Doctoral students who are trained to write both academic and popular science texts develop a deeper understanding of different text genres—and of how their own research can be adapted to diverse audiences. This is shown by a new study that examines a specially designed writing pedagogy known as multi-genre pedagogy.
As impact and societal relevance have become increasingly important criteria in research funding and academic careers, researchers are expected to communicate their knowledge beyond academia to a greater extent. Despite this, teaching and research on writing development have largely focused on traditional academic genres.
“Doctoral students often find it challenging to write for a broader audience and feel that they do not receive sufficient support to do so,” says Raffaella Negretti, Professor at the Department of Communication and Learning in Science at Chalmers University of Technology and one of the researchers behind the study.
Against this backdrop, the researchers have developed a multi-genre pedagogy in which doctoral students work in parallel with different genres, such as a scientific abstract and a popular science blog post. The tasks include analysis, comparison, rewriting, and reflection on language, structure, purpose, and audience.
The study is ongoing, but the researchers have conducted a pilot study involving nine doctoral students: five in the social sciences in the United Kingdom and four in STEM disciplines in Sweden.
The analysis shows that participants systematically adapted their language as they moved from academic to popular science writing. The blog posts were less formal and included more narrative elements, longer background sections, and a clearer address to the reader. At the same time, the doctoral students retained certain academic structures and key concepts, which were often supplemented with explanations or examples to make the content accessible to a non-expert audience.
The results also show that the task not only strengthened participants’ knowledge of individual genres but also enhanced their overall genre awareness. The doctoral students described becoming more attentive to audience expectations, the purpose of the text, and how content can be reshaped to function in different contexts. Several participants also felt that working with popular science writing deepened their understanding of their own research projects.
“Comparative and reflective work with multiple genres can be an effective pedagogical tool in doctoral education. Through explicit training in writing for different contexts, doctoral students gain better conditions for communicating their research both within and beyond academia,” says Raffaella Negretti.
The research is a collaboration between Sheffield Hallam University, Chalmers University of Technology, and the University of Michigan.
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- Professor, Language and Communication, Communication and Learning in Science