Episode 104 - Listen To This If… You want to make your writing more conversational

Transcript

Jen (00:00:09)

Hello, hello everybody. We are so pleased you are joining us for another episode of Listen to This If, where Michael and I from Let's Talk SciComm come together to try and solve a problem that you are currently stuck on. We give ourselves five minutes to give you our top tip each on something and hopefully give you a bit of a pep talk along the way.

So Michael, today's issue is you want to make your writing more conversational, i.e. less stodgy, boring, dense, hard to read.

Michael (00:00:38)

Yeah, I think a lot of people would like that. And you do have to fight a little bit against the default, right? Because the words that we choose when we write are actually different normally to the words that we choose when we speak.

You know, the example that I always give is you know, if you're down the pub and you're having a chat with people. You know, you're not going to use words like "Moreover, can I have another beer?"

Jen (00:01:02)

"However, I feel that I have satiated myself."

Michael (00:01:07)

Exactly. So you need to get into that mind frame of you know, how would I say this? One helpful way that I like to do that is to actually pepper the writing with some rhetorical questions, you know.

So maybe saying something like, you know, "What do you think happened here? The answer might be more interesting than you think." And I suppose that's not really very interesting as an example.

But yeah, rhetorical questions and short sentences. So maybe, you know, you're putting in a little rhetorical question. And it's kind of like, helps you imagine that maybe you're talking to the audience, right? Because you're putting a question to them.

And it really helps you get into that mind frame of Oh, this is a discussion. And if you have that mind frame when you're writing, I think the conversational style flows more easily. So rhetorical questions, and short sentences as well.

Jen (00:02:05)

Well, I have two things, Michael, and I was absolutely certain that you were going to say one of them. But now I've got the pressure that I really want to say both of them. But I love your suggestion of rhetorical questions. But my two are I think, pretty obvious.

The first is, if you're really getting stuck on this, then actually make your first draft the transcript of you speaking rather than writing. So it won't be perfect, 'cause there'll be things you say that actually aren't suitable for the written document. And of course, you know, conversational writing is not suitable for every audience. So you've got to be really mindful of what you're writing.

But I like to go for a walk. And everyone out, in the outside world, it looks like I'm just having a phone call with somebody. But actually, I'm just recording myself speaking and getting my phone to transcribe it. And there's so many tools that can do that now. Word itself will do it. And it's pretty good.

And yes, of course it needs a lot of editing and it's not right. And I'm not always good at structuring things while I'm thinking out loud. But for me, that's a really good way of getting down words that are more conversational than not getting stuck back into my early days of scientific training of writing much longer, you know, kind of more dense prose.

But the other thing which you know, we recommend everybody do this all the time, no matter who you are, where you are, what you're working on. And that is just to read your writing aloud. So just like you and I are speaking right now. Not in your head aloud, but actually speaking it aloud and imagining that you're sitting somewhere, you know, in a park or at a cafe or at the pub with a friend.

And they're saying, what are you working on right now? And ideally, what you've written should be somewhat comfortable to speak aloud.

And if it's not, if the sentences are too long, if the paragraphs are too dense, if there's a heap of language that you just can't get your mouth around, then probably it's not going to be very good for the reader.

'Cause remember, the whole point is as you're writing, it's not about you, it's about your audience. It's about pitying the reader who's got to get through what you've written.

And the more it can sound like something that you would speak with shorter sentences, more accessible language, you know, not big long subclauses and all the rest. Oh yeah, I think that's the key.

So for me, I speak it first. And then once I've written it, I read it aloud. And I work out is this actually something that I would be glad to share with a reader?

Michael (00:04:21)

Yeah, that's great. And you're also getting over that barrier of having you know, white blank page. You need to get something on the page, doesn't matter if it's messy. So I really like that idea of going out and talking at first.

And I suppose that would really help align your thinking on the topic as well. You know, by trying to verbalise, you know, the ideas, you're really going to be improving I guess, the quality of those ideas and refining them as you speak them.

Jen (00:04:52)

Yeah. And look, I think I think you know, I do understand that it doesn't work for everybody. I'm a talker. I've always been a talker. I'm happy speaking aloud. I like speaking. I'm comfortable putting ideas into sentences in real time.

I recognize it won't work for everybody. So if the idea of writing your first draft as transcribing you speaking just gives you shudders, and you can't imagine anything worse, maybe at least just try reading it aloud once you've written it and seeing what it sounds like.

Michael (00:05:16)

Yeah, yeah, I like it.

Jen (00:05:20)

All right, happy writing/ speaking everybody. We wish you all the best for whatever you're working on.

Michael (00:05:25)

Yes. Good luck.

Michael (00:05:35)

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode and a huge thanks to our production team, Steven Tang and Madeleine Kelly.

That's it for this week. See ya.