Audience, Exigence, Constraints:

Presenting Your Research

Dr. Bret Zawilski

Lecturer of Critical Skills

Enter the Parlour...

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer her; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

Research as Conversation

  • Scholarly research is part of a long tradition
  • Research is produced by individuals
  • Knowledge is based upon previous knowledge
  • Publishing and presenting is the vehicle for advancement of ideas

The Direction of Knowledge

  • Expert to Expert
    • Peer Reviewed Journals
    • Conference Presentations
    • Edited Collections
  • Expert to Non-Expert
    • Newspapers
    • Magazines
    • Special Interest Websites

Expert

Jargon-rich and uses images as informational tool.

Non-Expert

Conversational, informal, and images used to draw attention.

Audience

  • Who are you speaking/writing to?
  • What level of expertise do they possess?
  • What action are you persuading them to take?
    • Believing the information you are presenting
    • Calling them to take some kind of action
  • What jargon/terminology will they be able to understand?

Exigence Purpose

  • What inspired this research?
  • For what purpose will the information uncovered in this research be used?
  • What problem does this research solve?
  • Why does this research matter to experts in the field?
  • Why does this research matter to individuals outside of the field?

Constraints

  • What information does your audience need to know to understand this research?
  • Which concepts or jargon require translation?
  • How much time do you have to explain your research?
  • How much space is available on your poster? How can you best make use of it?

Identifying the Question

Freewrite for 2 minutes: What questions does your research answer?

Identifying the Question

  • Share your questions
  • Together, decide:
    • Are those the questions the research actually addresses?
    • What importance does this research have to other experts?
    • So what?! Why does this matter?

Translating Jargon

Take 3 minutes to do the following:

  • Make a list of all the jargon and key concepts you can remember from your project.
  • Try to create simplified definitions.

Translating Jargon

Share your list and translation with your group

  • Does the explanation help?
  • What is still unclear about the jargon or concepts being discussed?

Elevator Pitches

  • Brevity is important
  • Practice is crucial
  • Distill the project into its most essential components
  • Bring together the questions of:
    • So What?
    • Who does this help?
    • What action does the research provoke?

Elevator Pitches

  • Take five minutes to compose a 30 second explanation of your research topic
  • Pro-tip: Compose more than you need and then cut back to what is most essential

Takeaways

  • Don't remove all nuance
  • Focus on understanding the audience
  • Treat this like an art; practice is important
  • Identify what you personally enjoy about the research

Contact Information

Looking for additional assistance? Struggling with breaking down ideas? Please feel free to contact me to set up a meeting.

  • Bret.Zawilski@mu.ie
  • Rowan House, Office 014
  • A copy of this presentation can be found at:
    `writing-rhetoric.com/reveal/spur-2023.html