Thread by @People_Of_Space

So for my final half day, I wanted to share some "top tips" on writing for a popular audience - especially about space, and I already collected some thoughts here, but will now take the opportunity to expand on them where I can twitter.com/i/events/12229…

Before I begin, I will obviously refer to Dick Feynman a great deal, because as I explained, quite by accident I came into his orbit and Al Hibbs, both of whom knew how to explain things

In 1981, Chris Sykes literally pointed a camera at Feynman and let him talk. Fifty minutes of utterly compelling television. And here is the story behind that.
brainpickings.org/2012/01/31/chr…

Feynman also loved to be in plays at Caltech. A local news crew found out and said could they come and film. Feynman asked: "You mean you want to film me?" No, no, they protested too much.... just the student play, sir

https://twitter.com/phalpern/status/1261292895874813952?s=20

The crew came, set up, then Feynman walked over and said "Do carry on, I am not in this scene." And went to the greasy as the Caltech cafe is called. The crew continued to film, and, surprise, surprise, the piece was never shown

And mention must be made of Al's costume parties with his wife, Marka - the cat was called Titan, Saturn fans - famously dressing up as H.M. The Queen .... forbes.com/sites/startswi…

All this probably explains why I have had severe difficulties in distinguishing reality from surrealism - but hey, I wouldn't have missed it for the world

One thing Feynman famously said was this: and as far as I am concerned, it is a golden rule: if you don't understand something, how the hell can you even try to explain it?

So some thoughts on explaining. A lot of academics - not all - seem to have been brought up in the Mary Poppins school

Others are brought up in the Klunk and Zilly school of mangling everything into gibberish --

The number of times I have asked a "named expert" for an explanation and they say "Brrriipppp dongggggg zipppppp bdoinng wangggg wanggggg" - even more ridiculous, you ask the PhD or Postdoc... and they say exactly the same

I also think that you either can explain something or you can't. And I guess I was spoiled that I met Al and Feynman when I was seventeen

I'm also with Feynman on honours and awards, too

But before I digress, something else that Feynman said is very, very important: knowledge isn't just knowing lots of names of things and listing them. Take a look at this: Feynman at his in-laws in Halifax taking Carl for a walk

So some other "rules" - the first and golden one

Not everyone has a scientific background, nor could some care less about science. At least with space they can look at pretty pictures which is why it is popular.

Just tell a compelling story and people will be interested. They might not understand radiometric tracing, but they can understand what someone is going through to try to do that on another world - Mars, say

A lot of science programming and #scicomm activity reminds me of “The News For Undertakers” sketch in Monty Python. You are not your audience, so get the professionals to advise you – and here is a novel thought, listen

I should point out that there are some fantastic people on here who understand completely how to communicate and what reporters need, provide it and are dab hands at writing or broadcasting. They are, however, rarer than hen’s teeth.

So for now, will go and feed carbohydrates into my face and later will give some very practical tips for writing about complicated stuff and turning it into simple language