Thesis Idol: so you think you can explain what you are doing?

Dr Inger Mewburn

School of Graduate Research

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Clarification, not simplification!

• The Three minute thesis competition addresses communication skills by asking research students to present the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of their thesis topic in 3 minutes.

• It is not an exercise in trivialising or ‘dumbing-down’ research. The oration should engage the audience without reducing research to entertainment value alone:

– A single PowerPoint slide is permitted (no slide transitions are permitted)

– No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted

– No additional props (e.g. costumes, instruments [musical, laboratory etc]) are permitted

– Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum. Competitors exceeding 3 minutes will be disqualified

– The decision of the adjudicating panel is final

• *Note that results are not explicitly mentioned in the judging criteria…

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Timelines and participation details

• The SGR will contribute $8000 in prize money: $1000 to each College finalist and $5000 to the overall winner to travel to Queensland for the national final.

• Each college will have a competitive process to choose their semi-finalists

• Contact your college administrator (Sandra Pereira) for details of local competitions

• RMIT final will be held as a lunch time event on Wednesday August 4th

• For full details visit our page: http://www.rmit.edu.au/graduateresearch/3minthesis

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Anatomy of a successful 3MT presentation

• Note from the presentation by Mr David MacDonald of: The morphology and behaviour of the lumbar paraspinal muscles in chronic low back pain or "Why do some people keep hurting their back?"

• Started with a story (of lower back pain) that we can all relate to

• Talked about statistics through comparisons, not absolute numbers

• Did not ‘telegraph’ his moves: instead of “My research questions are…” he said "My research explored for the first time..."

• Reversed the implications, ie: told us about how it costs when back pain remains untreated

• Used simple summery statements: "What we've got here is a classic case of too little too late“; “Forces us to redefine what it means to recover from back pain"

• Gave the audience short cuts to understanding his work (“You can remember it by the two D's: Decreased and Delayed”)

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How do ideas become memorable?

• Communicating research to non disciplinary audiences can be difficult because we cannot rely on shared knowledge and language

• In their book ‘Made to Stick’ Dan and Chip Heath (2007) insist there are six key characteristics of memorable ideas:

– Simple

– Unexpected

– Concrete

– Credible

– Emotional

– Stories

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Anatomy of a successful 3MT presentation (revisited)

• So why did he win?

• Didn’t try to say too much and spoke relatively slowly. Used pauses very effectively as well as rises, falls and stresses in tone.

• Started with a story (of lower back pain) that we can all relate to (emotional)

• Talked about statistics through comparisons, not absolute numbers (concrete)

• Did not ‘telegraph’ his moves: instead of “My research questions are…” he said "My research explored for the first time..." (simple)

• Reversed the implications, ie: told us about how it costs when back pain remains untreated (unexpected)

• Titles are important, as is the timing of when the slide is shown so it doesn’t distract too much from the introduction

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Unexpected (Heath and Heath, 2007)

• We can’t demand attention – we must attract. The most basic way is to provoke surprise and interest by breaking a pattern

• Exercise:

• What is counter-intuitive about your research? Where does it disrupt ‘common sense’ or extend and change our ideas about something? Try and write it in a sentence to share with the rest of the group.

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Snappy Titles

• You can use the Heath Brother’s ideas for generating a ‘sticky’ title, here’s some thoughts:

– Say what the presentation is about in the most simple language you can manage

– Rework an existing catch phrase. Try picking a few key words of your and entering them into a quotations search website like Bartlett's quotations. You may find a relevant quote. If you do, pick a fragment of it and use it as your title.

– Try the double barrelled trick: “Constructing Bodies: gesture, talk and representation in architectural design studios” (Then lose the second part!)

– Imagine yourself as your audience – what would intrigue you?

– Do any television shows or songs come to mind when you think about your essay? If so, try imitating the TV show title or select a phrase from the song to use as your title.

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Want more?

• Come to the On Track sessions where we will go through how to make your ideas more ‘sticky’ – both spoken and visually:

• “Communicating your research to others” on the 27th of April 2:30 – 4:30pm

• “Working with information Graphics” on the 8th of June 2:30 – 4:30pm

• Or call us out to your school!

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References

• Heath, C & D (2007) Made to Stick: Why some ideas survive and others die, Random House, New York

• Petre, M and Rugg, G (2004) The unwritten rules of PhD research, Open University Press, Maidenhead

• Wurzam, R. S (2001) Information Anxiety, QUE, Indianapolis