For your summative coursework we want you to write a 500-word (+ 10%) lay summary explaining the research in a specific peer-reviewed article in a way that a non-specialist can understand. Please note that this is not an abstract, which is designed for subject peers. That was the last message from my teacher: Hi all, Please use this space to ask question on the formative assignment. I have received a query below: The exercise says that a lay summary needs to clarify what was done, how, why, and by whom. In this regard, I wonder if “by whom” means the authors. Yes, please mention the authors, which University/hospital they were doing their research from, and also the country (as then you can see how generalizable it might be to another country). It is useful for the researcher to know this if for example the study was describing diet and pub going behaviour in the UK, and I was based in Ireland, this study could be generalizable to an Irish cohort (though of course there would be other factors to consider) , but if I was in Singapore, it might not always be generalizable, as they have a different health care system, I would expect a better diet, and perhaps less of a pub going culture. Of course, it would depend on the study, their research question, the participants, the design etc etc. Second, I understand that I need to use active voice and wonder if I can write the subject (e.g., I… you..) as researchers or if I should write the authors’ names like Garnett et al. instead. Consider the lay summary as if you are a reporter, writing for a lay audience, so you will be reporting what the study found, but in lay accessible language. So you could use language like: Garner and colleagues found that, The study acknowledged, or the authors noted that? Remember we do not expect more references for the lay summary, but you can reference the paper at the end of your CW.
