Course outline

Matching messages and audiences

• Identifying possible audiences for your research.


• Deciding what you have to say that will be useful to them.


• Exercise: identifying your audience.

Choosing modes of communication

• Discussion of the different types of media used for communicating research – from written reports to the web – and participants’ experience of them.


• Exercise: media pros and cons.

Preparing persuasive text

• Exercise: critiquing some actual research communications – a report, a research summary, a radio broadcast, a website, a press release, and a workshop.


• Presentation and discussion of appropriate text for effective communication – includes structure, level of detail, format, language and illustrations.


• Exercise: using words, numbers and graphics.

Who is it aimed at?

This is an intermediate level course, which assumes a general familiarity with qualitative or quantitative research methods. But you don’t need to have experience of using these methods.

The course is relevant to those working in universities, consultancy settings, government departments or the voluntary sector. You will find it useful if:

• you are working as a researcher in fields relevant to public policy or professional practice


• you would like to find more effective ways of communicating your research to non-researcher practitioners either inside or outside your organisation.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• think through what they have to communicate to different audiences; recognise the potential of different media for communicating messages; and structure their communications accordingly


• use words, numbers and graphics effectively to capture attention and improve understanding of their research.