Storytelling and narrative skills for scientists and researchers
Learn how to use narrative structures and storytelling to share your science and communicate research results.
Facts and figures are important but they speak to people’s intellect and are quickly forgotten. In contrast, as humans, we seem hard-wired to remember stories because they trigger our emotions and our imaginations. That’s why stories are such a powerful tool when it comes to sharing science and research, particularly if we want people to remember it, and even more so if we want to inspire people to DO something.
When we talk about stories, we’re not necessarily talking about folktales, and we’re certainly not talking about telling lies! We’re talking about using narrative structures to help you bring science and research to life, inspire trust, connect with your audience, and make it memorable.
In our storytelling and narrative skills workshop for scientists and researchers, we’ll explore why stories are so effective and learn how to harness the power of narrative and storytelling to share your research.
Sample workshop outline
This course can be tailored to your needs.
Here is a sample outline to give you an idea of what to expect:
- Understanding the value of storytelling in research and scientific environments
- How and when stories can be used in communicating
- How to align supporting narratives with communication goals
- The elements successful stories share
- How to find meaningful stories
- Data and storytelling
- The story of your research
- How to choose the right narrative structure
- How to create vivid characters and descriptive settings
- How to use voice and body language to enhance delivery
- How to build an easy-to-reference story library
PLUS: lots of hands-on practice to put your storytelling skills to work!
Outcomes
Participants will leave the training with:
- An understanding of how stories work, when to use them and how to craft them.
- The ability to adapt stories for different communication channels.
- The skill to tell a compelling oral story.
- A new tool that they can incorporate into both academic writing and public outreach that will make their research relatable and memorable.
Delivery formats
We offer this training as:
- Two half-day interactive group training sessions online via Zoom or similar platforms. Ideal for conferences and large events with poster sessions.
- Shorter formats with modified (reduced) content depending on your needs, for example, webinars, short talks, and half-day sessions.
- Part of longer science and research communication programmes for students and early career scientists.
Suitable for
This training is suitable for:
- Researchers
- Scientists
- Communication Teams
- Research Support Teams
- Students
Request more information
Kind words
Loved this. So much information and still time for some good discussions with fellow students. I look forward to being able to use some of the ideas when I create my first poster.
I have just completed SciComm Success' Poster Design Workshop. It was full of interesting tips and tools, some of which I have already built into my poster planning. Although we had a big group and I expected a lecture/webinar format, Suzanne constantly invited us to provide feedback and our own experiences, and I enjoyed hearing what fellow biologists like and don't. I liked that the group was international and enjoyed the flexible and informal discussions - some via chat, some using whiteboards, some simple audio discussion. It felt as if we could all contribute, wherever we were. I would recommend this workshop for anyone new to creating posters for conferences. It would probably be a good refresher for poster presenters, too. Thank you, SEB, for the opportunity.
This was a good refresher on best practice planning and design for posters. I particularly enjoyed the sessions on tools for choosing colour palettes, which I have since used in other communication materials, and the discussion about online and virtual conferences, which was an eye-opener for me during COVID. Thank you, Suzanne!
Have something different in mind?
Book a call with one of our training team and let’s explore what you are thinking about, what you need, and what we can do to help.