Storytelling for scientists

Semester

Semester 2, 2023-2024

Type of course

Methodological and Practical Courses

Date

April 19, 2024

Location

Utrecht University

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Duration

1 day

Maximum number of participants

20

ECTS

0.5 EC will be appointed for participation in the complete course

Staff

Yasin Koc (RUG), Melissa Vink (UU)

Content, learning goals, preparation

Reading a scientific paper is sometimes boring. We may struggle to pay attention to a lecture or research talk, even when the topic is interesting and relevant. These are not only problems of content but also of form: the structure of the presentation may not be optimal. In this course, you will learn to structure and present your research in an engaging way.

Research suggests that most audiences find stories easier to comprehend and more engaging than traditional logical-scientific communication. The typical cause-and-effect structure of stories can keep us interested and excited for a long time, for example when we read a novel or watch a film. Our research may not have protagonists, dramatic plot twists and magic, but we can learn how to create tension, curiosity, and surprise in our research articles and presentations. 

In this course, you will learn how to communicate your research effectively using storytelling techniques. The focus will be on the written and spoken forms of communication. The techniques can be applied to scientific as well as popular forms of communication, such as research papers, conference talks, lectures, grant applications, media performances, popular science books, and blogs.

Preparations for the course:

1. Students are asked to bring a specific case where they would like to apply storytelling. This could be a TED talk, research proposal, academic article, conference poster, or any other kind of research output that you are currently preparing or want to do in the future.
2. Students are asked to think of the main message they would like to convey in that talk/text/poster/proposal. Use the attached document “Preparation for KLI Storytelling” to formulate your main message.

Literature

• One compulsory document ‘Preparation for KLI Storytelling for scientists’ This is a one-pager (see below for content).
• Additional literature will be provided throughout the course. This will serve as further readings, which are not compulsory.

 

Preparation for KLI Storytelling for Scientists

Who + What 

Make clear to yourself who your audience is and what your talk/text/poster/proposal will be about. 

Think about: what do I want to achieve? 

Formulate your goal. What does your audience ideally think and feel after seeing/reading your talk/text/poster/proposal? What will they do differently? 

What does your audience want? 

Think about ... 
... what you audience already knows
... and does not yet know
... what drives them? (what are their values? What interests them? What's going on for them now?) In short, what is that they want to know from you? 

Main message 

Where is the overlap between what you want to say and what they want to hear/read? 
Formulate one sentence that concisely indicates what you want to say. Suppose they forget everything, but they remember one sentence, what's that one sentence? 
Use this phrase to delete what doesn't contribute and focus on the relevant information.

Problem, solution 

Formulate a problem you're presenting a solution to. 
Tip: see if you can make the problem even more urgent. You do this by writing down your problem ("we don't have enough data on topic x") and then finish this sentence: and that means that... ("our actions are inefficient, and we are potentially making pointless investments"). 

Advantage 

Think about what will interest your audience if you present your problem and solution. Imagine a reader/audience member saying skeptically "so what?", what would your answer be? What advantages of your solution do you see for your listener or reader, for example, time savings, more money, easier work, less stress etc. 

Call to action

Go back to what you want to achieve. Can you conclude your talk/text/poster/proposal with a concrete call to action? It helps if it is simple and concrete. For example, "support our charity" is vague, but "make 5 euros on account number xxx" is concrete and simple.

Good luck!