nature masterclasses

COURSE: NARRATIVE TOOLS FOR RESEARCHERS

What you’ll learn

 The benefits of using a compelling story to communicate your research to your
peers and stakeholders, such as funders or industry partners

 How to build and combine different narrative elements that can help you create
a more compelling scientific story

 How to tailor the details of your story according to the needs and expectations
of your audience

 How to refine your story by soliciting feedback and implementing edits

Why use a story?

In this lesson, we have learnt that storytelling can be used to share facts as well
as fiction, and that it’s a powerful tool to use to help you achieve the purpose of
your communication. While the primary purpose of scholarly communication is
usually to inform, you will also experience situations where you need to
persuade, inspire and/or engage with your audience. Presenting your research in
the form of a story can help you achieve all of these aims. We’ll dive into why
stories are such an effective communication tool in the lesson on “Why are
stories powerful?”.

Further reading
 Should scientists tell stories? Nature Methods 10, 1037
(2013). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2726

 Our job as scientists is to find the truth. But we must also be

storytellers. Enfield, N. Guardian (20 Jul
2018). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/20/our-
job-as-scientists-is-to-find-the-truth-but-we-must-also-be-storytellers 
 The Art of Scientific Storytelling. Corbin, K. D. Endocrine
News (2019). https://endocrinenews.endocrine.org/the-art-of-scientific-
storytelling/ 

Lesson references
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1. Dahlstrom, M. F. Using narratives and storytelling to communicate

science with nonexpert audiences. PNAS 111 (Supp. 4), 13614–13620
(2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320645111 
2. London Air. Air pollution effects of Extinction Rebellion climate
change protest 15/04/19 to 17/04/19
(ongoing). https://www.londonair.org.uk/LondonAir/general/news.aspx
?newsId=51foyPVtvieVKszzVKLKlX 

When might storytelling help you advance your

research career?
At each stage of your research career, you engage in different forms of science
communication. Perhaps you’re at a meeting, discussing your work with people
you might want to collaborate with. Or maybe you’re preparing a grant proposal
to fund your next project. In most scenarios, you will likely want to achieve one
or more of the key purposes we identified in the last lesson:

 To inform and/or share new knowledge

 To persuade or convince
 To inspire
 To engage (rarely the sole purpose of scholarly
communication)

Whatever the situation, storytelling is a flexible tool that you can use to highlight
different elements of your work and achieve your underlying purpose.

In this lesson, you’ve explored how and when storytelling can help you to
advance your research and career. You’ve learned that:

 As a researcher, you regularly communicate with different groups of

people for different reasons as part of your research and career
progression. By helping you achieve the purpose of those interactions,
storytelling can be advantageous to your work and your career
 Storytelling can take many different forms, and you can use storytelling
techniques in both written and spoken research communication
 There can be situations where storytelling is not suitable. Always consider
whether a story can support the purpose of your communication and how
to balance narrative techniques with the factual information that you need
to get across

Further reading

 Science Communication: Narratively Speaking. Olson,

R. Science 342, 1168 (2013).
DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6163.1168-a 
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 A. Points of view: Storytelling. Krzywinski, M. & Cairo. Nature

Methods 10, 687 (2013). DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2571
 Against storytelling of scientific results. Katz, Y. Nature
Methods 10, 1045 (2013).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.2699

Why are stories powerful?

So when you’re next writing a manuscript, presentation or grant application,

remember that stories are a fantastic tool that you can use to:

 Convey your message more clearly

 Make your findings more memorable
 Connect you to your audience
 Improve your persuasive power
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Further reading

 Science Communication: Narratively Speaking. Olson, R. Science 342,

1168 (2013). DOI: 10.1126/science.342.6163.1168-a
 Dialogues: The Science and Power of Storytelling. Suzuki, W. A.,
Feliú-Mójer, M. I., Hasson, U., Yehuda, R. & Zarate, J. M. J.
Neurosci. 38, 9468–9470 (2018). DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1942-
18.2018

 Uniting science and stories: Perspectives on the value of storytelling

for communicating science. Green, S. J., Grorud-Colvert, K. &
Mannix, H. FACETS (2018). DOI: 10.1139/facets-2016-0079

