ANChor: A powerful approach to scientific communication

Josh Inouye Postdoctoral researcher Biomedical Engineering University of Virginia

February 12th, 2015 UVA Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs Seminar

ANChor A powerful approach to scien2fic communica2on

PRESENTATIONS

PAPERS POSTERS

PROPOSALS

instrucIonaltechtalk.com

parkerlab.bio.uci.edu

Bob Scholtz, USC

We communicate with diverse groups

US

ADVISOR

CO-AUTHORS

FUNDING AGENCIES EXPERTS

EMPLOYERS

INTRO

Notes: Given that we must communicate to these groups, it begs the quesIon of how this can be done most efficiently and effecIvely.

We communicate with diverse groups

US

ADVISOR

CO-AUTHORS

FUNDING AGENCIES EXPERTS

EMPLOYERS

LEAST KNOWLEDGE

INTRO

, MOST INFLUENCE

Notes 1: These two groups are parIcularly important for our careers. They also have the caveat that many Imes they have the least knowledge of our area, least Ime to study our work, and least interest in studying it as much as their own research or research directly in their area of experIse. And, paradoxically, perhaps the most influence.

Notes 2: If we are concerned with these groups, we want our communicaIon to be extremely efficient and understandable. I argue that storyboarding and ANChoring are some of the best ways to disIll and distribute clean and efficient technical messages. This presentaIon was started with a storyboard and includes all ANChoring principles, so you can decide if you think they are effecIve here.

Communica7on prepara7on methods

Figure set

Topic outline

Sentence outline

Introduc7on Methods •  SubsecIon 1 •  SubsecIon 2 •  …

Results •  SubsecIon 1 •  SubsecIon 2 •  … Conclusions

ABSTRACT ColonizaIon of the fetal and infant gut microbiome results in dynamic changes in diversity, which can impact disease suscepIbility. To examine the relaIonship between human gut…

INTRO

Notes: StarIng a paper with a set of figures to get feedback from advisors or colleagues is a logical way to start many technical communicaIons.

Notes: Some papers or communicaIons can be effecIvely started by creaIng a topical outline.

Notes: Some situaIons may benefit from starIng mostly with a sentence outline such as an abstract.

INTRO

A storyboard organizes figures, topics, and sentences

Notes: It combines all 3 preparaIon methods from the previous slide. Best of all three worlds!

STORYBOARD

PAPER/PROPOSAL

PRESENTATION

A storyboard is versa7le INTRO

Figures Topics Sentences

/POSTER

Notes: Once a complete, standalone storyboard is created, it can be instantly converted to a poster, or rearranged slightly to produce a paper, proposal, or presentaIon with succinct messages, great organizaIon and outstanding clarity (especially if principles such as ANChor are employed).

Considera7ons for a great storyboard

Asser7ons

Noise

Cohesion

Sentences

Figures

Topics

h o r

OVERVIEW

Considera7ons for a great storyboard

Asser7ons

Noise

Cohesion

Sentences

Figures

Topics

h o r

OVERVIEW

h^p://catholiclane.com

ASSERTIONS HELP ARTICULATE

Notes: They help us arIculate the important messages. However, a good asserIon that is succinct, clear, short, and meaningful can take several revisions.

Sentence (asser7on)

Figure (evidence)

Asser7on-‐evidence slide design is powerful

ASSERTIONS

Notes: Michael Alley has advocated this structure for over 10 years for presentaIon slides. It involves a simple one-‐sentence asserIon for the slide headline and visual evidence that directly supports the asserIon. This structure has been shown empirically to be very effecIve for communicaIng and aiding retenIon of knowledge.

Notes: There is an inImate relaIonship between the asserIon and the evidence. SomeImes a back-‐and-‐forth process of revision helps to make the asserIon meaningful and then the evidence reworked to beêr support the asserIon, or the asserIon reworked to reflect relevant messages in the evidence.

ASSERTIONS Asser7on-‐evidence transforma7on

� A

� B

� C

� D

A

B

C

D

B C D

AA

C

B

D

?

Digital Acquisition System

Overw

helm

ing

� Accelerometer outputs an analog voltage

� Hardware converts analog signal to digital

� Computer samples a number of points

� Data is exported to popular applications

o Microsoft Excel

o Matlab

Digital data acquisition changes the data’s form

Output voltage

Analog todigital conversion

Computer sampling of signal

Topic

Sentence outline Notes: This is an example of a typical slide that uses a topic headline and sentences or phrases as bullet points. These sorts of slides are what Michael Alley directly advocates against.

