Post on 19-Aug-2014
description
THE ART OF STORYTELLING
Engaging the Public in Your Cause
Why use stories when you have facts?
A group of grade 3 students was given a list of 21 pairs of words and told to memorize them.
How many pairs did the average child remember?
They spent as long as they needed to memorize the pairs of words and then were sent outside to play for one hour.
+
soap and shoe
Most of the kids remembered only 1 of the 21 word pairs
Why use stories when you have facts?
A second group of grade 3 students was given the same list of 21 pairs of words and asked to put each pair in a sentence.
Then, they played outside for an hour.
“My sister put the soap in daddy’s shoe.”
The kids remembered an average of 8 of the 21 pairs
“……”
Why use stories when you have facts?
A third group of grade 3 students was given the same list of 21 pairs of words and asked to put each pair in a question.
Then, they played outside for an hour.
“Why did Sally put the soap in daddy’s shoe?
“ ? ”
The kids remembered an average of 16 of the 21 pairs
+ 1 out of 21
16 out of 21“ ? ”
8 out of 21“...”
Why?
Because in asking a question the kids started to create a story to answer it.
What should be the goal of every story
you tell?To persuade your audience
to engage in an action.
Stories have power. They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall,
inspire, motivate, challenge. They help us understand. They imprint
a picture on our minds. Janet Litherland
10 STORYTELLING BEST PRACTICES
1. Stories are about people
2. Stories are relevant to your
audience
3. Stories are driven by desire
4. Stories stir up emotions
5. Stories are fixed in time and space
6. Stories show, they don’t tell
7. Characters in stories speak for themselves
8. Stories are
entertaining
9. Stories have a ‘moment of truth’
10. Stories have clear meaning
MADD Canada
Slideshare by Donna Barker.
Writer, speaker, consultant.
www.donnabarker.com