By Imelda Wei Ding Lo, JD, MA
As a STEM PHD, you may be drawn to medical and health communications because it lets you share accurate information with people who would never read an academic paper.
The challenge is that academic writing styles can create barriers for general readers.
I had to learn this myself. Trained as a lawyer, I was taught to write for judges and other lawyers. This kind of writing values exactness and extensive citation. It’s effective in courtrooms and journals, but much less elsewhere.
When I moved into public-facing legal and medical content, many of those habits had to go. I still drew on the same body of knowledge, but I had to develop new ways of communicating it clearly to the public.
Drawing on what I’ve learned as a legal and medical content writer and continuing professional development (CPD) instructor, this blog explains why academic clarity often breaks outside academia.
It also explores how academics can make complex scientific materials easier to read without sacrificing accuracy.
Why scientific clarity often breaks outside academia
In academic contexts, clarity is measured by precision and methodological completeness, which signal rigour to expert peers and reviewers.
Public-facing medical and health communication follows a different logic because patients and general audiences aren’t evaluating methods.
Instead, they’re trying to answer concrete questions and decide what to do next. As such, information that feels clear in a journal article can feel overwhelming and overexplained in this context.
Habits that make academic writing hard to read
STEM PhDs are trained to write in ways that are rewarded in scholarly settings, but often make public-facing medical content harder to follow.
Common signs of this writing style include:
- Starting with literature reviews before explaining which question the content actually answers.
- Leading with technical detail, such as how a drug works at the molecular level, before explaining its practical implications as well as outcomes.
- Relying on passive phrases such as “it is recommended,” which may obscure who is making a recommendation and why it matters.
- Assuming shared baseline knowledge—for example, using clinical terms or statistical concepts without context.
How to reframe scientific complexity without losing accuracy
To create public-facing health content that’s easy to understand, academics must balance complexity with simplicity.
In practice, this involves a few small shifts:
- Lead with the practical consequences for the reader before explaining the supporting evidence. A sentence like “This medication reduces the risk of stroke” gives people a reason to care before they encounter supporting science.
- State the decision or takeaway early, rather than opening with background sections or theory. For example, instead of leading with a paragraph summarising prior trials, state upfront whether the evidence supports a change in treatment, behaviour, or risk assessment.
- Acknowledge uncertainty directly. “Evidence suggests a modest benefit, but results are mixed” is clearer than a sentence weighed down by multiple “may,” “potentially,” and “in some cases” clauses.
- Use brief paragraphs and frequent headings to help readers follow ideas. Tools like the Hemingway App can be useful here, not as a rulebook, but as a diagnostic. For blogs and general health education materials, aim for a Grade 6-10 reading level, depending on the audience.
Ultimately, clear public-facing medical writing isn’t about stripping away complexity. It’s about presenting accurate information in a form people can process and act on.
Imelda Wei Ding Lo, JD, MA, is a legal and medical content writer and CPD instructor with experience translating complex, regulated subject matter for public-facing and professional audiences. She is the founder of Fortunus Media, a boutique consultancy that focuses on clear, accurate communication in regulated industries.
