The Art of Effective Science Communication: A Performer’s Guide to Public Speaking

This book shows readers how the arts of improvisational theater and acting can help scientists and other experts speak about technical research to lay audiences.Focused on public speaking, this book translates the principles and processes used by actors and other theater professionals into a method for communicating science to the general public. The book is structured as a step-by-step examination of how to write an effective speech and then a guide to carefully analyzing that speech as an actor does in rehearsal before finally sharing it with an audience as a performance. In other words, the book helps science communicators identify what to say and how to say it. This book also includes prompts and exercises that the author has used in classes and workshops with scientists.

David Dannenfelser teaches in the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University-New Brunswick (USA) and regularly runs classes and workshops where scientists practice acting skills to become better science communicators and public speakers.