{"id":332,"date":"2019-10-24T22:47:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T21:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/?p=332"},"modified":"2019-10-24T23:15:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T22:15:21","slug":"whats-your-research-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/italian-woolf\/whats-your-research-about\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s your research about?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Leggi in italiano]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Among the many seminars and workshops I\u2019ve attended these weeks, there are those aimed at developing and enhancing my research profile.
\nLast week I attended a workshop on how to communicate my research which was particularly interesting for two simple suggestions we were given, exemplified through two (apparently) easy exercises many of you would have already heard about: The elevator pitch<\/strong> and The dinner party<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The elevator pitch<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The exercise consists in imagining you\u2019re entering an elevator with a person who might have a key role in your career development and who asks you \u201cso, what are you working on? What\u2019s your research about?<\/strong>\u201d You’ll only have the time span of an elevator ride to tell him\/her the key elements of your work which will make him\/her think \u201cwell, this is interesting. We should meet again soon.\u201d
\nDuring the workshop, we were asked to try the elevator pitch with the colleague sitting next to us. We were given 1 minute to tell about our research<\/strong>, and we thought we did well until they asked us to tell the class about…what our colleague’s research is about! It sounded clear while he was talking, but I was actually not able to tell exactly what he is working on, and the same was for him. We had focused on details, or we had missed some fundamental parts of our job… whatever the reason, we both sounded interesting but we were not impressive enough. The other person would have left the elevator with a goodbye and no interest in meeting us again.
\nTo summarise your research in just one minute is an incredibly useful exercise<\/strong> to actually focus only on the fundamental and relevant aspects of your work<\/strong>, and it is something we never do enough, used as we are either to talk to colleagues who know about what we do, or to people with no clues about academic research and who thus see no real interest in what we actually do. But this is exactly the (wrong) perspective we have to fight, and which leads me to the second exercise.<\/p>\n

The dinner party<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

You are at a dinner party to promote your research and on your right you have a fellow researcher, while on your left you have a person who knows nothing whatsoever about research or academia. You cannot be rude and talk all the evening to the person on your right, and at the same time you cannot simply avoid speaking about your job because that is the reason why you are there. The exercise is thus to identify the key issues of your work<\/strong> which might interest your fellow researcher, and those who might make the person on your left understand why someone should invest money on your project<\/strong>. It is an incredibly useful exercise to understand to whom your research is addressed, and why<\/strong>, and to focus on those elements which you want\/need to share with colleagues working in your field, as well as on those elements which should be of interest to the general public.
\nOf course you cannot be the only person speaking at the dinner so, again, you have more or less one minute time to interest both audiences.<\/p>\n

Another nice suggestion was \u201cexplain your research to you granny<\/strong>\u201d, a better alternative to the more famous \u201cif you can\u2019t explain what you do to a 5-year-old you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing\u201d, because at least, in speaking to your granny you should have of a wider vocabulary available!
\nAnd this was when I felt really old, since both my grannies are no longer here. My 9-year old son sounds like a good alternative for some training, though!*<\/p>\n

*I know, this is not going to make me look much younger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>Di cosa si occupa la tua ricerca?<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Tra i vari seminari e workshop che sto seguendo in queste settimane ci sono quelli che puntano a sviluppare e migliorare il profilo della mia ricerca.
\nLa scorsa settimana ho seguito un workshop su come comunicare la mia ricerca che \u00e8 stato particolarmente interessante per due semplici suggerimenti che ci hanno dato, e che ci sono stati spiegati tramite due (apparentemente) facili esercizi che molti di voi forse conosceranno gi\u00e0: l’Elevator Pitch<\/strong> e La cena<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Elevator Pitch<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

