessment criteria for the Critical Review.
5.0 Communication
To enhance your written and oral communication skills as a postgraduate student in science, you will examine a range of styles used in professional, scientific writing. You will also explore the various forms of communication with peers, supervisors and other professionals and the reporting of science in the media. Your assessment tasks focus on practising the various communication modes.
In writing the Critical Review, you will practise writing in a disciplined and concise language used by scientists to communicate with one another across different disciplines. Your Oral Presentation based on the Critical Review will be aimed at a different target audience, the public interested in science. In preparing the Oral Presentation and the Workplace Skills Task, you will be addressing a person who may not be a scientist but is likely to be science-literate.
Exercises in the workshops will also build your competence in academic English expression appropriate for a professional scientist so that you write using correct grammar and genre elements and speak clearly and effectively for the target reader or audience.
6.0 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges and Connection with Country
As a professional scientist, you will work with people from various backgrounds and different scientific knowledge levels. An awareness and appreciation of other ways of developing understandings of the natural world, especially of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges, will enhance your ability to understand the role of science communication in the modern world and your professional capability to work with and for First Nations people.
Teaching and learning strategies
Organisation
There is a two-hour face-to-face teaching and learning session each week. As preparation for this workshop, there is pre-work to complete each week, comprising a one-hour online lecture to introduce the topic plus other reading material, interactive activities and quizzes to check your understanding. The workshops are designed for intensive learning and skills practice with focused exercises and individual feedback. All sessions involve a variety of learning and teaching modes, including short lectures, student presentations, class discussions and exercises. In general, you will have numerous opportunities to practise writing and speaking and get feedback for further improvement. It is beneficial to you to attend every session to maximise your learning potential in this subject.
Preparation for workshops
Each week there will be online pre-work to prepare you for the workshop, including accessing video clips and readings or answering online questions. You are expected to spend at least two hours preparing for each class to effectively use the workshop time to learn new skills that will help you successfully complete assessment tasks. These activities include peer review of each others' work.
This cyclical approach is intended to encourage you, as a post-graduate student, to become motivated to learn independently and to gain skills through practice during class activities.
Workshops
These small group workshops maximise your learning experience in two ways: you will get more individual attention and work collaboratively with your peers.
Academic language proficiency
This subject aims to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills to succeed at university and in the workplace. To determine your current academic language proficiency, you must complete an online language screening task, OPELA (information available at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/enhancing/language-and-learning/about-opela-students).
If you receive a Basic grade for OPELA (or the written diagnostic task), you must attend additional Language Development Tutorials to pass the subject. These tutorials are designed to support you in developing your language and communication skills.
Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
Content (topics)
While the approach taken in this subject is not specific for any particular scientific discipline, the subject will provide opportunities to customise the components to suit your particular interests.
The teaching and learning sessions will address:
- the importance of communication in science and for scientists and the variety and range of communication skills required of science professionals;
- the elements of written communication that result in clear and effective communication of information to a range of readers and audiences with different backgrounds;
- the use of library and web resources for research and application of effective communication; effective and appropriate use of references in writing texts to acknowledge sources of information; and the importance of avoiding plagiarism;
- the elements of critical analysis of texts, reliability of sources and presence of biases;
- the different styles and formats of written communications (e.g. professional reports, scientific journal articles, popular science articles, social media posts, job applications, and resumes) with particular emphasis on identifying how they might be made appealing to target readers;
- the different styles and formats of oral communication reflecting the purpose and the target audience, e.g. seminar presentations, media interviews and job interviews;
- the role of professional scientists in society, including consideration of ethical issues and professional responsibilities.
