This document provides guidance on using stories effectively in presentations. It discusses how stories can capture attention and engage audiences. Stories should be carefully developed by considering elements like characters, plot, climax, and resolution. Stories should also be tailored to the specific audience and aligned with the overall purpose of the presentation. Following principles of storytelling like plausibility, believability, and truthfulness can help ensure stories are impactful. Stories are most powerful when they are genuinely and strategically incorporated into presentations.

1. Chapter 5.2
Telling Stories
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

2. Introduction
• Stories were among the earliest ways to share memorable
experiences and lessons about life
• Well-told stories capture our attention and have a huge impact on
our lives
2

3. The Power of Stories
• Stories describe experiences in a way that triggers listeners to
imagine and/or believe them as real, helping them engage with
speakers and their messages
• Stories enhance your credibility when you tell them well and draw
meaningful lessons from them
• Storytelling can also reduce your speaking anxiety because stories
are relatively easy to remember, particularly when they’re drawn
from personal experiences
• Short anecdotes can clarify a key point, support a claim, or provide
an introduction and conclusion to your presentation
• Stories can and should reinforce your purpose
3

4. You (1 of 2)
• The following table offers eleven suggestions to extract your
personal stories:
Your name What’s the story of your name? Were you named for someone? If so, what was their story? Does your
name have a special meaning in your own or another language? Does it reflect your ethnic background?
Have you changed your name? Why?
Your past Start by filling in the following blanks: When I was in ___________ , I ___________. For example, When I
was in kindergarten, I used to play tricks on my best friend. What happened? Why do you remember it so
vividly? What did you learn that may benefit an audience?
Your family’s
roots
Where does your family come from? How far back can you trace your lineage? Are there unique customs in
your family? What’s your family’s ethnic background? Is there someone famous, funny, notorious, or
eccentric in your family?
Your special
places
Is there a special place in your life? Perhaps a vacant lot where you played with childhood friends? A venue
where your family holds reunions? A view from a beloved mountaintop? The place you were married?
Your mentors Who has helped guide you through life’s challenges? Your parents, a teacher, a coach, a relative, a best
friend, a mentor? What did they do for you? What advice did they share? Can their counsel benefit others?
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5. You (2 of 2)
Your successes What have you done that makes you proud? Have you earned an award, helped people in need, done
the right thing in a crisis, or survived a tragedy? How can your story of success help other people?
Your failures What have you learned from a particular failure? How did failing make you feel? How did you overcome
it? What did you do to make sure it wouldn’t happen again? How can your story help other people?
Your values What are your deep-seated values? Do you value fairness, honesty, tradition, equality, and/or justice?
Do you value your family and friends, your country, your environment, or profession? There’s probably
a story about why you strongly value what you believe and do.
Your pivotal
moments
When did you know you were an adult? What did you learn from being laid off from a job? When did
you first truly understand love?
Your pet peeves What bothers you a lot? Bad customer service, a grade you didn’t deserve, name-calling? Why? What
happened?
Your special
knowledge
Do you know how ___________ was discovered? Do you know why the town of ___________ was
founded? Do you know that ___________ happened here one hundred years ago today?
5

6. Your Audience, Other People, and the Occasion
Audience analysis enables you to find stories related to their
interests, beliefs, and values
• Consider someone you know whose story might illuminate the
subject of your presentation
• However, never use it to embarrass someone or divulge
private information, and make sure to get their permission
before you tell it.
Find something you’ve done, witnessed, known, or believed that is
relevant to the speaking occasion
6

7. Storytelling Strategies
• A story told in a presentation must be carefully developed and
delivered
• The following strategies will help guide you through this process:
• Use a simple story line
• Limit the number of characters
• Connect with your listeners
• Make a point
• Tell it efficiently
• Create tension
• Make it personal
• Exaggerate effectively
• Remember the rule of three
• Practice for sense and rhythm
7

8. Shaping Stories
• Good stories, no matter how short or simple, share similar
elements
• The beginning introduces a situation where someone has to
overcome an obstacle or solve a problem
• The middle explains what the characters did or didn’t do to
resolve the situation
• The end shows the resolution and, in some cases, offers a
meaningful lesson
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9. Story-Building Chart: Template (1 of 3)
Title
• Questions: What is the title of your story? Does the title capture the essence,
mood, or spirit of the story?
• Suggestion: Although you don’t have to share the title of a story with your
audience, it can help you focus on the PURPOSE of your presentation. A title
such as “The Big Bad Man in the Back of the Building” suggests a very different
story from one titled “The Happy Haven behind Our House.”
Background information
• Questions: Where and when does the story take place? What is going on? Did
anything important happen before the story begins?
• Suggestion: Use CONCRETE WORDS and VIVID LANGUAGE to set the time,
place, and occasion of the story.
9

10. Story-Building Chart: Template (2 of 3)
Character development
• Questions: Who is in the story? What are their backgrounds and
relationships to one another? What do they look and sound like? How do
you want the audience to feel about them?
• Suggestion: Bring the characters to life with vivid descriptions and adapt
your VOCAL DELIVERY and PHYSICAL DELIVERY to make each
character distinct from one another.
Action or confl ict
• Questions: What is happening? What obstacles or challenges did the
characters face? What did they see, hear, feel, smell, or taste? How did
they react to what’s happening?
• Suggestion: Let the action build as you tell this part of the story.
High point (climax or punch line)
• Questions: What is the culminating event or moment of greatest
intensity? What is the turning point in the action? When does the
tension that’s been building reach its peak? What sentence makes the
story funny?
10

