The Grey Lit Café
Grey (or gray) literature – 'grey lit' for short – includes such forms of communication as reports, white papers, dissertations, newsletters, slide decks, blogs, and podcasts. The Grey Lit Café explores the opportunities and benefits that grey lit provides for professionals and researchers. The podcast is directed by Anthony Haynes, produced by Dr Bart Hallmark, and published by Frontinus Ltd, a communications agency focused on engineering, infrastructure, sustainability, and research. Frontinus provides consultancy, editing, writing, and training services. If you're creating some grey literature and would like some support, contact us via our website, frontinus.org.uk.
Episodes
62 episodes
Essays revisited: How effective are essays as a genre of student writing?
Anthony Haynes writes: In our previous episode, How effective are essays as an academic genre?, we examined essays specifically as a tool for assessment in academic contexts. In this episode we return to the genre of essays bu...
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Season 7
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Episode 62
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50:05
How effective are essays as an academic genre? The case of examinations
Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently focus on specific genres.* In this episode, we focus on the genre of essays. In particular, we discuss the use of essays in examinations. Engy Moussa (University of...
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Season 7
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Episode 61
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44:44
Grey literature aggregation: Toby Green on Policy Commons
Policy Commons is on a mission to make grey literature - especially in the form of reports, more discoverable and accessible. Its content platform, Coherent Digital, hosts over 12 million documents - and the number is growing rapidly.Wh...
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Season 6
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Episode 60
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29:00
Quality infrastructure and productivity: on protocols
Anthony Haynes is the author and publisher of an extensive series of Writing Protocols. In this episode, Engy Moussa interviews Anthony on how to produce protocols in order to get things done - and get them done well.In the process, the...
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Season 6
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Episode 59
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13:27
The art of the newsletter: lessons from the reader's perspective
Anthony Haynes writes: In this, our latest genre-based, episode, Engy Moussa and I explore newsletters - primarily from the perspective of the reader. We range widely, exploring questions concerning quantity, spatial design, ...
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Season 6
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Episode 58
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39:29
Key insights on research communications, with Rob Johnson
Anthony Haynes writes: It was a treat for this episode to be able to interview Rob Johnson, founder and Managing Director of Research Consulting Ltd. RC is a long-established organisation dedicated to improving the effectiveness and im...
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Season 6
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Episode 57
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33:37
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Before Spotify: the remarkable story of chautauquas
One question we explore on this podcast is that of antecedents: what came before podcasts? This episode tells the wonderfully rich history of chautauquas - an enterprising means of bringing entertainment and informal education to small-...
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Season 6
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Episode 56
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10:09
How to define grey literature? The implication of letters
Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the third of our series on the relationship between letters and grey literature. In the first, we made the case, using the case of the correspondence of communications theorist I.A. ...
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Season 6
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Episode 55
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34:01
Where do podcasts come from? Letters as an antecedent
Anthony Haynes writes: Cultural forms and communicative genres tend not to emerge from a vacuum: they tend to emerge from existing forms. In the case of podcasts, obvious candidates include lectures, essays, sermons, and radio interv...
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Season 6
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Episode 54
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34:06
But what about letters? Their scholarly use as grey literature
Grey literature covers a multitude of genres - for example, reports, white papers, preprints, and newsletters. But what about letters?Letters are not usually listed amongst grey literature forms, but this episode puts the case for why l...
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Season 6
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Episode 53
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27:14
Overwriting: how and why to avoid it
Overwriting - producing a draft that exceeds your word (or page) limit - is an extremely common problem amongst writers in science, research, and professional areas. In this episode, Engy Moussa interviews Anthony Haynes. They examine w...
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Season 6
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Episode 52
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21:26
The case of case studies, with Dr Farrah Arif
Anthony Haynes writes: On The Grey Lit Café we frequently explore grey literature by genre. Here we extend our coverage to the genre of case studies.To guide us, we interview
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Season 6
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Episode 51
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25:48
Why we need to talk about silver literature
Anthony Haynes writes: I've long fought for a greater appreciation of forms of serious communication, other than just books and journal papers - forms such as reports, white papers, presentations, and blogs.But it's difficult b...
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Season 5
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Episode 50
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6:04
How to give a presentation on engineering
Many engineers need to give presentations. They do so in a variety of contexts - for example, as part of a pitch, project report, conference, or job application. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a top-quality resource on how to do present...
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Season 5
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Episode 49
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7:55
Grey literature workflows: the surprising role of pen & paper
Word processing has been around a long time now - so long, that we barely use the phrase anymore. So dominant in our workflows has it become that we act as though there's no need to distinguish it - as if there is simply no alternative.
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Season 5
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Episode 48
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33:45
'Quality blogs', with Giovanni Salucci: innovation in scientific and research communication
You can wait a long time for ambitious innovations in the communication of science and research - and then two come along together.In our previous episode,
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Season 5
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Episode 47
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18:41
Review: Putting stories to work, by Shawn Callahan
Anthony Haynes writes: Many scientists and researchers have come to realise that communicating their work effectively requires them to tell a story.But how?One resource is brilliant at answering that question: ...
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Season 5
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Episode 46
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14:41
Scholarly podcasts, with Mack Hagood
Anthony Haynes writes: Nobody could accuse The Grey Lit Café of ignoring innovation in the communication of science and research! In fact, we're delighted to showcase innovative thinking, as in such episodes as <...
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Season 5
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Episode 45
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26:37
White papers: what are they? what are they for? how do they add value?
Though opinions differ on the scope of grey literature, there's consensus that white papers represent a core genre of white papers.This episode examines the place of white papers in the grey literature landscape. In particular, it
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Season 5
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Episode 44
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13:32
The games we play in science and research communication
Much of the content on The Grey Lit Café is pragmatic, concerned with how to improve the creation or management of grey literature ('greylit'). And some of it is conceptual. concerned with ho...
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Season 5
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Episode 43
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6:45
The Art of Pitching, with Yuxia Zou
Having to pitch yourself and your work in order to win an opportunity is a standard component of professional and scientific life - and one that many people find challenging.In this episode,
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Season 5
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Episode 42
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24:19
Another season over and what have we done?
Anthony Haynes writes: Our episode on the relationship between dissertations (or theses) and books marked the final episode of our fourth season.Here, in this additional episode, I reflect on the season. What types of content h...
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Season 4
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Episode 41
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9:14
Dissertations and books: how are they related?
Anthony Haynes writes: You've written a dissertation or thesis. You'd like to write a book. How are the two forms related? How to transition from one to the other? In this episode, we seek to provide detailed, professional, ins...
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Season 4
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Episode 40
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19:08
