If you have ever been coached or mentored about public speaking, or communication generally, you have heard the advice: “Know your audience”. Why is this advice so well-known? Because to achieve your goals, your communication must resonate with your audience.

In the world of science, we have even bigger challenges when it comes to communicating our research. First of all, we have to debunk the “myth” of scientific audiences. The myth is that there is only one audience. You know the one. Your advisor. Your lab mate. The top journal in your field.

If you want your research to have an impact (and I know you do), you need to expand your audience to many audiences. What do I mean? (Audiences are in bold.)

If you are in a university, let’s put this in the context of your career buckets: research, teaching, and service. For research, potential new audiences are peers in other disciplines that you want to collaborate with. There are funding agencies. It may come as a surprise, but the people reviewing funding proposals are not specialists in your field. And then there are the media who want to share what you are doing with their audience.

For teaching, you have students of different backgrounds and skill levels. Undergraduate, graduate. Your communication choices should change with these audiences. You may even find yourself speaking to high school students as they decide whether and where to go to college.

For service, you may visit a primary school in an underprivileged neighborhood to encourage the children to pursue a college education and better their future. Or testify to the local government with regard to a looming public policy decision.

Knowing your audience is even more important when you are  communicating your research. As a simplistic example, let’s say you study neurodivergence. The way you explain this to an 8-year old child will be different than how you explain it to your friend who is a manager at a telecommunications company. Intuitively you will use different language and techniques for each audience.

Intuition is good, but it would be so much better if there were a replicable process for learning about your audience. Lucky you! Read part 2 to solve that problem.