Alley, 2013

Alley, 2003

ASSERTIONS

Asser7on-‐evidence transforma7on

� A

� B

� C

� D

A

B

C

D

B C D

AA

C

B

D

?

Digital Acquisition System

Overw

helm

ing





o Microsoft Excel

o Matlab


Output voltage



Sentence (asser7on)

Figure (evidence)

� A

� B

� C

� D

A

B

C

D

B C D

AA

C

B

D

?

Digital Acquisition SystemOve

rwhe

lming





o Microsoft Excel

o Matlab


Output voltage



No asser7ons here

Doumont, 2009

Topic

Figure

ASSERTIONS

Doumont, 2009

Figure

ASSERTIONS

Sentence (asser7on)

ONLY 28% OF ADULTS SLEEP THE RECOMMENDED 8 HOURS

This asser7on ar7culates the message!

Alley, 2013

ASSERTIONS Another asser7on-‐evidence example

Figure 1. ComputaIonal model.

Figure 1. We use a 3D finite element model to simulate velopharyngeal closure.

ASSERTIONS

Publica7on figure example

Figure Topic Sentence/asser7on

Notes: The topic capIon would be fine, but the asserIon capIon really adds value and helps the figure stand alone as an informaIon source rather than having to read text apart from the figure-‐capIon combinaIon.

Inouye et al., 2014

Time

AênIon

Asser7ons crucial

ASSERTIONS

Human aNen7on during presenta7ons

Notes: During presentaIons, ajer the iniIal 1-‐2 minute “honeymoon period” where aênIon is high, the average audience member’s aênIon is very liable to wander either for long or short periods, even if the presentaIon is excellent. AsserIons are really helpful during this Ime so that someone can get at least a li^le value from each slide without having to listen to the speaker. For example, if there is a slide with heading “Results” with a graph, and someone loses concentraIon and sees a bunch of data points, they may be lost. However, if the head was more some thing like “Results show output is highest with [X]”, then some key knowledge can be imparted to someone that lost concentraIon.

ASSERTIONS

Make presenta7on asser7ons short Notes: Short presentaIon asserIons help to direct the audience’s aênIon back to the speaker as quickly as possible. AsserIon-‐evidence structure calls for no more than two lines of text, but I feel personally that this may be too much in general for presentaIons. For papers, longer capIons are beêr since the reader does not have the verbal input from a speaker and has more Ime to dissect the asserIon and relate it to the evidence. I am inspired to try to make asserIons in presentaIons like ESPN and CNN headlines, which typically can be as short as 2-‐5 words.

Considera7ons for storyboarding

Asser7ons

Noise

Cohesion

Figures

Topics

Sentences

h o r

OVERVIEW

NOISE OBSCURES MESSAGES

videvo.net


Try to remove noise!


Notes: Reducing noise makes the message much clearer!

Doumont, 2009

NOISE

Noise

ASSERTIONS

Elimina7ng noise strengthens signal

Doumont, 2009

NOISE ASSERTIONS

Elimina7ng noise strengthens signal

Try to increase signal-‐to-‐noise ra7o

Doumont, 2009

Noise Signal

Adding signal Removing noise

NOISE ASSERTIONS

Notes: The combinaIon of reducing noise and adding signal can make a bland slide excellent. Also, I’m not sure why Doumont takes out the reference. Maybe it is ficIIous or his own work. If not, it needs to be in the slide of course, although a lighter shade and placement more in the lower right and a li^le smaller might help to reduce noise from it without plagiarizing.

High noise High signal

NOISE ASSERTIONS

Paper figure example

Notes: Now, clear asserIons can be made such as “The max output power was 650mW”, if that is the main message. Or, “The bandwidth was 630MHz”. Or, “The calculated values compared favorably with the measured values”. Maybe there is one asserIon the author wants to communicate most clearly, but the other informaIon allows readers with addiIonal interests in other aspects of the data to see the relevant points as well. The high signal one to me is admiêdly a li^le extreme. I shoot for a middle ground between the two, although maybe a li^le more towards the high signal example when appropriate.

Doumont, 2009

Grant figure example

NOISE ASSERTIONS

Noise reduc7on

h^p://www.mcqbiology.com

Figure 1. Sarcomeres are the smallest contracIle units of muscles.