11. Story-Building Chart: Template (3 of 3)
• Suggestion: All action should lead to a discovery, decision, or
outcome. Show the audience how the character has grown or has
responded to a situation or problem. If you don’t include a climax or
punch line, the story won’t make sense—so make sure it has one!
Conclusion and resolution
• Questions: How is the situation resolved? How do the important
characters respond to the climax?
• Suggestion: The conclusion pulls the strands of the story together.
Make sure you don’t leave the audience wondering about the fate of a
character. In some cases, a story doesn’t need a conclusion—the
climax or punch line may conclude it for you.
Central point
• Questions: Is there a lesson to be learned from the story? How does it
relate to the rest of your presentation?
• Suggestion: Like the title, make sure the central point of your story
supports the PURPOSE of your presentation. You don’t need to state
the central point. Just make sure you know what it is and that the
story reflects its message.
11

12. Story-Building Chart: Example (1 of 2)
Title: The Three Little Pigs
Background information: Once upon a time, three little pigs set off to seek
their fortune.
Character development: Each little pig built a home. One was made of straw,
one was made of sticks, and one was made of bricks.
Action or conflict: Soon a wolf came along. He blew down the house made of
straw, so the first pig ran to the house of sticks. The wolf blew down the house of
sticks, so both pigs ran to the house of bricks. Then the wolf went to the house of
bricks and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.” All three pigs responded:
“Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.” So the wolf huffed and puffed but
couldn’t blow the house in.
12

13. Story-Building Chart: Example (2 of 2)
High point (climax): The wolf was very angry. “I’m going to climb down your
chimney and eat all of you up,” he declared, laughing, “including your chinny
chin chins.” The pigs heard the wolf on the roof and hung a pot of water over a
blazing fi re. When the wolf jumped down the chimney, he landed in the pot of
boiling water. The pigs quickly put the cover on it, boiled up the wolf, and ate
him for dinner.
Conclusion and resolution: And the three pigs lived happily ever after.
Central point: The time and energy you use to prepare for trouble will help you
survive and flourish.
13

14. Notable Speaker: Rita Pierson, Part 1
In 1972, Dr. Rita Pierson followed in the footsteps of
her grandparents and parents to become an educator.
For more than forty years, Pierson spent her
professional life being a champion for students,
teaching elementary school and junior high school as
well as special education.
She led numerous professional development
workshops on a variety of topics focused on under
resourced learners and early intervention strategies.
In May 2013, at a TED Talks Education event, Pierson
called on educators to be champions for their students.
Her inspirational talk has been viewed more than ten
million times.
Her family announced her sudden death in June 2013—
just weeks after her TED talk aired on PBS.

15. Notable Speaker: Rita Pierson, Part 2
15

16. Notable Speaker: Rita Pierson, Part 3
16

17. Notable Speaker: Rita Pierson, Part 4
17

18. Notable Speaker: Rita Pierson, Part 5
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19. Why Stories Work
• Good stories follow accepted storytelling principles that sustain
the meaning and value of story truths
• Understanding these principles can help you make stories
work for you in a presentation
• The best stories have two essential qualities:
• Probability
• Fidelity
19

20. Story Probability
• Story probability describes the formal features of a story, such
as the consistency of characters and their actions and asks if it is
plausible
• To assess a story’s probability, ask the following questions:
• Does the story make sense? Can I follow what’s happening? Do
I believe the plot?
• Do the characters behave in a consistent manner? Do I
wonder, “Why did they do that?” or “How could they do that
given everything else they’ve said and done?”
20

21. Story Fidelity
• Story fidelity focuses on the story’s connection to the audience
and asks if the story is faithful to what they already know
• To assess a story’s fidelity, ask the following questions:
• Do the events in the story seem believable?
• Does the story reflect the storyteller’s values, beliefs, and
experiences?
• What about the beliefs, values, experiences of the audience?
• Does the story omit or distort any key facts or events?
• Does the story use logical arguments and patterns of
reasoning?
• Does the story create the impact that the storyteller wants? 21

22. Story Truths
• Story truths refer to accepted principles that underlie the
meaning and values in a story
FOUR TRUTHS OF
STORYTELLING
Truth to
Speaker
When you speak truthfully and share your genuine feelings in a story, you enhance your credibility. When
relevant, storytellers reveal their beliefs and values openly and honestly. Even if the story is fictional, a good
storyteller conveys the anger, embarrassment, sadness, fear, or joy experienced by their characters.
Truth to
Audience
Audience analysis should guide your storytelling. When you arouse audience expectations, make sure you
meet them. If you promise a thrilling story, you have to follow through. If you use humor, your audience
should laugh. Use personal pronouns such as we, you, and I to invite the audience to share the experience
and feelings you describe.
Truth to
Purpose
Be true to your purpose! What is your overall objective? Does the story express the values you believe in and
want others to adopt as their own? When a story is true to your purpose, you can invest more energy and
emotion into telling it—and you’ll be more successful at reaching your audience.
Truth to
Occasion
As with any good presentation, a good story is never told the same way twice. If your time is limited, you’ll
have to shorten your story. If the occasion is somber, you may tell a different story entirely. If the setting
calls for a louder voice, arrange the room so you are closer to your listeners, or practice so you can project.
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23. Conclusion
• Good stories are more than spur-of-the-moment recollections or
retellings of classic tales
• The best stories are meticulously crafted, truthful, and
strategically adapted to all elements of the rhetorical situation
23

24. Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 5.2.
For more resources, please visit The Norton Field Guide to Speaking:
http://digital.wwnorton.com/nfgspeaking.
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company