Communicating Science in Public

Amid intersecting climate and health crises, as well as rapid developments in artificial intelligence and new media forms, the need for communicating science with nuance and care has never been greater. Communicating Science in Public supports science communicators who seek to engage in compelling ways with audiences with varied levels of scientific expertise. The volume provides not a rule book, nor a set of templates and formulas, but rather a portable set of rhetorical strategies for working across science communication genres with the expectation that these genres will continue to change and new ones will emerge.

Introductory chapters provide a foundation for communicating science in public across genres. The genre‑specific chapters―including chapters on personal essays, op‑eds, science exhibits, and podcasts―then offer histories of how a given genre evolved as well as where it fits into broader media ecologies. These chapters provide examples of the genre, key considerations for navigating its affordances and constraints, and a process for brainstorming, composing, revising, and reflecting.

By taking a genre‑based approach, this book asks its readers to reimagine science communication as more than an act of translating complex ideas into simpler terms. Instead, readers learn to reflect on the opportunities and limitations of different forms of communication and how to engage diverse publics in inclusive, accessible ways, developing transferable, transformative rhetorical knowledge.

This book can be used as a science communication textbook geared toward advanced undergraduate students and graduate students with a foundation in the sciences who are learning how to communicate scientific ideas to non‑specialist audiences.

Key Features:

• Helps science communicators navigate a complex communication landscape.

• Builds skills for engaging public audiences through multiple genres and modalities beyond print.

• Offers practical advice for scientists, new and established, who want to communicate their science more broadly.

Megan Shields Formato, PhD, is a historian of modern science and technology whose research focuses on the history of science communication and the role of women in science. She is an Advanced Lecturer in Stanford University’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric, where she teaches courses in science communication and on the relationship between technology and culture. Her writing has appeared in Science, American Scientist, Endeavor, Lady Science, and the AAEEBL ePortfolio Review and in edited collections including Embodied Knowledge: Women in Science & Technology before Silicon Valley and Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First‑Generation Writing and Literacy Education.

Kevin C. Moore, PhD, is an Advanced Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) at Stanford University, where he teaches writing and science communication. Previously, he taught writing courses for engineers and scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Trained in American literature and rhetoric, his current research interests lie at the intersections of science communication and propaganda studies. His work has appeared in Arizona Quarterly, Arts, ContraSTS, Writing on the Edge, African American Review, Composition Studies, MAKE, and Souciant, as well as collections such as Trigger Warnings: Teaching through Trauma and Creative Ways of Knowing in Engineering.

Sarah Peterson Pittock, PhD, is the Associate Director of Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) at Stanford University. Previously, she served as an Advanced Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, where she taught courses in research writing, public speaking, tutor education, and science communication. Her work has been published in Women’s Writing, The WAC Journal, Writing Center Journal, Writing on the Edge, and edited collections.

Emily Polk, PhD, teaches and writes about community‑led responses to climate change, the mobilization of social movements, and inclusive science communication at Stanford University. She developed and taught some of the first courses at Stanford on Communicating Climate Change and Environmental Justice Storytelling. Prior to getting her doctorate, she worked as a human rights‑ and environment‑focused writer and editor for nearly ten years, helping to produce radio documentaries in Burmese refugee camps and facilitating a human‑rights‑based newspaper in a Liberian refugee camp. Her first book is Communicating Global to Local Resiliency: A Case Study of the Transition Movement.

Cassie A. Wright, PhD, is an Advanced Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) at Stanford University, where she teaches courses in science communication. She also teaches courses on censorship and social media and their impacts on modern literacy and diversity of thought. Her work has appeared in Rhetoric Review and the Journal of Writing Program Administration, and she is the author of the writing studies textbook Sport and a contributing author to the writing teacher’s guide Assigning, Responding, Evaluating, 5th edition.