October 23, 2015 by tpilcher

Elevator Pitch

After students have selected a topic for their technical report but before they write the proposal memo, introduce the proposal assignment with an elevator pitch. Students imagine that they have 1-2 minutes to persuade their target audience to approve their research topic. The objective of this activity is to create a concise argument. My students work on the report in teams, so this is a team activity. However, it could be adapted easily for individual students; it would just take more time in class.

1. Show the students an example elevator pitch. I like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O98o2FRHw

2. Discuss with class: what makes this example pitch so effective?

3. Using those principles of effective, concise persuasion, I show students the attached document explaining the activity. In teams, they will prepare a pitch with the following rhetorical moves:

• Who you are and what you are (students introduce themselves)
• Good story (maybe about how they discovered this topic or a recent event that displays this topic prominently)
• The big idea in one sentence (“We should research____.”)
• Your best two reasons for doing it (again, these are about the research and not about the conclusion of the research)
• Something that distinguishes your idea from the rest (if the audience can only approve one more project, why should it be this one?)
• A brief cost-benefits analysis (focus on the small cost of the research and the great benefits of the research)
• Something memorable (maybe a catchy phrase, a rhyme, or a pun; in the example, “We put your brand in their hand.”)

4. Give the students 10 minutes to prepare.

5. Have the teams present (usually takes 12-15 minutes).