A Storyteller

I've always been a storyteller. In elementary school, my stories consisted of animated gestures and fluctuations in pitch. Since then, my stories have moved on to paper. The images I once created in thin air suddenly were captured in combinations of words. I like focusing on the little details. On capturing every little aspect of the stories I tell.  In practice, that means long flowy sentences with a heavy use of descriptive language. In other words, I'm a firm believer in fluffy language.

That all said, the transition over to scientific language is incredibly difficult for me. Not because of the jargon or structure, but because (at least at first glance) it feels formulaic. There's a specific spot for every statement that needs to be made.

In the early assignments of Mod 1, my inner storyteller fought the simplicity of scientific literature. It wanted to mention every little detail about every little thing. Through the constant feedback that was received in each assignment, it slowly hit me that scientific literature was not one of exuberant language but exuberant ideas. A good scientific story used simple language to communicate complicated processes and findings. Not every experiment or procedure that was conducted is significant in the project as a whole. It was a challenge to be able to identify what details mattered and what didn't. The significant amount of feedback we received and the availability of the instructors was crucial in becoming better at identifying what mattered most.

Through this module, I've realized that scientific writing is a form of storytelling in itself. A form of storytelling where the audiences interpretation and experience in reading is incredibly important. As a scientific writer, your goal is to communicate to a community that has an established method of reading. That said, you are only effective when you can tell your story in a way that they can easily and effortlessly comprehend.

By the time my partner and I got to our Data Summary, I had gotten enough practice with communication in simplistic terms. As we sat late into the night, writing different parts of the paper, I found myself seeing the formula of purpose, evidence and conclusion constantly floating around in my head. And if I'm going to be honest, I think I've improved significantly in being concise and effective in the words I choose to piece together. That's not to say the the elaborate storyteller in me has been shoved into a corner. Not at all. Rather it's learned how to take different pieces of data and experimentation to be able to bring it all together in a way that's comprehensive. And while it's different from what I'm used to it's been a transformative challenge.