The program below outlines the content of weekly sessions. For more details, please consult Canvas.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Critical Review
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 2.0 Research, Inquiry and Critical Thinking 3.0 Professional, Ethical and Social Responsibility 4.0 Reflection, Innovation, Creativity 5.0 Communication |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Literature review |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 55% |
| Length: | The Topic Outline should be 2-3 pages. Critical Review should be 3000 - 3500 words (not including Abstract, References, Tables and Figures). |
| Criteria: | The marks for the Topic and Outline (Assessment Task 1A) will be assessed on the following criteria: a stepwise development of the title of the review from the topic; and an outline that logically and critically addresses the scientific controversy. This component of the assessment is worth 10%. The marks you receive for the Critical Review (Assessment Task 1B) will reflect how well you followed the guidelines for effective writing with respect to format, content, synthesis of information, critical appraisal of the literature, use of resources and following the conventions of presentation style and referencing. As part of the writing process and assessment, you are required to bring drafts to tutorial class for your peers to review and for you to receive feedback on your work. This component of the assessment is worth 45% This assessment will be assessed for English language proficiency. After completing this subject, you will be directed to further language support if your language is below the required standard. |
Assessment task 2: Workplace Skills
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 3.0 Professional, Ethical and Social Responsibility 5.0 Communication |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 3 and 6 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 3.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Portfolio |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 25% |
| Length: | The cover letter should be one page in length. Your resume should be a maximum of three pages in length. |
| Criteria: | Assessment Task 2A Keyword analysis and addressing selection criteria will be assessed using the rubric (available on Canvas). This component of the assessment is worth 5%. Assessment Task 2B Cover letter and resume will be assessed using the rubric (available on Canvas). This component of the assessment is worth 20%. |
Assessment task 3: Oral Presentation Skills
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 2.0 Research, Inquiry and Critical Thinking 5.0 Communication 6.0 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges and Connection with Country |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2 and 3 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 2.1, 5.1 and 6.1 |
| Type: | Presentation |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 20% |
| Length: | Three minutes and a single static PowerPoint slide. |
| Criteria: | Your Oral Presentation will be marked on how effectively you can communicate a scientific message related to a scientific perspective of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges in the allotted time. This component of the assessment, your presentation skills and supporting slide, is worth 18%. Part of the assessment will be by peer review. Your draft slide will be assessed by your peers, as well as your tutor. This component of the assessment is worth 2%. |
Minimum requirements
To pass this subject, you must:
- earn an overall total of 50 marks or more for the subject.
NB: All submitted papers and, where applicable, all online contributions using published materials should be referenced using APA7 referencing style.
This subject requires that all students complete OPELA (or a written diagnostic task). Students who received a Basic grade in the OPELA (or the written diagnostic task) must attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials to pass the subject. Students who received an Intermediate grade in the OPELA (considered together with the written diagnostic task) may be required to attend the Language Development Tutorials to pass the subject.
Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
Required texts
There is no required text for this subject.
Recommended texts
If your native language is other than English you might like to purchase:
Faigley, L., 2014, The Little Penguin Handbook: Australasian edition,(3 Ed), Pearson Australia, Frenchs Forest.
This text is available form the UTS Library:
Zeegers, P., Deller-Evans, K., Egege, S. and Klinger, C., 2011, Essential Skills for Science and Technology, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.
References
Brake, M. L. and Weitkamp, E., (eds). 2010, Introducing Science Communication, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Hofman, A. H., 2010, Scientific Writing and Communication, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Lindsay, D., 2013, Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood.
Mathews, J. R. and Mathews, R. W., 2008, Successful Scientific Writing, CUP, Cambridge.
McMillan, V. E., 2012, Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 5th Edition, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston
Morley-Warner, T., 2010, Academic Writing is …., Association for Academic Language and Learning, Sydney.
Phillips, G. and Lindgren, M., 2006, Australian Broadcast Journalism, 2nd Ed, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Rolls, N. and Wignell, P., 2009, Communicating at University. Skills for Success, 3rd Ed. Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin.
Other resources
There are two UTS websites on communication that will also be helpful:
- HELPS site has links to special workshops on writing reading, speaking and listening as well as self-help modules on these topics - http://www.ssu.uts.edu.au/helps/ Students who have difficulties with the English language are strongly advised to attend the workshops early in the Session
- UTS Library (http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/ ) has a number of different web pages that offer help in communication skills. In particular, there are units on Study Guides, English Language, Study Skills and International Students under the tag of HELP