Day 5: Tell Your Story

Whether you're a faculty member preparing for a tenure review, submitting a grant application, or a graduate student seeking a job, crafting a research summary is important. It allows you to outline your research goals and findings, and the level of detail you include will likely vary depending on the context and audience.

Ask Yourself

• Why does your work matter to you?
• Why should your work matter to others? Explain the cultural, societal, economic, public, or policy impact of your work.

Potential Audiences

• Public: It is important to highlight the practical implications of your research and avoid jargon.

• Colleagues or potential employers or mentors: Discuss the overall conclusions of your work, and where your research fits into the field of discipline.
• Collaborators: Discuss your methods and details that make your work unique. Additionally, consider where you want to go next and how the methods, theories, and other approaches in their work can help you get there.
• Funders/investors/ policy makers: Simplify your message. How does your work provide a solution to a problem? What is the impact or big idea of your research?

Most importantly:

• Be intentional – consider your target audience 
• Be specific – what message would you like to convey?
• Be concise

Hutchins J. A. (2020). TAILORING SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATIONS FOR AUDIENCE AND RESEARCH NARRATIVE. Current protocols essential laboratory techniques, 20(1), e40. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpet.40 PMID: 33072243

7 tips for communicating research to the public