Monday, October 31, 2011

WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? HOW? WHY?

A good science article answers all these questions. Especially it answers the question ‘why?’, explaining to the reader the reason the research was carried out, and why it is important to humanity. The reason why is often taken for granted in scientific writing, which is a big mistake when writing for a wider audience.

Each question helps to establish the meaning of the science to the reader. ‘Who’, for example, explains who is affected by the science, and who performed it. This conveys both its relevance to society or industry, and its trustworthiness, embodied in the name of the research institute or corporation. ‘What’ explains what was actually done. ‘When’ conveys to the reader whether this is new knowledge, or ‘news’. ‘Where’ is important because people habitually think of their own locality first, and science performed locally by local researchers addressing local problems is of much greater interest than science performed in some other country by and for people they have never heard of. ‘How’ explains how the science was actually performed and how it affects the community.

Source of Information : CSIRO-Open Science Sharing Knowledge in the Global Century 

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