Lesson references

1. Schiffer, H. & Guerra, A. Electricity and Vital Force: Discussing the

Nature of Science Through a Historical Narrative. Sci. & Educ. 24,
409–434 (2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-014-9718-6 
2. Zebregs, S., van den Putte, B., Neijens, P. & de Graaf, A. The
Differential Impact of Statistical and Narrative Evidence on Beliefs,
Attitude, and Intention: A Meta-Analysis. Health Communication 30,
282–289 (2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2013.842528 
3. Kim, J. & Nan, X. Temporal Framing Effects Differ for Narrative
Versus Non-Narrative Messages: The Case of Promoting HPV
Vaccination. Communication Research 46, 401–417 (2019).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215626980
4. Hasson, U. et al. Neurocinematics: The Neuroscience of
Film. Projections 2, 1–26
(2008). https://doi.org/10.3167/proj.2008.020102 
5. Hasson, U., Ghazanfar, A. A., Galantucci, B., Garrod, S. & Keysers, C.
Brain-to-brain coupling: a mechanism for creating and sharing a social
world. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16, 114–121
(2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.12.007

6. Stephens, G. J., Silbert, L. J. & Hasson, U. Speaker–listener neural

coupling underlies successful communication. PNAS 107, 14425–
14430 (2010). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1008662107 
7. Bruner, J. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Harvard University Press,
1987). 
8. Marsh, E. J., Meade, M. L. & Roediger III, H. L. Learning facts from
fiction. Journal of Memory and Language 49, 519–536 (2003).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00092-5

9. Graesser, A.C. et al. How does the mind construct and represent

stories? Narrative Impact: Social and cognitive foundations, 229–262
(Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2002). 
10. Dahlstrom, M. F. The Role of Causality in Information Acceptance in
Narratives: An Example From Science
Communication. Communication Research 37, 857–875 (2010).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650210362683 
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11. Nabi, R. L. & Green, M. C. The Role of a Narrative’s Emotional Flow

in Promoting Persuasive Outcomes. Media Psychology 18, 137–162
(2015). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2014.912585 
12. Hillier, A., Kelly, R. P. & Klinger, T. Narrative Style Influences
Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science. PLOS ONE 11,
e0167983 (2016). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167983
13. Doedens, W. Conversations in aphasia: how do we communicate
without language? University of Reading
(2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=7YesMSG9izE&ab_channel=UniofReading

14. Cohen, J. Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the

Identification of Audiences With Media Characters. Mass
Communication and Society 4, 245–264 (2001).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0403_01

15. Dahlstrom, M. F. Using narratives and storytelling to communicate

science with nonexpert audiences. PNAS 111, 13614–13620 (2014).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320645111   
16. Braddock, K. & Dillard, J. P. Meta-analytic evidence for the persuasive
effect of narratives on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and
behaviors. Communication Monographs 83, 446–467 (2016).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2015.1128555

17. Zak, P. J. Why Inspiring Stories Make Us React: The Neuroscience of

Narrative. Cerebrum 2015 (2015). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
articles/PMC4445577/

The crucial elements of a story

At the start of this course, we explained that we’ll be using a particular definition of a
story:
A story describes the actions of characters as they initiate
a series of events that are linked by cause-and-
effect relationships1.

So for our purposes, a story includes three essential components:

 Characters: one or more persons, organisms, concepts or objects

driving the action of the story
 A series of events: the different actions that take place in your story
 Cause-and-effect: the connections between the actions in your
story, and their consequences
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COURSE: NARRATIVE TOOLS FOR RESEARCHERS

In this lesson, we’ve explored the technical elements that turn information into a
story. Specifically, we’ve learned that:

 There are different preferences about how many essential elements

comprise a story, but certainly characters, events occurring over time,
and cause-and-effect are key
 The structure of your story provides a framework to describe how the
events of your story unfold over time, and where the tension lies
 Many science stories follow a similar basic structure that can be
described as either Situation-Complication-Resolution or And-But-
Therefore
 You can use different combinations of story elements – and even add
additional elements – to change the perspective and interpretation you
want to communicate to your audience; however, the facts of your story
should always remain objective and accurate, even if the way you
choose to craft your story is subjective

Portfolio activity

You can convey a narrative structure in even a few sentences. Try to write up to three
sentences about your own research using either the “Situation-Complication-
Resolution” or “And-But-Therefore” structures.

