I did an exercise similar to our current activity of the multipanel figure in one of my engineering classes. I believe it was an engineering graphics course I took. The final project for that class included writing an instructional piece on how to replicate a simple shape or object in terms of words. It didn't seem like it should be that hard of an activity when it was first proposed to us, but it ended up being more difficult than I anticipated. What can feel so obvious to one person can be totally lost on another. I feel like simplifying what you are saying is a good approach. I tend to go about explaining things by overly trying to describe a situation or the appearance of something. I feel like "putting my foot in my mouth" (in a sense) will serve me well. I feel like using factual terms will help too. If I speak in terms that people can understand but that are technical enough to convey the message I have with across the board results. That's probably the real trick behind this stuff, I would imagine. I guess knowing the audience is pretty helpful, as well. If you are writing a peer reviewed journal piece it will be different than writing a piece for Popular Science. The good thing about writing this METHODS section is the fact that we are all basically on a similar level in our understanding of insects and more specifically leafminers.
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