Today I’m following up on last week’s rant about the way bad thinking shows up immediately as bad writing or bad public speaking.

Folks sent a couple of interesting comments about that notion.

A.   Many brilliant scientists are terrible public speakers, and their writing is so technical only their peers understand it.  But there's nothing wrong with how they think!

B.   Language is left-brained, and many expressive people are right-brained.  They work better with mind-mapping, or pictures.

However, if you want to communicate your ideas, your work, or your product, you have to use language that your audience understands.  I love pictures too, but they can’t do it all.  And scientific illiteracy regularly appears as Terrible Trend of the Times.

So, you scientists and engineers, you right-brained artists, you who hate to write or to speak in public—how are you going to market all you know and everything you can do?

Here are five starting points:

1.  What you say is important, but how you say it is essential -- if you want to communicate to anyone except people just like yourself.

• If you only speak scientific jargon or a colorful patois, your audience is limited.
• If we can’t hear you because you mumble or speak in muted tones, your brilliance will be lost.

2.  You have to know your audience.

• At many conventions, academics happily listen to one another mumble their way through jargon-riddled speeches; then avidly read the conference proceedings.
• But how would you get this information to the general public?  lawyers?  high school students?

3.  People can’t listen as fast as you can talk.

• That’s why you tell them what you’re going to tell ‘em; tell ‘em; and tell them what you told ‘em.

4.  Your personal habits can work for you, or against you.

• Remember how you watched your teachers’ every twitch and repeated phrases?  The more of those a teacher exhibited, the less you learned.
• On the other hand, imitating the “right” speaking or writing style never works.

All that leads to the most important point:

5.  Practice, practice, practice.

• When a speaker or writer makes it look easy, he or she has practiced.  A lot.  Usually in front of a teacher, who can catch the jargon, the mumbles, and the fuzzy organization.

And remember, I look forward to your comments--because everyone needs to practice!