Tip: You can either write about the process that you’re studying (using your research
topic as a character) or write about yourself doing the research (with you as the main
character).

You could use the individual download document below to record your thoughts, or the
single collated portfolio document that you might have downloaded in the first lesson.

NTR_M1_L5_Portfolio_activity.doc
82 KB

Lesson references

1. Dahlstrom, M. F. Using narratives and storytelling to

communicate science with nonexpert
audiences. PNAS  111 (Supp. 4), 13614–13620 (2014).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1320645111 
2. Enago Academy. Storytelling in Science: Communicate Your
Research in Style
(2019). https://www.enago.com/academy/storytelling-in-
science-communicating-your-research-effectively/ 
3. LSE. Writing a page-turner: how to tell a story in your scientific
paper.
(2018) https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/05/2
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1/writing-a-page-turner-how-to-tell-a-story-in-your-scientific-
paper/ 
4. Jarreau, P. B. Scientific storytelling helps researchers
communicate their findings in a competitive publishing
environment. From The Lab Bench
(2015). http://www.fromthelabbench.com/from-the-lab-bench-
science-blog/2015/6/25/hwfxxd4d2rik3w0wj6e3xbbdb3fn4t 
5. Minto, B. The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and
Thinking (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2009). ISBN-10 0273710516,
ISBN-13 978-0273710516. 
6. Olson, R. Houston, We Have a Narrative (University of Chicago Press,
2015). ISBN‐10: 022627084X, ISBN‐13: 978‐0226270845.
7. Newton, S. And, But, Therefore: Randy Olson and the Art of
Science Storytelling, Part
1. HuffPost (2016). https://www.huffpost.com/entry/and-but-
therefore-randy-o_b_8813330  
8. Zhou, X. et al. Spectral 3D reconstruction of impressionist oil paintings
based on macroscopic OCT imaging. Applied Optics 59, 4733–4738
(2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.390326 
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Building your
story

How to identify the key message of

your story
 Why did you perform that experiment?
 Why was it important?
 Did you discover anything new?
 To what level does it advance knowledge in your field?
 Why should your audience be interested in what you found?
 What is the main point that your audience should remember about this
work?
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In this lesson, you’ve learned:

 That your key message is the shortest possible summary of the story you
want to tell your audience
 That it’s important to identify your key message as the very first step in
creating your research story, because it helps you highlight what you want
people to remember, it forms the basis of a framework to structure your
story, and it helps you to stay focused on the purpose of your story
 That it’s important to revisit and adapt your message as you create your
story
 Some tips to help you find the key message you want to communicate in
your research story

Portfolio activity

If you’re at the start of writing a manuscript, planning a poster, or creating any other
type of research output, take a moment to think about the key message, using the tips
from this lesson. Start by asking yourself a few questions about your own work:

 What scientific question did you set out to answer?

 What did you discover that wasn’t known before?
 What problem does this address?
 Why is it important?

Once you’re clear on what you did and why, summarise it all in one sentence to produce
your key message.

You can use the individual download document below to record your thoughts, or the
single collated portfolio document that you might have downloaded in the previous
lesson.

NTR_M2_L2_Portfolio_activity.doc

Further reading
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 The Message Box.

COMPASS. https://www.compassscicomm.org/leadership-
development/the-message-box/ 
 Three Minute Thesis. University of
Queensland. https://threeminutethesis.uq.edu.au/
 Ten simple rules for structuring papers. Mensh, B. and Kording,
K. PLOS Comput. Biol. 13, e1005619
(2017). https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?
id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005619

Lesson references

1. Chen, Y. COVID-19 Pandemic Imperils Weather

Forecast. Geophysical Research Letters 47, e2020GL088613 (2020).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088613 
2. Ibrahim, N. et al. Tail-propelled aquatic locomotion in a theropod
dinosaur. Nature 581, 67–70 (2020).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2190-3

Back up your key message

It can be tempting to include too much information in your story. To figure out
what’s important for the narrative, they suggested several things, including:

 Find the common thread between all the work you did
 Consider if you might need to split up your story into two stories if it
includes too much information
 See if there is anything you can leave out without losing the evidence to
back up your main message, and without introducing bias

