A positive research experience is built on strong communication skills: both between mentor and mentee and between researcher and audience/reader/public. Explore the sections below to build interpersonal, presentation, writing, and research translation skills.

Communicating with Mentors/Potential Mentors

Reaching Out for the First Time

Use the guides below to help craft your message to a mentor or potential mentor. The Office of Undergraduate research can also provide feedback before you hit send or if you hit any snags.

• E-mailing a potential mentor (for mentor-directed research opportunities)
• E-mailing a potential mentor (for self-directed research support)
• Resume for seeking research experience as an undergraduate

For more help, visit our Find a Mentor page.

Getting the Most From Your Experience

• Use our sample Mentor-Mentee Compact for Undergraduate Research to start a conversation with your mentor about their expectations for you. Making sure your expectations are aligned (and revisiting them over time) will help you have a successful experience.
  • Note: You and your mentor can edit this compact to best suit your needs.
• Use our Anatomy of a Research Notebook document to start a conversation with your mentor on how you should manage the data you collect and the additional information you learn during your research experience.
• Use our Core Competency resources to have regular conversations with your mentor about the key things you need to learn to be a well-rounded researcher and successful in any career. These can help you track your progress and makes plans to grow your skills further.
  • How-To Guide for Core Competency Worksheets
    • Core Competencies Worksheet – Mentee
    • Core Competencies Worksheet – Mentor
    • Core Competencies Worksheet – Multiple Mentors
    • Core Competencies Worksheet (pdf)
• Use our Conflict Resolution and Concern Escalation Protocol to help navigate any conflicts or concerns that may arise during your undergraduate research experience. The Office of Undergraduate Research and many other units on campus are here to support you.

Sharing Your Research

Below are three of the most common ways research is shared (plus guidance on translating your work), but they are not the only ways students and researchers can engage others with their work. Artwork, performances, exhibitions, podcasts, policy briefs and even flyers and postcards are powerful media for communicating research.

Note: The Office of Undergraduate Research regularly hosts workshops focused on different forms of research communication and student presenters can meet with Research Ambassadors and/or staff to get feedback on presentations.

Oral Presentations

• Make sure your audience can fully engage with your presentation!
  • Digital Accessibility Training
  • Data Visualization Guides and Tools (includes VisCheck)
• Anatomy of an Oral Research Presentation-Coming Soon!
• NC State Slide Templates
• NC State Branding
  • Pay attention to color and logo use policies.

Poster Presentations

• Make sure your audience can fully engage with your presentation!
  • Digital Accessibility Training
  • Data Visualization Guides and Tools (includes VisCheck)
• Anatomy of a Research Poster Presentation-Coming Soon!
• NC State Poster Templates
  • For Office of Undergraduate Research events, select 48 inches wide by 36 inches high.
  • Note: You will need to increase the default font size.
• NC State Branding
  • Pay attention to color and logo use policies.

Publications

• Digital Accessibility Training
  • Make sure all your co-authors, editors, and readers can fully access your writing!
•  Scholarly Writing: Publishing Manuscripts That Are Read, Downloaded, and Cited by Mary Renck Jalongo, Olivia N. Saracho
• How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by Barbara Gastel and Robert A. Day
  • This is useful for non-science fields too.
• Ten Simple Rules for Writing Research Papers
  • The parent journal, PLoS, has additional articles using this theme. (e.g. Ten Simple Rules for Writing a Literature Review or …for Collaboratively Writing a Multi-authored Paper)
• NC State University Libraries’ short “Learn on Your Own” videos and Research Tips videos
  • These cover many critical steps in authoring a research paper.
• UCLA’s Writing Instruction + Research Education Resources
  • These also cover many critical steps in authoring a research paper.
• NC State University Libraries’ Citation Management resources
  • Track and properly format your research citations during the writing process.
• Writing and Research Resources provided by the Undergraduate Writing Center (part of the Academic Success Center)
  • Students can also get personalized support at the Undergraduate Writing Center.
• Data Visualization Guides and Tools (includes VisCheck)
  • Make sure all your co-authors, editors, and readers can fully engage with your visuals!
• Undergraduate Research Journals (nation-wide)
  • Note: Do NOT publish without faculty/lead mentor approval!
• Create an ORCiD account to track your publications.
  • Share your ORCiD number with your mentor so they can track your career!
• Use KUDOS to help promote your publication on social media and to lay audiences (it’s free and made for researchers).

Adjusting to Your Audience

Perhaps the most critical part of communication is understanding the audience. When sharing about their work, researchers need to consider the audience’s point of view and background knowledge. Sometimes, researchers need to stick with the precise language of their field in order to convey specific details and to receive the appropriate level of detail in response. This happens at conferences and in publications that are focused on just the researchers’ niche field.

Very often, however, researchers will also engage with audiences outside of their field. This happens at larger conferences and for publications that span multiple fields; interdisciplinary or interoffice meetings in both academia and industry; when reporting results to media or posting on social media; and even just in casual, impromptu conversations with strangers. In these situations, researchers should focus on engaging the audience member(s) most distant from their field. This ensures everyone present will understand the presentation.

Because they are accustomed to their own jargon, researchers tend use language so specific to their fields that outsiders (even in nearby fields) can struggle to understand. It is important to learn how to translate research so that colleagues and fellow researchers across all fields, taxpayers who supports the work, citizens who vote on measures, and our global community can access the information gained from a research project. The guidance and resources below can help researchers perfect this invaluable skill.

• Translate the jargon. Before sharing your work, take the time to translate it.
  • If the term isn’t something a middle or high school student would know, avoid using it.
    • Your audience is smart, but depending on their specialty, they may not have had a class in your field since they were in grade school.
  • Pay attention to common words your field uses differently from others.
    • Researchers often use words such as positive/negative feedback, theory, uncertainty, etc. in ways that differ greatly from how they are used in everyday vernacular.
  • Note: This takes a lot of practice! 
    • Get feedback from others outside your field and make it habit to keep working on this skill.
    • Take advantage of the following resources:
      • WIRED: 5 Levels Video Series 
        • Watch experts translate their complex work to different audiences.
      • Tyler DeWitt TED Talk: Hey Science Teachers Make it Fun 
        • Learn how to balance accuracy and meaningful communication.
      • Communicating the Science of Climate Change 
        • Ignore the specialty and use the guidance as a blueprint for your field.

After translating your work, share it in an engaging manner.

• Begin with the main takeaway. Don’t build up to the conclusions as is typical in publications.
  • What is the key “take home” message the audience should remember?
• Quickly highlight the value. Attach your research to what the audience cares.
  • What is the impact of your work on justice, health, the environment, the economy, climate change, etc.?
• Then share supporting information. Now provide (in broad strokes) the steps that led to the takeaway stated at the beginning. Allow for questions.
  • How did you learn the exciting new knowledge? Or how are you working to uncover the exciting new knowledge?
  • Don’t forget to keep translating your jargon!

On resumes and curriculum vitae (CVs), in addition to translating your research (remember people with a range of expertise will read it), emphasize the skills developed* and the outcomes of the project (publications, presentations, patents, new knowledge, etc.).

Use the Office of Undergraduate Research’s Guide on Adding Research to Your Resume or CV (coming soon), and the Career Development Center’s resume and CV support to format your own resume or CV.

*There are a wide range of skills you develop in research that readily translate to any other career field such as: time management; analytical and critical thinking; problem-solving and self-learning; teamwork; networking; and of course, communication skills.