The Hourglass Method

When approaching writing a paper or giving a presentation, the analogy of an hourglass can be helpful. I'm not talking about the time ticking away until your presentation or paper is due - though of course, that's important! I'm talking about the shape of the hourglass.

The Funnel Method Of Journalism

I sometimes call this "The Funnel Method", and I first heard about it in connection with journalism. One of the truisms of journalism is that most readers read every headline, some readers will read the first couple of paragraphs, and only a scant few will read the entire article. As a result, journalists often try to impart the "take home message" right there in the first couple of paragraphs and provide more specific detail later in the article. A "funnel" is created in which the broadest issues are related first, followed by ever-more specific details.

The Hourglass Method In Journal Articles

An hourglass is basically a funnel on top and an inverted funnel on the bottom. When you are writing a paper or planning a presentation, this analogy reminds you to start broadly and work your way to the specifics at the beginning. At the end, work your way from specifics back to the take home message or broader themes.

Research articles in psychology typically have the following sections, in this order: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion. These sections lend themselves rather well to the Hourglass Method, since the Method and Results are, quite obviously, the most detailed and specific parts of the research article. A good Introduction funnels its way into these details: it begins with the broad research question, moves on to discuss the relevant literature, and finally specifies the goals of the particular study being described. On the way "out" of the paper, a good Discussion begins with a summary and careful consideration of the results, then links these results to those reported in the literature, and concludes with real-world applications or discussion of where the research area is headed next.

The Hourglass Method In Presentations

Often, a presentation requires an introduction, method/results, and discussion, or can be organized with a similar flow. With a presentation, it is absolutely critical to grab your audience right away. Students often interpret from this advice that they need some "attention getter", joke, or activity at the beginning. What's really needed, though, is just to make contact with some broad issues.

Students also often worry about telling an audience something they already know. It's certainly true that you do not want to patronize your audience. But the hourglass analogy provides a guide here as well. Begin with things your audience does know - get them nodding their heads in agreement, or at least in recognition. Subconsciously, this lets the audience member know "I'm smart enough to follow this presentation, it's worth my time." If you lose them at the beginning, you'll probably not get them back. But if you have them at the beginning, they will be more willing to struggle to keep up when the tough stuff comes.

Don't finish the presentation on details either. Work your way back to the big picture at the end, at the very least by reprising the broad themes you began with. Even if you have "lost" some of the audience in the middle, by leaving them with something they can relate to at the end, they are likely to feel that the presentation has been worthwhile.