L’esercizio consiste nell’immaginare che stiate entrando in un ascensore con una persona che potrebbe avere un ruolo chiave nella vostra carriera e che vi chiede “allora, su cosa stai lavorando? Di cosa si occupa la tua ricerca?<\/strong>” Avrete solo il tempo di una corsa in ascensore per raccontare a quella persona gli elementi chiavi del vostro lavoro che le\/gli faranno pensare “be’, interessante. Dovremmo rivederci presto.”
\nDurante il workshop ci \u00e8 stato chiesto di provare l’elevator pitch con il collega seduto accanto a noi. Avevamo 1 minuto di tempo per raccontare la nostra ricerca<\/strong>, e pensavamo di essere andati bene finch\u00e9 non ci \u00e8 stato chiesto di raccontare alla classe… la ricerca del nostro collega! Era sembrata chiarissima mentre me la raccontava, ma non sono stata in grado di spiegare esattamente su cosa stesse lavorando, ed \u00e8 stato lo stesso per lui. Ci siamo focalizzati sui dettagli, o abbiamo scordato aspetti fondamentali del lavoro…qualunque fosse stata la ragione, siamo entrambi sembrati interessanti, ma non abbastanza notevoli. L’altra persona sarebbe uscita dall’ascensore con un arrivederci ma nessun vero interesse a incontrarci di nuovo.
\nRiassumere la propria ricerca in solo un minuto \u00e8 un esercizio incredibilmente utile<\/strong> per concentrarsi solo sugli aspetti fondamentali e pi\u00f9 rilevanti del proprio lavoro<\/strong>, ed \u00e8 qualcosa che non facciamo mai abbastanza, abituati come siamo o a parlare con i colleghi e le colleghe che conoscono gi\u00e0 la nostra ricerca o con persone che non sanno nulla di ricerca accademica e che non vedono un vero interesse in quello che facciamo. Ma \u00e8 esattamente queste la prospettiva sbagliata contro cui dobbiamo combattere, e che mi porta al secondo esercizio.<\/p>\n

La cena<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Siete a una cena per promuovere la vostra ricerca e alla vostra destra c’\u00e8 un\/a collega ricercatore\/ricercatrice, mentre alla vostra sinistra c’\u00e8 una persona che non sa assolutamente nulla di ricerca e universit\u00e0. Non potete essere scortesi e parlare tutta la sera con la persona alla vostra destra, e allo stesso tempo non potete evitare di parlare del vostro lavoro perch\u00e9 \u00e8 la ragione per cui siete a quella cena. L’esercizio consiste quindi nell’identificare le questioni chiave del vostro lavoro<\/strong> che possono interessare il vostro collega (o la vostra collega), e quelle che possono far capire alla persona alla vostra sinistra perch\u00e9 qualcuno dovrebbe investire soldi sul vostro progetto<\/strong>. \u00c8 un esercizio incredibilmente utile per comprendere a chi si rivolge la vostra ricerca, e perch\u00e9<\/strong>, e concentrarsi su quegli elementi che volete\/dovete condividere con i colleghi che lavorano nel vostro campo cos\u00ec come su quegli elementi che dovrebbero interessare il pubblico pi\u00f9 generico.
\nOvviamente non potete monopolizzare la serata quindi, ancora una volta, avete pi\u00f9 o meno un minuto di tempo per interessare ognuno dei due commensali che vi siedono accanto.<\/p>\n

Un altro consiglio simpatico \u00e8 stato “spiegate la vostra ricerca a vostra nonna<\/strong>“, un’alternativa pi\u00f9 fattibile rispetto al pi\u00f9 famoso “se non sai spiegare quello che fai a un bimbo di 5 anni, non sai cosa stai facendo”, perch\u00e9 almeno, parlando alla nonna, avrete a disposizione un lessico un po’ pi\u00f9 ampio!
\nE questo \u00e8 stato il momento in cui mi sono sentita davvero vecchia, perch\u00e9 ormai le mie due nonne non ci sono pi\u00f9. Mio figlio di 9 anni potrebbe essere una valida alternativa, per\u00f2!*<\/p>\n

*Lo so, questo non mi fa sembrare molto pi\u00f9 giovane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Leggi in italiano] Among the many seminars and workshops I\u2019ve attended these weeks, there are those aimed at developing and enhancing my research profile. 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