Analytic Storytelling

How do you engage your audience with your story about your research? How do you make sure they’re able to understand the details of your work? And how do you make your – often abstract – topic tangible for others, so they have a vivid image of the challenges and benefits of your project?

Analytic Storytelling offers you techniques to tackle these difficulties. Through examples, theory, and hands-on exercises, you learn to communicate about the complexities of your research in a clear and compelling way that connects your story to your audience.

During the course you will:

• Work on a storyline about your own research project
  
• Receive and practice with 3 checklists that you can continue using for all your communication: from presentations to texts, and from one-minute pitches to book-length theses.
  

Learning objectives

You will learn how to:

• Tailor your stories to your audience’s interests, goals, and knowledge level
• Give your stories a clear goal, which helps you determine what should be included in your story, and what can be left out 
• Explain non-familiar concepts in a way that is easy to understand for your audience 
• Build a clear story structure 
• Apply storytelling techniques to bring your topic to life for your audience ​​ ​ ​ ​​ ​ 
  
  

Teaching method 

During this course you will learn how to work with the Analytic Storytelling method through bits of theory and a lot of exercise, and you will apply these insights to your own research story. You will receive feedback on your exercises as well as on the storyline of your own project. 

The course is suitable for PhD students of all years.

Online format

The course consists of 4 online meetings of max. 3 hours. Each meeting requires around 2 hours of preparation. The total course contains therefore ~8 hours of homework. 

A few weeks before the first meeting you will receive the first, preparatory homework assignment, with a deadline of a week in advance of the first course day.

Dates and location:

Teacher:

Aliza Tekofsky and Marieke Drost (Analytic Storytelling)

Language of the course:

English

Docop-points:

This course counts for 1,4 points

Registration:

Via Sisa Self Service. Log in with your student account. Registration is possible as from 3 September 2024 and after you've been (re-)enrolled as a PhD student for 2024-2025.