Notes: I wanted my asserIon to be the capIon below. There are 91 words in the original image on the lej. Ajer reducing the noise, I put in 5 relevant words and highlighted in red the main component in the figure. Adobe Illustrator can do this transformaIon in a few minutes using the pen tool and a clipping mask.

Considera7ons for storyboarding

Asser7ons

Noise

Cohesion

Figures

Topics

Sentences

h o r

OVERVIEW

h^p://kubiyagames.com

COHESION PULLS CONTENT TOGETHER

Notes: SpaIal and temporal cohesion are important in figures, storyboards, and slides. See Mayer and Moreno, 2003.

Storyboarding requires temporal cohesion

NOISE ASSERTIONS COHESION


Op7mal communica7on involves spa7al cohesion

Figures Topics Sentences

Notes: This is where asserIons or phrases are placed as close to the relevant parts of the slide or figure as possible. It has been shown to increase learning efficiency.


Standard asser7on evidence slide splits aNen7on

Eye movements

Notes: The “split aênIon effect” (Sweller et al. 1990) has been studied in the literature and idenIfied as an impediment to mulImedia learning. This is one drawback of asserIon-‐evidence structure to me, in general, for situaIons where the asserIon is applicable to a specific part of the figure, and not just a summary. I think it just depends on the situaIon as to what is best. Either way, the “split aênIon effect” is something useful to bear in mind for presentaIons, papers, etc.

Alley, 2013

Not very spa7ally cohesive NOISE ASSERTIONS COHESION

Notes: I feel like the eyes have to make unnecessary movements to understand this message fully because it is not spaIally cohesive, in my opinion (although I will grant that it is sIll a very nice, clean, clear slide). This is a standard asserIon-‐evidence example from Michael Alley.

Halogen

Xenon

Headlight comparison

Signs illuminated beNer with Xenon

NOISE ASSERTIONS COHESION More cohesive


Spa7al cohesion created Notes: My modificaIon I feel is more efficient and clear for communicaIon because of the increased spaIal cohesion (aka “conIguity” in the literature) and “signaling” (Mayer and Moreno, 2003), provided by the arrows, which directs aênIon quickly to the small signs in the figure. In the original, the reader or audience is lej to search for the signs. I reduced the menIon of headlights from three Imes to one. The spaIal placement of halogen and xenon prevents eyes from having to travel laterally as much (a very simple and trivial modificaIon, but I think those things add up eventually). Furthermore, I reduced the asserIon from nine words to five.

My revision Original slide

Parallels provide

advantageous

intersectionsMy future research vision

combines intersections to

advance technology and

healthcare

Technology

advancements

Healthcare

advancements

Biology

enhances

engineering

(PhD work)Design

Computation

Optimization

Anatomy

Neural processing

AdaptationEngineering

benefits biology

(Postdoc work)

Biology Engineering


Job applica7on spa7al cohesion example

Parallels provide

advantageous

intersectionsMy future research vision

combines intersections to

advance technology and

healthcare

Technology

advancements

Healthcare

advancements

Biology

enhances

engineering

(PhD work)Design

Computation

Optimization

Anatomy

Neural processing

AdaptationEngineering

benefits biology

(Postdoc work)

Biology Engineering


Job applica7on spa7al cohesion example

Figure Topics Sentence/asser7on

Notes: I could have put the asserIon as a capIon to the figure or inside my research statement text, but I wanted it to be spaIally cohesive and place the statement about technology and healthcare next to those exact terms. Plus, it is at the logical end of the flowchart, whereas in a capIon, it is not clear whether it should be considered first or last or something in between. So there’s also an element of temporal cohesion with its placement.

h o r

Create Cohesion

GOOD SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION PRACTICES

No Noise

Always Assert

KNOWLEDGE

iwls.com

ANCHORS

Notes: One analogy for scienIfic communicaIon is that we are the climbers that set down the anchors on the way up to the knowledge summit that we want to get to. It is our responsibility to lay down anchors for the audience to follow us up to the summit and protect them from loss of concentraIon in a presentaIon and protect them from frustraIon when reading a paper, proposal, or poster. And well-‐organized figures that follow ANChoring principles are one great way to do that, parIcularly for technical presentaIons.

1. Storyboarding organizes figures, topics, and sentences

TAKEAWAYS

2. ANChoring op7mizes storyboards

Creates communicaIon versaIlity!