Ultimately, your story will be the most clear and convincing with just the right
amount of information. You need to show enough evidence to back up your key
message, but not so much that your audience will be overwhelmed.
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In this lesson you’ve learned:

 That you need to back-up the key message of your story

with evidence
 How to narrow down what evidence you need to include
and what you can leave out
 That not all of the work you did might end up in your
story
 That data that didn’t make it in your story could be used
to create a supplementary or appendix item – or a
separate story of their own
 That you need to make the connection between your
evidence and the key message explicit in your story

Portfolio activity

If you haven’t already identified the key message for your research story, we
recommend completing the previous lesson and portfolio activity to help you do that.

Then, try following the steps outlined in this lesson to help you determine how to back
up your key message with the evidence you’ve collected during your research:

 Make a list of all the evidence you’ve gathered which could be

relevant – both primary and secondary
 Shortlist the evidence you used to formulate your key message. You
should be able to connect the evidence directly to the key message,
for example by creating a sentence according to the format “[key
message] because [evidence]” 
 Consider how best to represent this evidence in your story. Will you
need a summary graph, an example image, or a sample result to
make your point? What will you say about that summary or example
to make the connection to your key message clear? 
 Think about the data that you included in your story. Did you
include all of your work or did you decide to leave out some of it
because it wasn’t directly related to your key message? If you left
some of your work out, can you think of another story in which it
could be included?

You can use the individual download document below to record your thoughts, or the
single collated portfolio document that you might have downloaded in the first lesson.

NTR_M2_L3_Portfolio_activity.doc
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Further reading

 Evidence. The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill. https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/evidence/
 Ten simple rules for structuring papers. Mensh, B. and Kording,
K. PLOS Comput. Biol. 13, e1005619
(2017). https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?
id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005619

Lesson references

1. Ibrahim, N. et al. Tail-propelled aquatic locomotion in a theropod

dinosaur. Nature 581, 67–70 (2020).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2190-3
2. Roig, M. Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable
writing practices: A guide to ethical writing. The Office of Research
Integrity (ORI), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
(2015). https://ori.hhs.gov/avoiding-plagiarism-self-plagiarism-and-
other-questionable-writing-practices-guide-ethical-
writing#DataSegmentation [Note: open the PDF file on this page to
view the guidance on data segmentation]

Choose a structure for your story

Structuring your narrative

In the first module of this course, “Why use a story?”, we showed you how stories can
capture your audience’s attention, which in turn helps them to remember and understand
your message. A well-told story does this by introducing tension: the story builds up to
a climax, and then resolves.
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You might remember the “Situation-Complication-Resolution” structure that underlies

the story arc. You can use this structure in a wide range of formats – from conference
talks and seminars to research articles and grant applications.

How to create the structure for your story

It can be difficult to find the right structure but the framework you create will
form the foundation for your entire story, so it’s worth spending some time on it.
For some more advice, watch the video below to find out some tips from science
storytelling experts.

Annotated list and outline

–

In this method, you list the elements of your story in the order they should appear, and
work out how they connect. Start with your introduction, by listing the information that
you need to introduce the situation. Then outline the problem or question, followed by
the key message and the evidence that supports it. Finally, think about the conclusion
that ties everything together. 
 
You can do this on paper or in a software program like Microsoft Word or Google
Docs, whichever method you prefer. 
 
It can help to also include transition words in your outline (‘because’, ‘however’) to
show how the different parts connect. 
 
For example, to write the abstract1 included earlier in this lesson, the authors might have
started with an outline that looked like this:
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 Dual insulin/pramlintide treatment is effective
 BUT Co-formulation is not stable
o Not used often 
 Solution: create a modified co-formulation
o Is stable
o Effective in pigs
o Effective in rats
 THEREFORE Modified co-formulation might be a more effective way
to treat diabetes

Mind map
–

If you are more of a visual learner, a mind map is particularly helpful for a complex
project with many pieces of evidence that are connected in different ways. For example,
a cell biology study might show that an upregulated protein and an antagonist of an
inhibiting signalling pathway both have the same downstream effect. That can get very
complicated, and it helps to draw it out so you can see the connections.
 
