How to tell compelling scientific stories: Tips for artful use of the research manuscript and presentation genres

This chapter discusses the possibilities that social media offer for communicating science. It provides advice about five key aspects of research writing: Entering the conversation, Mapping the gap, Telling the story and Crafting the language. Most of the advice one gave for writing up science also holds true for presenting science. Besides interesting study data, stories, anecdotes and examples are the basic ingredients of health professions education researchers’ presentation. Stories help them to connect with their audience. For most of researchers, preparing a presentation comes down to drafting a PowerPoint presentation. This likely explains why, for most of them, delivering a presentation comes down to reading out the text on the PowerPoint slides. Many scientists have found themselves presenting their work virtually as conferences, research seminars and courses shifted to virtual during the 2020+ Covid-19 pandemic. Communicating scientific work on social media is becoming increasingly popular.