0.1 Writing module one: clear narrative, “characters” and “actions

The importance of story

Storytelling is fundamental. Since our earliest experiences listening to bedtime stories and fairy tales, we have instinctively sought out key information in narratives:

• Who is this about?
• What is he or she doing?
• Why?

In fact, all sentences tell stories. Although the format and details vary widely, professional and academic narratives are not nearly as different from fairy tales as they may first seem. In each case, our basic expectations for information and action operate in similar ways:

• we look for clear subjects as our new “characters”
• we look for strong verbs as our new “actions.”

Stories work through structure. We understand story better when we can easily recognize characters and actions . Until we know what is happening and to whom, we are likely to feel lost

Story structure is apparent on both the sentence and the paragraph level. Whereas good storytelling makes important characters and actions clear from the outset, inadequate storytelling:

• takes a long time to convey a sense of what’s being described or explained;
• doesn’t make the problem clear;
• doesn’t give readers reasons to be invested in reading;
• doesn’t offer a solution to the problems it dramatizes for the reader.

By contrast, fairy tale structure is an example of the type of narrative that readers find easy to understand because it satisfies certain fundamental expectations . If asked to retell a fairy tale, even very young children can tell us “who,” “what,” and even “why.” Complex professional prose can be this clear if it follows a few key principles.

Story and professional prose

Some of the same reasons we might cite for enjoying a movie or a novel also hold true for a scientific report or a legal argument. We are motivated to read, and we feel we understand the point of an argument, when we quickly grasp a) who is concerned and b) what is at stake. For example:

Contrast with:

In the example above, a few simple improvements lead to a much more readable statement of the problem. Notice how the published sentences