What Makes Fancy Comma, LLC Unique?

By Sheeva Azma

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Fancy Comma’s dual mission: just as we serve clients needing highly technical and scientific information communicated, we also train science communicators to help tackle this global challenge.

Fancy Comma, LLC started out as a science writing company, and branched out to a science communications company, covering all aspects of communications, including strategy, for clients in the complex fields of health, science, business, finance, policy, and technology. We also provide science communication tutoring and mentoring for scientists interested in sharpening their communication skills. Our website has free resources to help anyone with a science background improve the reach of their life’s work.

Fancy Comma’s Dual Mission

Fancy Comma is a science communications company with a dual mission: just as we serve clients needing communications help with highly technical and scientific information, we also train science communicators.

Sheeva, Fancy Comma’s founder, was hired to do one-off science writing projects to pay the bills while looking for a job back in 2013. Back then, Sheeva, a scientist who has long been involved in the educational space, was daunted by the chasm between science and the communications world. This motivated her to use her writing to help inform people about science. Today, Fancy Comma is a science communications company with a dual mission: to help clients communicate better, and to help students of science to do the same. 

One of our objectives as a company is to do what we set out to do when we were founded in February 2020, just a few weeks before the pandemic – to serve clients in the highly technical science and technology space (including medicine, engineering, even aerospace and aviation). We help companies, nonprofits, governments, CEOs, and more communicate better.

People Say We’ve Helped Them

A second objective of Fancy Comma – our second mission – is to train science students in science communication. We do this through our free resources available on our website, our YouTube interviews, blogs, newsletter, and social media content (follow us on Instagram for #SciCommTips!). We also provide science communication tutoring and mentoring services. Sheeva’s science writing students are tackling their anxieties about writing as a scientist, learning to communicate science with confidence.

What’s more, people say that our free, online content has helped them. In an interview, Gina Errico, a former LA Times journalist and AAAS Fellow, stated that she found Fancy Comma’s blogs helpful, especially about the topics one doesn’t learn about in science training – things like science copywriting. Watch the interview below or on YouTube here.

Fancy Comma, LLC is about establishing productive conversations and solving difficult problems with science. We recognize the transformative power that science conversations have to improve the world.

Solving Difficult Problems through Bricolage

Need a refreshing perspective on science, writing, and society outside of the traditional boundaries of what students of science (and professors) may consider to be SciComm? Our experiences in science as well as other domains such as policy, marketing (including science copywriting), and journalism inform our unique perspective and approach to science communication.

We’re all about “bricolage,” or putting together different ideas to come up with something new. I use bricolage a lot to solve problems, whether it’s to solve problems for my clients, or teach my students something new in a way that is relevant to them. For anyone interested in learning about bricolage, I actually wrote about it for the September 2023 Fancy Comma newsletter (subscribe!). In the newsletter, I joke that I often learn life lessons from the most random places, like from watching squirrels. I have actually learned a lot about public relations just from watching the Kardashians on TV and reading their Instagram, for instance – kind of random, but I am always getting ideas from everywhere.

Highlighting Important Topics Not Taught in Science Education

We view science as being in conversation with society, and scientists, themselves, as a product of society. We feel both lucky and humbled to be part of that conversation.

Here are five things we talk about at Fancy Comma that are not taught in science education. Even among science communicators, these subjects are not often part of the dialogue.

Unethical communication. Sure, you might know some stuff about effective communication as a scientist or science communicator, but do you know how NOT to communicate? We’ve done a deep dive on unethical communication on our blog, and Sheeva’s written about the psychology of ethical persuasion for her clients. Learn about six types of unethical communication as well as examples of unethical communication and answers to frequently asked questions about unethical communication on our blog.

Sociology of science. Sociology refers to the study of society. Since science doesn’t happen in a vacuum, sociology of science – the study of science as a social activity – is incredibly relevant. We wrote an article called “Better Science Through Sociology.” The article was co-written by me, a scientist turned science writer, and Kelly, who teaches sociology at Oberlin College. Read all our sociology of science posts here.

Strategic communications. Strategic communications refers to communicating the best message intentionally and consciously – through a strategy. Public relations is a field concerned with strategic communication, and public relations is not taught in science classes. We’ve written a book on communicating strategically in science communication. We also provide strategic communications services. Sheeva chatted with John Besley, Ph.D., a co-author of the book Strategic Science Communication, about ways scientists can communicate more effectively through strategy.

Science policy and communicating with policymakers. Fancy Comma’s founder, Sheeva Azma, has been described as a “science policy veteran” due to her long-time experience navigating the dual political and scientific worlds. Indeed, such knowledge is valuable, as the two main United States models of research and development both interface with the government. One can therefore broaden the impact of science is through communicating effectively with government officials and policymakers. Check out our posts on science policy, including in the legal world, such as our posts on scientific evidence and the judicial system. Sheeva’s also written a multi-part series on how she got into politics and science called “A Scientist in Politics.”

Science copywriting. Science is all about substance and facts, and marketing is about presentation. Marketing and science do intersect, though, in the world of science copywriting, which involves communicating about science for the general public via writing marketing materials. Science marketing is a lucrative field and one in which scientists and science communicators can make a huge impact, boost global science literacy, and use their science knowledge and critical thinking skills. However, scientists don’t readily receive training in science copywriting. Luckily, our blog and free (!!!) resources are here to change that.

Learn Science Communication for Free

Fancy Comma is all about using science communication to solve difficult problems. We’re helping scientists have the skills they need to succeed in making the world a better place.

Learn from us for free! Check out our free resources pages. We’re also on X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter and weekly blog.

At Fancy Comma, LLC, we look forward to helping you better navigate the complex worlds of science, communication, ethics, and policy.