Workshops, Writing and Consulting

Dennis Meredith, with more than five decades' experience in research communication, can enhance your research communications through his custom-tailored webinars, talks and workshops, as well as personalized slide critiquing and presentation coaching.

Communication Workshops, Talks

His workshops and talks have helped scientists and engineers improve their communication with colleagues, legislators, donors, officers in funding agencies and foundations, institutional leaders, corporate partners, students, journalists, and the public.

See this list of some of his clients.

See these presentations:

• "How to unsuck your PowerPoint slides!"
• "How to Make Basic Science Come Alive," workshop at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Become a Jedi Writer
• Writing a book: cons, pros, and tips

Author of Explaining Research: How to Reach Key Audiences to Advance Your Work, Second Edition (Oxford, 2021), his workshops and talks can cover

• Giving compelling presentations:
• Why explain your research
• Understanding how audiences perceive and process information
• How lay audiences perceive scientists
• How to grab and hold lay and professional audiences
• Meeting different audiences' information needs
• Why the talk is a distinctive medium
• Organizing an effective presentation
• Using a visual vernacular
• Designing engaging, informative slides
• Developing stagecraft skills
• Where to obtain visuals
• Tools for creating effective visuals

• Giving effective webinars and web meetings:
• How online audiences are unique
• Why the webinar is a distinctive medium
• How to look and sound good on a webcam
• Using video and audio equipment
• Webinar stagecraft skills
• Visual techniques such as green screen backgrounds
• Designing informative slides
• Sources for compelling visuals
• Tools for creating effective visuals
• Zoom features for accessibility
• Managing hybrid webinar/in-person meetings
• Conveniently providing background material
• Marketing the webinar/web meeting

• Writing clear research explanations:
• Becoming a "Jedi writer"
• Perceptual process of reading
• Writing for the "reading eye"
• Choosing "thrifty" words
• Choosing the best word
• Crafting readable sentences
• Measuring readability
• Using RoboEditors
• Writing tips: editorial
• Writing tips: political
• Writing news and features
• Grabbing readers
• Using techniques of fiction
• Maintaining reader interest

• Working with institutional public information officers:
• How they can help your communications, via news releases, op eds, etc.
• How you can help them to help you
• The many types and uses of news releases
• What they need and why

• Working with the media:
• Attracting media coverage
• Why scientists are news outlets
• What reporters need
• Giving effective interviews
• Ensuring accurate stories
• Creating vivid metaphors and similes

• Blogging: why and how
• Producing effective posters
• Creating and syndicating research and lay-level videos

His workshops include complementary individualized follow-up critiquing and e-mail and phone consulting, to build on the workshop experience.

For further information, contact workshops [at sign] glyphus [dot] com.

Presentation Consulting

Dennis can critique your slides to help you achieve the most informative, compelling visuals for your professional or lay-level presentation. He can also work with you to develop your presentation, including slide design, obtaining visuals, and using tools to create your own visuals.

He applies proven principles of audience perceptual and information processing—as covered in his communication workshops—to ensure that your slides convey your research accurately and engagingly. Here are slides from his recent presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

If you have a video of your presentation, he can also offer coaching on delivery techniques to maintain your audience’s interest and memorably communicate your research.

Contact him here to arrange for a free phone consultation and estimate.

Writing Services

Dennis can also prepare news releases and feature articles, bringing decades of experience communicating such fields as immunology, oncology, neurobiology, molecular biology, medical sciences, engineering and astronomy for leading research universities and foundations.

See this sample of his news and feature articles.

His news releases can clearly and concisely explain research advances at your institution to media and other important audiences. And his Web and feature articles can vividly portray the excitement of your research to your readers.

Research Communication Consulting

• Is your research communication program optimally organized and managed?
• Are you getting the most return on your communications investment?
• Are your news releases, web site, and other products as compelling and effective as they can be?
• Do they reach the right targets, not only media but other important audiences?
• How will you make the most of that major news story?
• How will you cope with that research communication crisis?

Dennis's flexible consulting and editing plans can address these issues and more. His cost-effective program features no-cost development of a consulting plan to meet your needs.

Custom Consulting Plans
For institutions seeking strategic communication planning or solutions to broad problems or issues, here are the steps to developing a custom consulting plan:

1. Initial discussion of project, problem or issue. Cost: free
2. Formulating draft consulting plan, budget and deliverables. Cost: free
3. Refining consulting plan, budget and deliverables. Cost: free
4. Executing consulting plan and implementing solution. Cost: consulting fee plus agreed-upon expenses.

Research Communication Enhancement Packages
Dennis also offers comprehensive communication enhancement packages for institutions that need a broad review of their research communication program and a guide to improvement. For example:

The consulting package offers a comprehensive communications analysis and a detailed roadmap to improvement.

The prosulting package involves helping the institution develop its own self-analysis, which can produce a realistic set of goals and programs that take advantage of the staff's insights into the institution's organizational and budgetary capabilities and constraints.

The Enhancement Consulting Package can comprise

• Critical audit of all research communications.
• Interviewing designated administrators, managers, and staff members about their research communication program.
• Interviewing representatives of key audiences.
• Producing a comprehensive report analyzing the institution's research communication capabilities, challenges, and opportunities. Also, the report will outline steps to implement recommended changes, including launching new programs and products and improving existing ones.
• Long-term follow-up phone and e-mail consulting to help implement report recommendations.

The Enhancement Prosulting Package can comprise

• Initial consulting for managers on how to develop a self-analysis of capabilities, challenges, and opportunities. This self-analysis will also include recommendations for new programs and products and improvements on existing programs.
• Critical audit of all research communications.
• Interviewing designated administrators, managers, and staff members in the context of the self-analysis.
• Interviewing representatives of key audiences in the context of the self-analysis.
• Working with managers and staff to refine self-analysis and guide its implementation.
• Long-term follow-up phone and e-mail consulting to help implement self-analysis recommendations.

News Release Editorial Tune-Up
News releases are the most important product of a research communication program. The news release editorial tune-up seeks to enhance the quality and impact of an institution's news releases and the capabilities of its writers. Dennis will edit an agreed-upon number of releases during the production process and use that editing as a mentoring tool to coach the writers to enhance their reporting and writing skills. He will also advise on photography, video, podcast, and illustration possibilities.

Hourly Consulting
To address narrower questions, Dennis also offers phone and e-mail consultation, as well as editorial/mentoring services, at a rate of $150/hr. Minimum is one hour, which can be used in segments over a month.