samedi 16 octobre 2010

Tricks of the Trade

What’s a trick?
It’s a simple device, a tool that helps you solve a problem.
Every trade has its tricks, its solutions to its own distinctive problems: easy ways of doing something lay people, or beginners have trouble with.
The Science Communication Trade, just as plumbing or cooking, has its “tricks” to solve its peculiar problems.

Some of these tricks are simple rules of thumb derived from experience. Others come out of an analysis of the situation in which the problem arises. The tricks can show a way around some common difficulties and suggest a procedure that solves them relatively easily what would otherwise seem an intractable and persistent problem.
To build this collection of “tricks”, I would like you to name the problems that you experienced yourself – either during the interviews or other oral presentations.
To me, it’s important to use examples – your “stories”. So please leave your comments or send a mail.