Writing and Communication Center

Tell a Story

In oral communications, storytelling is a method to engage and connect with your audience. Stories are tools to creatively deliver your message and enhance communication across audiences.

Jump to:

• What Does it Mean to Tell a Story?
• How Can I Tell a Story?

What Does it Mean to Tell a Story?

Storytelling is not new; many cultures use it to share messages and communicate. In everyday life, we encounter stories all the time, whether through the people we interact with or the products and services we engage with. They all come with their own story.

How Do You Know When a Story is Being Told? 

There is an art to storytelling — and stories vary. Tone, emphasis, inflection, imagery, and emotions are just a few hints that a story is being told.

In the clinical and translational community, storytelling can emerge in various ways, including:

Storytelling with Data 
When analyzing data, it is important to be able to identify stories. What is the data showing you? What story emerges from the data?

Gathering Patients’ Stories
When working with patients and collecting their histories, for example, you are gathering their stories. What are you listening for? What are they telling you?

How Can I Tell a Story?

Stories have an intention. What are you trying to get across? Why is a story the best way to get your message across? How can you tell stories in an authentic and trustworthy way? Answering these questions can help clarify your story’s intention.

Determining what story you want to tell can help you figure out how you will tell the story.

Deliver a Compelling Story 

There are key elements of storytelling that apply across formats. Use the following strategies to tell a compelling story:

• Determine the structure of your story.
• Use a title that gets straight to the point.
• Use analogies and personal anecdotes.
• Use a compelling hook or build suspense.
• Bringing in senses (ex. imagery).
• Build bridges between the parts of your story to take people on a journey.
• Make the story accessible. How can all people engage with your story?
• End with a conclusion that ideally brings you back to answer questions posed at the beginning.

Determine What Story You Want to Tell

You can determine what story you want to tell by:

Identifying the main message of your story
Visit Introduction to Data Visualization for more information.

Mapping out the beginning, middle, and end:

• Beginning: How will you draw in your audience? Be creative here. How can you build trust early and maintain trust throughout?
• Middle: How will you keep your audience engaged?
• End: How will you leave your audience at the end? What do you want your audience to take away from the story? Visit Visual Storytelling to learn about using data visualizations to enhance your story’s message.

Clarifying who your audience is and how that may impact what you want to say
Stories need to be handled with care because, for many people, stories are associated with fantasy, beliefs, and myths. So when using storytelling to communicate science, it is important to establish and maintain trust with the audience.

The video below, Naomi Fisher, MD, discusses the role of storytelling within a standard research talk. 

Next Step

Click on the box below to learn more about defining the topic of your talk.