Analytic Storytelling - ONLINE (2024-II)

Target audience

This course is appropriate for PhD candidates at any point in their PhD process.

Course description

We all recognize a good text or presentation when we see one. But creating an engaging story about your own topic is hard. We procrastinate, wrestle with the word or time limit, edit, revise, and get lost in our own content. Our audiences struggle to understand our story or fail to see the relevance. Many experts struggle with this. The more you know about a topic, the harder it becomes to communicate clearly.

In this course, we make the story-building process easier, and more effective, by dividing the process into four clear, manageable steps. This 4-step method helps you create presentations and texts that draw the audience in, flow logically and naturally, and bring your topic to life. We borrow techniques from creative storytelling, and turn them into formats, tools and tricks for professional communication.

Join this course if:

• You find it difficult to organize your own thoughts before you start writing
• Your audience cannot follow you, is hard to convince, or doesn’t engage
• You have to communicate across different disciplines, professions or backgrounds
• You want to learn an effective and multi-applicable story format
• You are curious or enthusiastic about using storytelling in professional communication.

Learning objectives

You will learn how to:

• streamline the process of making a story
• tailor your story to different audiences, from peers to lay people
• structure your story in a logical and engaging way
• and present your topic in a vivid, concrete and accessible way

You can use the Analytic Storytelling method to create various stories and for various audiences: from grant applications to stakeholder meetings and peer discussions, from blog posts to policy papers, and from hour-long lectures to one-minute pitches.

Instructional method

In this course you learn our method hands-on. You work on a story about your topic throughout the course, learning to use our method by applying it to your case. During the training sessions, we explore the principles behind each step of our method in short exercises. You apply these principles in home assignments, which we then use as raw material to work with during the next session.

You also learn by reflecting, discussing and exchanging feedback. Our online meetings are very interactive. In plenary discussions, there is ample time to discuss our formats, tools and ideas. In breakout sessions, you exchange one-on-one feedback on each other’s stories. At the end of each session, the trainer is available to answer remaining questions and discuss your case.

The Analytic Storytelling method can be used to create any type of story, for any audience. For practical reasons, this course focuses on creating an opening for a presentation for non-expert audiences. This makes it easier to exchange feedback with fellow participants.

The course consists of

• Four morning sessions of about 3 hours each.
• Four preparatory assignments: one for each session.

Trainers

You will be trained by one of the professionals of Analytic Storytelling. Our team members combine analytic skills with storytelling expertise. Their professional backgrounds and experiences range from scientific research, philosophy and science journalism, to theatre, painting and creative writing.

Group Size

10 to 12 participants

Number of credits

1.0 EC

Course schedule

Study load

In addition to the scheduled sessions, you should take into account an extra study load of approximately 12 hours in total. This study load generally consists of homework assignments in preparation for the next session.

Course certificate

You will receive a certificate of completion if you attend both sessions of the course and complete all the course requirements (i.e. assignments).

Cancellation and No-show policy

This course is free for GSLS PhD candidates. However: free of charge does not mean free of responsibility. Once you have signed up for a course, we expect you to attend. For every late cancellation or no-show we have had to disappoint others who would have liked to attend. This is our policy:

• You may cancel free of charge up to 4 weeks before the start of the course. After this date you can only cancel if you have a GSLS PhD candidate to replace you in the course. Send the name and contact information of your replacement to pcc@uu.nl, at least 2 working days before the start of the course;
• We expect that you actively attend the full course, but at least 80%. It is mandatory to attend the first session. If you are absent the first session you cannot follow the remaining of the course;
• Not meeting the above requirements means you will be charged a no-show fee (€ 200). We will send the invoice after the course has ended. We are unable to make any exceptions, unless you have a valid reason (i.e., illness or death in the family 1^st/2^nd degree or partner). Your supervisor has to send an e-mail to pcc@uu.nl indicating the reason.

Unfortunately we don’t offer this course for participants not part of the GSLS. Our courses tend to be fully booked by GSLS PhD candidates.

I will apply these skills in every paper and presentation I will have in the 4 years of my PhD

Excellent course and fantastic in the way everything was communicated. At some point you start to see the concepts from the course also in the way the course is structured.

I had heard from other PhD's that this course was really nice, which is one of the reasons why I participated. I can definitely say my expectations were met!”