Mind maps are not linear structures so, in addition to the evidence, they can also allow
you to capture all the other types of information related to your key message: the initial
question, the applications of your findings, the secondary messages, etc. Mind maps can
be really useful for making an initial inventory of all the moving pieces in your story
when you first sit down to put together a talk, paper, poster, etc. Having all of the
components laid out in front of you will be very helpful to see how they are linked
together and to start structuring them.
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Scheme or flowchart
–

Another visual way to represent your story is by using schemes or flowcharts. These are
organised in a linear way, so they’ll be particularly useful for helping you to establish
the sequence of your story. 

For example, to write the abstract included earlier in this lesson, the authors could have
sketched a flowchart like the one shown below. (Note: Not all the evidence is shown in
this example, and each story will look very different as you sketch it out in a flowchart.)

Storyboard
–

Another way to develop your story is with a method used in film: storyboarding. This
lays out the story in a series of graphical representations. It’s a particularly useful tool if
your output includes visuals, because it can help you think about what your figures or
slides will look like. But even if you’re giving a talk without slides or writing a short
research summary with no images, storyboarding can help you make sense of the order
in which you want to present your evidence.
 
To write the abstract included earlier in this lesson, the authors could have started with a
storyboard like the one shown below. (For clarity, some of the experiments are left out
from this example.) Storyboards are usually read from left to right, top to bottom – like
a comic book.
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Portfolio activity

Experiment with some of these methods by creating the structure for a short talk about
your current research. 

 Whichever method you try, make sure to include your key message and connect it to the
evidence (see the lessons “Identify your key message” and “Back up your key message”
earlier in this module) 
 You will also want to include some background information that’s necessary to
understand the story. Why did you do this work? What do we need to know about the
topic?

You can use the individual download document below to record your thoughts, or the
single collated portfolio document that you might have downloaded in the first lesson.

NTR_M2_L4_Portfolio_activity1.doc

87 KB

To recap
In this lesson, we have covered how you can effectively present your key
message and its supporting evidence in a memorable and effective way.
Specifically, we have seen:

 How to use the “Situation-Complication-Resolution”

structure to create tension
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 How narrative structures (and your story arc) can vary,

depending on who your audience is and what your story
aims to achieve
 Some approaches to map out and develop a narrative
structure
 When we might stick to or deviate from the chronological
order of events in our story

How you structure your story arc and order the key events underlying your story
depends on your audience, your communication format and your overall goals.
Ultimately, you want to find a way to present the information that keeps your
audience interested and engaged in your story.

Portfolio activity

You can experiment with different structures by preparing two very short (2-minute)
talks about your work. 

 In the previous portfolio activity in this lesson you already created the basic structure
for a story. You can use that to work out one of your very short stories. 
 Then try telling the story in a different way, by placing the evidence in a different
order. For example, you could:

o Reveal the key message after you’ve introduced the problem and work your
way through the evidence to provide more detail (as shown in the first section
of this lesson)
o Try telling it in chronological order, taking the audience along on your journey
of discovery, as you might do when sharing a progress report with
collaborators.
 If you want to know which structure will work best for your purpose, you can share
your structures or the short research stories you created with a friend or colleague, and
get their feedback. Which version do they recommend?

You can use the individual download document below to record your thoughts, or the
single collated portfolio document that you might have downloaded in the first lesson.

NTR_M2_L4_Portfolio_activity2.doc

Further reading

 Telling Science Stories: Reporting, Crafting and Editing for Journalists and
Scientists. Angler, M.W. (Routledge, 2020).
 Writing well: lowering the barriers to success. Gould, J.C., Luna, R.E. & Vogel,
D.L. Nature Immunology 15, 695–697 (2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.2923 
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COURSE: NARRATIVE TOOLS FOR RESEARCHERS

 How to use story-telling in scientific writing. Clemens, A. Scientists Who

Write. https://www.annaclemens.com/blog/story-telling-scientific-paper
 Houston, we have a narrative: why science needs story. Olson, R. (University of
Chicago Press, 2015).
If you’re curious about storyboarding a research paper, here are two useful resources:
 What Hollywood can teach researchers about scientific storytelling. Ettinger,
J. Nature (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01731-9 
 Storytelling in research. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 2, 53 (2018).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-018-0202-5

