And, but, therefore and more

Science and storytelling are a powerful combination. In Telling Science Stories: Reporting, Crafting and Editing for Journalists and Scientists (Routledge), Martin W. Angler shares tips and techniques to improve your writing and presenting through telling stories. My favourite is a simple one – Randy Olson’s ABT (and, but, therefore). Angler shows how moving from AAA (and, and, and), a boring list of facts with no story, to ABT, creates an engaging narrative. Here’s my attempt in one sentence… Scientists need to share their work with a wide audience and in an engaging way, but this is a challenge when we haven’t explicitly been taught how to do this, therefore Angler’s book is a great place to turn for some guidance.

- Reviewed by Dr Annie Brookman-Byrne, Deputy Editor