Soft Skills Workshop for Graduate Students: Crafting and Delivering an Effective Elevator Pitch
About the Workshop
Join this interactive graduate student workshop, co-led by Drs. Fiona Coll and Michael Cournoyea, designed to elevate your research communication skills! Participants will master the art of crafting a concise 30-60 second pitch that effectively conveys their research. You'll learn to tailor your pitch for various audiences and adapt it for different settings such as conferences, networking events, and interdisciplinary meetings. Enhance your delivery by translating your complex research concepts into relatable analogies and examples. Reflect on your pitch's effectiveness through peer feedback, share common communication challenges, and refine your approach to non-verbal communication.
Key Learning Outcomes
Participants left the workshop with:
- Create a structured 30-60 second pitch that clearly communicates their research.
- Customize their research pitch for diverse audiences (fellow researchers, industry partners, the general public) and situations (conferences, networking events, interdisciplinary meetings).
- Thoughtfully adapt delivery by translating complex concepts, using analogies and examples, and handling unexpected questions.
- Reflect on the effectiveness of their pitches through peer feedback, sharing common communication obstacles, and adjusting to non-verbal communication.
About the Presenters
Fiona Coll is Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP) and Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC). Her research focuses on graduate writing pedagogy, exploring the role that affect plays in writing-skill development, the impact of peer-based learning strategies on individual writing practices, and the history of technologically mediated approaches to writing. She is co-editor of Writing Together: Building Social Writing Opportunities for Graduate Students, forthcoming in January 2025.
Michael Cournoyea is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, with the Health Sciences Writing Centre, appointed to the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He holds a BSc in Biology and Philosophy (McGill) and a PhD in the Philosophy of Medicine (UofT). Since 2019, he has worked at writing centres across UofT. His current research focuses on the academic impact of large language models and the occluded genre of personal statements.