Lesson references

1. Maikawa, C.L. et al. A co-formulation of supramolecularly stabilized insulin and

pramlintide enhances mealtime glucagon suppression in diabetic pigs. Nat. Biomed.
Eng. 4, 507–517 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-020-0555-4 
2. EurekAlert! Experimental two-in-one shot may give diabetics a better way to
control their blood sugar (2020). https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-
05/ssoe-ets051120.php

Build your characters

Your research subject as the main character

–

For research papers, conference posters or talks and most other types of research
communication, your main character will often be your research topic. That doesn’t
mean that every sentence has to have that character as the subject, but everything in the
story relates in some way to the main character, and we always come back to it. Here
are a few examples:

“Tuning superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene”

In this article1, the main character is twisted bilayer graphene – two layers of sheets of
graphene (each only the thickness of a single carbon atom) at a slight angle. You can
tell that this is the main character even if you don’t know anything about graphene,
because twisted bilayer graphene is mentioned throughout the title, abstract,
introduction and the rest of the article. Even though some sentences are written in first
person, using “we”, the authors act as narrators talking about twisted bilayer graphene –
not about themselves.

“Sleepmore in Seattle: Later school start times are associated with more sleep and
better performance in high school students”
 
If you’re conducting research on human populations, the main character in your paper
might be people – either individuals, a cohort, or population as a whole. Note that in this
instance, your research subject is also the people who are affected by your research. In
this study about Seattle-area school children2, the main character is the group of
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sophomores from the high schools that were part of the study, as mentioned in the
sentence: “The study populations included sophomores of two public high schools in
Seattle.” You can tell that teenagers are the main character because they’re mentioned
throughout the abstract – and their sleep habits are introduced in the first section of the
paper. Note that another way to tell a story about this research is to highlight one
particular student’s sleep habits (see below, under ‘A case study or example to illustrate
your research’).

“Lethal trap created by adaptive evolutionary response to an exotic resource”

The main character in this research paper3 is the Euphydryas editha species of butterfly.
This becomes even clearer if you watch the video created about the research. We know
that the butterfly is the main character, because – like many stories – this story shows
how the character changes to overcome a complication. In this case, the butterfly
evolves in response to a change in the plant composition of a meadow.

You or your colleagues as the main character

Even though this isn’t very common when it comes to communication between
researchers, there might be situations where you would be the main character in your
own story. These are usually stories that focus on the process of research, or highlight
someone’s career milestones. Here are a few examples:

“Stars in disguise at the center of our Galaxy”

Blog posts are one example in which you share the personal aspect of your research. In
this blog post4, the author tells her personal account of discovering that stars at the
centre of the galaxy are cloaked in dust.

“Discovery of Artemisinin - A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the

World”
Career perspectives are another example. People who have won awards might be asked
to share their personal research story, such as the 2015 Nobel Lecture by Tu Youyou,
who describes how she found a new treatment for malaria by studying ancient
documents on Chinese medicine5. 
 
In the second half of her lecture (you can read an English transcript here) she becomes
the main character as she shares how she made her discovery. She starts putting herself
as the actor of the story, by describing what she did and who she talked to. For example,
on page 290 of the transcript, she mentions that she attended a meeting that made a
difference:

“I reported our findings at the nationwide Project 523 meeting held in Nanjing on
March 8, 1972. […] This report attracted overwhelming interests [sic] and
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triggered nationwide collaboration in research on Qinghao and Qinghao

extracts.”  
 
Even if you’re not quite at the Nobel Prize level yet, you might be invited to talk about
your personal research journey to students at career days, or for talks to the public.

A case study or example to illustrate your research

–

Sometimes you might be able to use a small story inside your larger research story to
introduce a personal angle to the problem. That little vignette has its own main
character, and the purpose of it is to help your audience form a personal connection with
the research topic. It can be very effective in talks or in communication for people
outside of your field. Here are two examples of this:

“You have five appetites, not one, and they are the key to your health”
The researchers who wrote this article7 started with a focus on one case (in this instance,
a non-human primate called Stella) to illustrate the broader topic of how humans make
decisions about what to eat.

“Conversations in aphasia: how do we communicate without language?”

In this story6, a character (in this case, you, the audience) is placed in a fictional scenario
to illustrate a problem related to language processing. 

Build your characters