For EAP practitioners working in STEM

STEM SIG Tea-time Teams Meet -Misconceptions about STEM Communication

“Engineers just write reports – they don’t need to know how to write essays”

“Scientists don’t need to speak”

“You can’t use personal language in STEM writing – you need to use the passive”

“The Methodology is written in the past simple”

“STEM writing is more formal”

  • What misconceptions about STEM communication have you encountered, and where do they come from?
  • Do you agree all the statements above are misconceptions?
  • How can we teach STEM communication without ourselves falling into simplistic generalisations?

We would love to hear your views on this topic  – there are two ways to engage:

  1. Join our Tea-time Teams Meet

Date: Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Time: 11:00-12:00 GMT

Platform: Microsoft Teams (bring your favourite cup of tea!)  Meeting Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aEUqYhSGRUN74Cc0gI18RFc4s6f6FYj-o8s7vmIFras81%40thread.tacv2/1728896762275?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%224a5378f9-29f4-4d3e-be89-669d03ada9d8%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22bd2923c9-81a4-4c0b-a6be-73dbe8869dbb%22%7d 

  1. Add your thoughts in the comments below

If you are unable to join the event live, we would still love to hear your thoughts – please comment below, or read and respond to another comment.

Laura Duncan

3 responses to “STEM SIG Tea-time Teams Meet -Misconceptions about STEM Communication”

  1. Paraskevi Voula Kanistra avatar
    Paraskevi Voula Kanistra

    The usual misconception that I hear is that academic writing (such as writing essays) is not required for STEM scientists. Having observed my two sons and their fellow university/college classmates who study Computer Science, I believe this misconception has probably arisen from Computer Scientists.

    Reply
  2. Maggie Boswell (as part of a breakout group discussion) avatar
    Maggie Boswell (as part of a breakout group discussion)

    STEM is not just one thing.
    Communication across STEM will differ greatly.
    Genres will differ within the STEM genre.

    As non-scientists, perhaps there are stereotypes, it is easy to misunderstand, but the variation of departments will vary the communication by definition.

    Student Engineers might not realise the breadth and complexity of texts that they will be needing to produce later, in their careers, so that is down to us to explore, explain and help students understand that they would actually need to be very good writers!

    As EAP facilitators, we know that STEM is not humanities but the way STEM is communicated draws on humanities yet requires data and the way this is communicated needs to be taught and learned to reflect this.

    Some STEM students, such as in Mechanical Engineering, essays are not necessarily required, though in other fields, shipping (at Southampton), they might need to write an essay.

    How much needs to be persuaded, or is universally understood, or where is there a need to contested knowledge. the writer will be writing to convince the reader that the line of argumentation is valid. It might be constructed differently on the page, but criticality looks different.

    If we ask students to explain what they mean on the page, there are lots of steps might be specific to the discipline.

    Within ethics, students might need to apply ethics to a particular framework, within a computer science learning environment for example. With one lecture on De-ontology only.

    How can we teach students about STEM communication without becoming overly simplistic? is meta language a tool that could be used? such as criticality – it can be seem as a term like a black box! but if it was unpacked, within the context of the discipline, to bridge the gap.

    Having students tell their story too – What are the narratives about how science works, rather than making students fit into the box that we teach, allow the students to bring their story to the discipline.

    Is there a split between principles and meta language? Try to encourage students to think about principles, such as what academic writing is, and the conventions of academic writing. Source use, lite review, project building and then use of sources, combining stats analysis, for example.

    Reply
  3. Melanie Aird avatar
    Melanie Aird

    Ideas from our 1st BoR chat: (Ana, Mel, Ben)

    -reading and writing are both forms of communication, so building one skill contributes to the other. A good writer is a good reader.

    -speaking: develop a life career. Communication outside the immediate community requires language. MIght include public education, grant proposals, explaining work to a colleague outside your area.

    -passive, past simple… choices. There is a communicative reason why the passive or active might be employe, or why a writer might shift from present to past tense verbs. One is not automatically preferred or ‘better’.

    Reply

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