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Hi Mary-Jane and Anne,

Many thanks for drawing attention to what is an inherent feature of academic writing, not just in science - I look forward to following up the references you have shared so far.

Although I still haven't read his book, you may find Prof Stephen Heard's blogs of interest (he is also author of http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10769.html).

The following blog post, specifically, addresses story-telling in academic scientific writing:

https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/my-plodding-journey-to-better-writing-guest-post/ 

Hopefully, this can be a fruitful addition to Anne's search for evidence of story-telling in academic writing - I would be keen to receive any further follow-ups to this thread, also off-list, depending on how interested others are, so please feel free to include me in subsequent conversations.

All the best,

Julia

-----Original Message-----
From: European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing - discussions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Curry, MJ
Sent: 29 August 2017 15:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Story-telling in academic writing

Hi Anne,

As the references you cite probably support, storytelling is a fairly common  metaphor when scientists/engineers talk about how they discuss their research. The attached book chapter includes some discussion of the use of storytelling in engineers¹ writing for publication. I have other data on this exact topic that I haven¹t had time to write about yet.
Empirical research is one way to address the question of what storytelling Œdoes¹ to science Š Thank you for including those references!

All the best,
Mary Jane

 --
Mary Jane Curry, PhD
Associate Professor
Warner Graduate School of Education
University of Rochester
474 LeChase Hall, 585.273.5934

Co-chair, UR Faculty Senate, 2016-17, 2017-18 Director, Warner Writing Support Services Associate Editor, Brief Research Reports, TESOL Quarterly







On 8/29/17, 4:05 AM, "European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing - discussions on behalf of Anne Wegner" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Dear colleagues
>Over the past year, I've been investigating story-telling in academic 
>writing in an effort to decide to what extent and how I should be 
>introducing it in my academic writing workshops in Germany. I know that 
>the issue is being debated, and, for those interested, I have added at 
>the end of this mail four books and three links I have found on the 
>topic .
>In discussions I've had in Germany, I have met people who are for and 
>against more story-telling in science (the former mainly saying it is 
>making science texts more reader-friendly/memorable, the latter 
>generally stating that it is making science reporting less precise). I 
>would like to know what other members of the EATAW community are 
>currently experiencing in their work as teachers of academic writing in 
>a multitude of languages. To start off the discussion, I therefore have 
>the following questions
>
>	1) Is the topic of story-telling in science writing being discussed in 
>your country?
>	2) If so, is there generally a positive or negative attitude towards it?
>	3) If the attitude is negative, what reasons are being given?
>	4) Do you think the attitude may be related to the language being used 
>for writing about the research?
>
>I'm grateful for any thoughts on this. I'll try and put together a 
>summary of the ideas I receive and make it available to the group.
>Many thanks
>Anne
>
>
>
>Three books on the topic:
>Schimel, J. 2012. Writing Science: How to write papers that get cited 
>and proposals that get funded. Oxford. OUP Luna, R.E., 2013. The Art of 
>Scientific Storytelling: Transform your research manuscript with a 
>step-by-step formula. Amando International Olson, R., 2015. Houston, We 
>Have a Narrative: Why Science Needs Story. Chicago, University of 
>Chicago Press
>
>
>Three links on the topic
>https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.lastwordonnothing.
>com_2012_10_01_why-2Dmore-2Dscientists-2Dshould-2Dtell-2Dstories_&d=DwI
>BaQ
>&c=kbmfwr1Yojg42sGEpaQh5ofMHBeTl9EI2eaqQZhHbOU&r=_rMj7-Pgoc9IWqUnTVAZ6a
>LZ1 
>r8V9PaRLjSW-DQVx4E&m=nsi1UkV0GovFf5FC9Oq8IFCk1BeMqsd1NIw9mVqQb5Y&s=_bhs
>95u O8NoDTqYxMi-jthppSVBjMDRQG53A6hnW7QQ&e=
>https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__journals.plos.org_p
>los 
>one_article-3Fid-3D10.1371_journal.pone.0167983&d=DwIBaQ&c=kbmfwr1Yojg4
>2sG 
>EpaQh5ofMHBeTl9EI2eaqQZhHbOU&r=_rMj7-Pgoc9IWqUnTVAZ6aLZ1r8V9PaRLjSW-DQV
>x4E 
>&m=nsi1UkV0GovFf5FC9Oq8IFCk1BeMqsd1NIw9mVqQb5Y&s=79HZyumuweZyzFs0jXKt9t
>BYT
>QJua0P_1NBhrrKJ7kk&e=
>https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__io9.gizmodo.com_on-
>2Dt 
>he-2Dimportance-2Dof-2Dstorytelling-2Din-2Dscience-2D512947191&d=DwIBaQ
>&c= 
>kbmfwr1Yojg42sGEpaQh5ofMHBeTl9EI2eaqQZhHbOU&r=_rMj7-Pgoc9IWqUnTVAZ6aLZ1
>r8V 
>9PaRLjSW-DQVx4E&m=nsi1UkV0GovFf5FC9Oq8IFCk1BeMqsd1NIw9mVqQb5Y&s=I3ENNUW
>qUB
>yH5f8AgAGE8dE1KeipqTbHuUjgNl0TNQ0&e=
>
>
>Anne Wegner
>Write English GbR
>www.write-english.de
>
>E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
>Tel. +49 (0) 2224 941008
>
>Workshops for business and academic writing.
>
>Editing. Proofreading. Presentation Skills, Writing for the Web and 
>Promotional Writing.
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>To unsubscribe login to
>https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.jiscmail.ac.uk
>_cg
>i-2Dbin_webadmin-3FA0-3DEATAW&d=DwIBaQ&c=kbmfwr1Yojg42sGEpaQh5ofMHBeTl9
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>eaqQZhHbOU&r=_rMj7-Pgoc9IWqUnTVAZ6aLZ1r8V9PaRLjSW-DQVx4E&m=nsi1UkV0GovF
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>C9Oq8IFCk1BeMqsd1NIw9mVqQb5Y&s=ogZFhVLtWvwqnrsyFRge7bLIYW2P8mPKeBlETwOT
>Ujc
>&e=
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