Thinking about how you communicate across audiences
This exercise asks students to reflect on how they communicate with others about their research project. The aim is to prompt students to express ideas in a clear and concise manner using discipline-specific language.
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Background
The goal of this exercise is to help you learn how to learn about your own learning and how to make adjustments to learn more effectively. This process, called 'metacognition,' has been shown to improve student success in all sorts of ways, including boosts in reading comprehension, exam performance, and problem-solving. This exercise gives you an opportunity to learn about your own learning and apply those lessons to your research project.
Purpose of the exercise
This exercise asks students to reflect on how they communicate with others about their research project. The aim is to prompt students to express ideas in a clear and concise manner using discipline-specific language.
Instructions
Consider how you talk about and write about the research you're doing for this course. Answer the following questions. Your answers do not need to be overly long, but you should try to provide enough detail so that you explain your responses.
- How does communication between professionals your field differ from conversations with others, like friends or family?
- What do you do if you encounter discipline-specific language that you don't know? For example, do you ask your instructor, mentor, or classmates? Do you go to the internet? Do you "fake it until you make it"?
- When you find yourself using discipline-specific language, do you feel empowered or do you feel like an imposter? Does this feeling accurately capture how you're using discipline-specific language?
- How do you go about organizing our ideas? Briefly describe each step in your process.
- How do you know when your message has been clearly and concisely communicated?