How many times have you been eager to attend a research presentation in your field, anticipating new insights and exciting discoveries, but less than 5 minutes into the talk, you find yourself fighting to keep your eyes open? No matter how captivating a topic is or how badly you want to be inspired, the delivery often fails to do the topic justice.

Presenters may lack energy, cram slides with data, or give dry, technical descriptions of their experimental designs. Even the most groundbreaking research can seem tedious when presented this way.

There’s one powerful way to avoid falling into the dull data trap: using storytelling. Stories captivate people because they are vivid, immersive, and they weave together important pieces around a recognized theme. If you frame your research like a narrative, you’ll be able to engage your audience, and your research will resonate on a deeper level.

What Makes a Good Story?

When you describe what you've read, you likely structure it the way it was presented. You introduce the situation and the protagonist, establishing why the story matters. Then, you delve into the problem, describing how it impacts characters. You highlight ways in which the central character navigates challenges. Then you share the conclusion, pointing out whether there is a resolution or if there are unresolved issues the author leaves the reader to ponder.

The problems you aim to solve in your research can be equally compelling if presented well using this simple storytelling structure.

Key Components

To build your story, the best place to start is with a script. You need an introduction, you need a plot, and you need a conclusion. And you want to ensure that your presentation has a clear theme that ties everything together.

The Introduction
The intro sets the tone, pace, and does the hard work of getting people excited about the methods and results of your research you have to tell them. When you open your talk, you want people to instantly care about why your research matters. The goal is to explain the problem and put it in context. Place the problem front and center before talking about the results. People don’t care about your results unless you’ve sold them on the problem.

Let’s say your project is focused on developing a method to install a carbon-fluorine bond using the least reactive carbon-hydrogen bond in a given molecule. An intriguing premise, and anyone who’s familiar with this type of chemistry will understand how important this is, but not everyone is familiar with this type of chemistry. So how do you introduce this project to familiar and unfamiliar audiences?

Option 1: Flashback
Begin by talking about previous research efforts in the field of C–F bond installation. Open with a question: “Does anyone recall the study that highlighted the difference between the efficacies of different fluorinated drugs and their nonfluorinated analogs?” This approach assumes a high level of familiarity with the topic and risks losing audience members who lack specialized knowledge.

Option 2: Set the Scene
Setting the scene helps open the audience's imagination to the landscape of the problem. If you start by highlighting the prevalence of C–F bonds in the context of their importance in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals, you can grab people’s attention. Below are example openers that you can take inspiration from for your own presentations.

• “In today's world, the significance of C–F bonds in the development of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals cannot be overstated...”
• “Imagine a world where the efficiency of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals is vastly improved by a single type of chemical bond…”
• “Today, I want to explore with you how a seemingly small chemical bond can lead to groundbreaking advancements…”

Option 3: Close-up on Main Character
Giving emphasis from the start on the compounds and their unique properties is a way to get your audience laser focused on the main players in your research. It provides a foundation for the rest of the talk. Start by explaining why C–Fbonds are essential in pharmaceutical and agrochemical compounds, emphasizing their unique properties and applications. This clearly outlines the significance of your research objective.

The Plot
The meat of your presentation is the important results you’ve obtained and explaining problems you overcame in obtaining those results. Think of it as the plot of a story. A solid plot will expose details of a problem, has rising action, a climax, a falling action, and a resolution.

You don’t have to talk about your research progress in chronological order. Consider what makes sense to include and how you want your story to flow. Oftentimes the work we do, when told in the order we did it, gives us a story that jumps around and makes no sense.

The goal in your storytelling is to keep the audience excited about research as you break down these crucial elements. You want to build intensity by taking them through the highs and lows and give them an outlook on future possibilities. You’ve already given the audience a high-level understanding of the problem in your introduction. Now it’s time to dig into the nitty-gritty without boring the audience.

Details of research approach—convey the complexity of the research process while maintaining clarity and coherence.

“We came up with a retrosynthesis based on prior work to obtain the ligand by synthesizing two fragments, A and B. We were able to successfully make these using [method].”

• Rising action (problems encountered—guides the audience through the challenges encountered and the iterative problem-solving approach used)

"However, when it came time to couple A and B together, we ran into many problems."

"The standard method X resulted in the recovery of the starting material, so we decided instead to make B more reactive and use method Y."

• Climax (promising discoveries)

"Although this worked to solve the coupling problem, we discovered the end product had degraded into something else."

• Falling action (new understanding of how to approach future work; communicates the significance of the research journey and the ultimate success achieved)

“This led us to wonder if the compound was simply too unstable to isolate, or if something else was at play. We were able to determine the structure of the degradation product, and from there worked backward to understand how the desired compound could degrade.”

• Resolution (what was produced)

 “With this information, we decided that using a protecting group on the sensitive functionality that was causing these issues was warranted, and upon retrying method X with the protected fragment, we were at last able to obtain our desired product.”

When you practice your talk, think about pacing. Just like a gripping narrative, your presentation should have moments of tension and release. Vary the speed at which you deliver information; pause to emphasize key points or to allow your audience to digest complex ideas. Vary the length of sentences, having some short and impactful for emphasis and others longer and more descriptive to provide context. This variation in sentence structure can help maintain interest and clarity.

Your talk should be cohesive. Avoid overwhelming your audience with irrelevant data or experiments that do not contribute to the overarching narrative.

The Conclusion
You’re almost done and about to make way for the next presenter—how do you end it?

Start by summarizing your key findings (no more than three major points— remember that people have bad memories!), then discuss the implications of your work: Did you solve the problem? Did you discover something that might help you tackle the problem later on or something unexpected that was previously unknown? What are your future directions?

If your work didn’t pan out, remember that a sad ending is not a bad ending. Give your audience hope. A light at the end of the tunnel—how can you move forward despite the bad results?

Don’t forget

Know your audience. Know your time limit. Proceed with confidence.
Knowing your audience allows you to determine how technical you can get, as well as what aspects of your research to really focus on. If you’re presenting at a multidisciplinary conference, it is best to focus on the big picture of your research and avoid getting so technical that only a specialist in your niche area can understand you.

If you’re giving a 10-minute talk, then you shouldn’t be going into nitty-gritty details. Your talk will feel rushed and incoherent to the audience. If you’re giving a 1-hour talk, on the other hand, you have much more freedom to dive in deep. Whether you have 10 minutes or 60, plan what you’re going to say to make sure you cover everything you need in the time allotted. 

Finally, if you have taken time to create an impactful story to share your research, it will show. Run with the confidence that you have put a lot of effort into keeping your audience engaged!