Annett Kottek (X) Oct 12, 2010:

Is it a pun? Although schools do indeed teach science, they really don't want to 'make a science' out of their PR, but keep things nice & simple. For that reason I think that gangels' suggestion is most appropriate (but without the 'abstract', IMO). Alternatively maybe something along the lines of 'no need to turn your PR into an academic exercise' although that's quite a mouthful.

David Partikian Oct 12, 2010:

Intellectual exercise She didn't want to complicate matters, rather simplify them.

Peggy Maeyer Oct 12, 2010:

get lost in theories? What about something along the lines of
"You don't want to get lost in theories but ..." or "You don't want to lose yourself in theories but ..."?
This covers only the first part of the sentence, but maybe it's an idea

Erik Freitag Oct 12, 2010:

Claire,
yes, that's how I see it. In my opinion, this distinction is the main point of the sentence, so I'd try not to lose that.

CGK (asker) Oct 12, 2010:

@ :-) The agency is offering to help schools with their communications and PR.
@ efreitag - I thought of something along the lines of "Good PR doesn't have to be rocket science - we can help you make a success of your school's communications." But that doesn't make the distinction between practical and "verkopft".

casper (X) Oct 12, 2010:

@ Claire Gordon-Kühl You say it's in a "a letter from a communications agency to prospective customers". So how does the idea of a school and education/pedagogy come in?

Erik Freitag Oct 12, 2010:

Mir fällt im Moment keine gute Übersetzung ein, aber "rocket science" führt m.E. nicht wirklich weiter, denn das würde doch auf die Aussage hinauslaufen, dass Kommunikation in der Schule kinderleicht/kein Problem/nicht so schwierig ist. Das ist hier aber nicht gemeint. Stattdessen wird eine praktische Herangehensweise (im Gegensatz zu einer "verkopften") in Aussicht gestellt.