A one-day training workshop on ‘Popular science writing’ under Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR) Programme was held at NMS Sermathai Vasan College for Women in Madurai on Friday.
The workshop was jointly organised by Vigyan Prasar, DST, Government of India, New Delhi, Tamil Nadu Science and Technology Centre (TNSTC), Media Research Forum, Madurai, and the college. Technical sessions, including topics on key aspects in science writing for public, how to make communication catchy, how to write research, its editing, language and presentation, were attended by over 100 Ph.D scholars from across the district.
“In this age of mobile and internet, each person is a communicator and an institution. Apart from various platforms and their content, they need fine language skills to put across their thoughts,” said A. Santha, director, Media Research Forum, Madurai.
Quoting Thirukkural, I.K. Lenin Tamil Kovan, scientific officer, TNSTC, said the use of learning would be a bane if it was not shared with others.
Delivering the keynote address, Nakul Parashar, Director, Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, said interested Ph.D research scholars could participate in the Department of Science and Technology’s (DST) science writing competition by uploading a 2,050-word article on their research on AWSAR website. “After obtaining a Ph.D, one can also take science communicator as a career option,” he said.
“Presenting science-related topics to people or non-experts in a popular language, for example, describing your project to your parents in simple terms using different means, modes and media is the key idea,” said B.K.Tyagi, advisor, AWSAR Project, Vigyan Prasar.
This would bridge the gap between the field of science and the public, who had a right to know what kinds of research were going on and how they would benefit from them, he added.
G. Maris Kumar, president of the college, Karthiga Rani, Principal, and B. Srikumar, co-ordinator, Ariviyal Palagai, Chennai, were present.
To learn more about the programme, log onto www.awsar-dst.in
