I have always found that the language of empirical journal articles confuses me the most. In certain articles, the language can be clear, concise, and easy to interpret, but for the majority of the papers I've read, the experimenters seem to try to find the most long-winding method of describing their work. Often, I read a paragraph, then have to pause and think, "Wait...what?" Even after several retries, I still may not completely grasp what the point of the paragraph was. Furthermore, in the "methods" section of each paper, there are so many types of protocols and names of experimentation methods that I struggle to keep track of which method produced which conclusion. When I hear about science in the media, for example, a news article that generalizes a statistic to the general public, I become skeptical of where these results came from and wonder if such generalizations lead to misconceptions about the issue in question. I believe that it is crucial to identify to the readers the caution that must be taken when analyzing such statistics.
I agree completely with your frustrations. I can't tell you how many times something (a paper, presentation, etc.) that was otherwise very interesting suddenly became utterly confusing due to the problems you talk about. The kickler is that it seems that the complex numbers, method explanations, and statistics, are unnecessary for most people to understand your overall point.
ReplyDeleteThat is also a fantastic picture. It's a great satire, because even when all the complex method/statistics are "simplified" for us, they still don't make any sense! Haha.
Hey Jen!! Thanks for le comment on my page. To answer your question, YES i'm totally a Disney fan :) Glad you appreciated the picture! So it seems as if our issues with the language of papers is in accordance. Your post really speaks to my frustrations ( I can't count on both hands how many times i've experienced "Wait...what?" moments), I found your point on media presentation to the public really interesting and extremely relevant to today's society. I feel as if various news channels are announcing some finding, and then having to either correct themselves later on or just dismiss the study all together. Communication between the scientific community and the public is a difficult thing to do, the language is just so different, but who knows...maybe it can be changed one day. I certainly wouldn't mind reading articles in laymen's terms. Anyway, excellent post and thanks for checking out my page! Catch ya later!
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