topic: [[Writing]] people: #people/loraleilingard created: 2024-07-09 *When you are crafting your story not study, a key question is: "who are the characters and how are they transformed?"* ##### what is it? [[each idea is a character]]? is a question to ask as you craft your [[Story not study]] academic writing. ##### why does it matter? This question aims to focus the writer, to narrow and focus academic writing, and transform the concept from "reporting the study" to "telling the story." >- “each idea you introduce as a character.” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 60) >- “How many characters are you bringing on stage? Is the main character clearly indicated?” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 60) ###### Different story paths can be considered: > “Coming Full Circle, Deep Exploration and Surprise Insight. Learning to recognize these storylines can help writers to assess the conventions of the journal they’re targeting and the affordances of particular storylines for their manuscript.” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 61) > 1) “In a Coming Full Circle storyline, each idea/character presented in the Introduction returns in the Discussion.” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 61) 2) “Deep Exploration is a common storyline in social sciences research writing generally and health professions education manuscripts specifically.” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 62) 3) “In a Surprise Insight storyline, the Discussion introduces new ideas or main characters that were not presented in the Intro.” (Lingard and Watling, 2021, p. 62) ##### This reminds me of [[re-storying]], starting with one story, considering the themes, and ending with another version. [[Problem Gap Hook]] allows the writer to step away from the "introduction describes what is known before and discussion is what is known after" paradigm. This moves away from "linear reporting" towards [[persuasive writing]]. Instead, the goal of the introduction is to name the characters, clarify the gap, and then set up the discussion for the characters to fill the gap. ##### What would the opposite argument be? If the author challenges the status quo, they risk rejection. How much to step into the story vs study mental model depends on the audience. tags: #note/idea | #on/writing | #on/writing/process | #on/story ##### Sources: Lingard, L., & Watling, C. (2016). It’s a Story, Not a Study: Writing an Effective Research Paper. _Academic Medicine_, _91_(12), e12. [https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001389](https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001389) Lingard, L., & Watling, C. (2021). _Story, Not Study: 30 Brief Lessons to Inspire Health Researchers as Writers_ (Vol. 19). Springer International Publishing. [https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71363-8](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71363-8)