Notes: As a side note, ANChoring principles can be used completely apart from the idea of a storyboard and a storyboard can be created without any consideraIon of ANChoring principles. I really like the combinaIon of the two personally, although I use them together about 1/2 of the Ime at this point. The other half I’m sIll using ANChoring as much as possible.

Notes: Although versaIle, someImes small or huge adjustments must be made for different audiences. Even more so for non-‐specialists, storyboards help to get quick feedback from people of the same technical knowledge level as your target audience. A single implementaIon of a storyboard is most versaIle when audiences of similar technical knowledge are being addressed (e.g., in presentaIons at conferences and with publicaIons in journals).

As the author, your job is to make the reader’s job easy.

– Joshua Schimel, author of Wri2ng Science

As a scienIst, you are a professional writer.

Geoffrey

Handsfield

Katie Pelland Shawn Russell,

Ph.D.

Kyle Chadwick

Silvia Blemker,

Ph.D.

Shayn Pierce-

Cottler, Ph.D.

Kevin Janes,

Ph.D.

Special thanks to the following scien7sts for helpful comments: Organizers

Melissa Hurst, Ph.D.

Amy Clobes, Ph.D.

Thank you! QuesIons, comments, feedback? Please let me know! [email protected]

References: My papers that used storyboarding and ANChor: Inouye JM, Pelland K, Lin KY, Borowitz KC, Blemker SS. A ComputaIonal Model of Velopharyngeal Closure for SimulaIng Clej Palate Repair. J Craniofac Surg. 2014:In press. (h^p://bme.virginia.edu/muscle/pdf/inouye2014computaIonal.pdf) Inouye JM, Blemker SS, Inouye DI. Towards undistorted and noise-‐free speech in an MRI scanner: CorrelaIon subtracIon followed by spectral noise gaIng. J Acoust Soc Am. 2014;135(3):1019-‐1022. (h^p://bme.virginia.edu/muscle/pdf/Inouye2014_JASA.pdf) Asser7on-‐evidence structure: Michael Alley website: h^p://www.wriIng.engr.psu.edu/slides.html *Alley M, Neeley KA. Rethinking the design of presenta7on slides: A case for sentence headlines and visual evidence. Tech Commun. 2005;52(4):417-‐426. M. Alley, The cra; of scien2fic presenta2ons. Springer, 2013. *Robert Yale. The Asser7on-‐Evidence Structure for PowerPoint Slide Design (~20 minutes). h^ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNW84FUe0ZA&hd=1 Asser7ons, signal-‐to-‐noise: J. L. Doumont, “Trees maps and theorems,” Principiae, Belgium, 2009. Doumont website with communicaIon resources: h^p://www.principiae.be/X0300.php Doumont YouTube lecture (~60 minutes): h^ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meBXuTIPJQk Cogni7ve load (applies to all ANChor principles): Mayer, Richard E. 2002. “MulImedia Learning.” Psychology of Learning and MoIvaIon 41:85–139. Chandler, Paul, and John Sweller. 1991. “CogniIve Load Theory and the Format of InstrucIon.” CogniIon and instrucIon 8(4):293–332. Mayer, Richard E., and Roxana Moreno. 2003. “Nine Ways to Reduce CogniIve Load in MulImedia Learning.” EducaIonal psychologist 38(1):43–52. Other great resources: C. Heath and D. Heath, Made to s2ck: Why some ideas survive and others die. Random House Digital, Inc., 2007. E. R. Tuje and P. R. Graves-‐Morris, The visual display of quan2ta2ve informa2on, vol. 2. Graphics press Cheshire, CT, 1983. Schimel, Joshua. WriIng science: how to write papers that get cited and proposals that get funded. Oxford University Press, 2012. **Reynolds, Garr. Presenta7on Zen: Simple ideas on presenta7on design and delivery. New Riders, 2011. **Duarte, Nancy. Slide: ology: The art and science of crea7ng great presenta7ons. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2008. *If you’re strapped for 7me but want to learn more I would recommend star7ng with one of these. **These are outstanding books, but I feel that some of the ideas are less appropriate for academic presenta7ons and more appropriate for less technical presenta7ons, such as TED talks.

ANChor: A powerful approach to scientific communication

Science

sentences notes

powerful assertions

standalone storyboard

human gut intro notes

results subsecion

topical outline

succinct messages

important messages