Career & Tools

Is it possible to explain your research in a way that even a general audience can understand and appreciate—and in just a few minutes if necessary? Join us for a 90-minute workshop that will help you use a story-based approach to make your research accessible to non-specialist audiences. This workshop is open to all grads and postdocs and is perfect for those preparing for the Grad Slam!

Thursday, March 8th, 2018 - 9:12am


Is it possible to explain your research in a way that even a general audience can understand and appreciate-and in just a few minutes if necessary? You may already realize how challenging it is to captivate an audience if you have watched others make the attempt or done so yourself. Writing, designing, and delivering an effective oral presentation, especially one focused on academic research, requires careful planning and a lot of practice. This 90-minute workshop will help.

The script-planning portion of the workshop, our primary focus, will target a story-based approach to presenting that works with virtually any research topic or discipline. While this approach is adaptable for nearly any audience, purpose, and time frame, we will focus most of our attention on shorter presentations for general (non-specialist) audiences, with UCSB's upcoming Grad Slam Competition in mind. We will follow a step-by-step perspective, including some hands-on experience, for crafting your next presentation. You will leave the workshop with a solid foundation upon which to build. The remainder of the workshop will discuss related issues including visual support, delivery style, and Q & A handling. Additional time will be available after the workshop for anyone needing individual help related to an upcoming presentation.

Please bring paper and a pen-and a presentation topic if you have one. Sign up here!

Jeffrey Hanson, the workshop leader, has been teaching various forms of written and oral communication, including presentation design, to grads and undergrads at UCSB and universities abroad for the past 28 years. He recommends an engaging approach that draws upon key elements of effective communication going back thousands of years. His mentors include contemporary pathfinders like Nancy Duarte (Resonate), Garr Reynolds (Presentation Zen), and Jean-luc Doumont (Trees, Maps, and Theorems). He cites these folks and others often during his teaching and training.