{"id":1388,"date":"2020-02-06T15:14:07","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T15:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2020-02-06T15:14:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-06T15:14:07","slug":"we-are-all-storytellers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/we-are-all-storytellers\/","title":{"rendered":"We are all storytellers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last year Conservation Scientist Aerin Jacob with the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative visited Memorial to give a talk to the Geography Department. While she was here, she offered a storytelling workshop to graduate students. Being a busy student, I nearly decided against attending, but only five minutes into the workshop I knew I had made the correct decision.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a scientist. I\u2019ve been trained to be objective, write, and present concisely with few adjectives, so communicating creatively and subjectively feels like something outside of my wheelhouse. But Aerin\u2019s message really stuck with me.<\/p>\n

Storytelling is a universal language that humans have been using to communicate for millennia. Stories have recognizable motifs that draw us in and hold our attention better than lists of facts or ideas. Our lives and careers are an assemblage of stories. We are influenced by the literature we consume, scientific and otherwise, and we all find our own voices and styles in crafting narratives. This got me thinking about just how important stories are for every aspect of being a successful graduate student.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t be a step-by-step how<\/em> to<\/em> communicate using storytelling <\/em>(there are far better resources available online \u2013 see the end of this post for a few of my favourites). I simply want to convince you that storytelling should be a common thread in almost everything you do as a grad student.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples of stories I\u2019ve worked on recently:<\/p>\n

Publications: Short stories of science past<\/em><\/p>\n

I have two papers published in peer reviewed journals. I\u2019ve sent out three papers for review and I\u2019ve received seven rejections (in fact I was rejected from the same journal three times<\/em>). Aside from other technical issues that made these pieces of research initially unfit for publication (in hindsight I should have done more groundwork, especially during my master\u2019s degree), the main issue cited by my reviewers was communication<\/em>. \u2018Confused and confusing\u2026\u2019 is one memorable quote that sticks in my mind.<\/p>\n

Feedback like this can be hard to digest, but tact aside, there is at least a shred of truth to most reviewers\u2019 comments. My papers were improved by making sure each section followed a typical narrative arc:<\/p>\n