How to… make your story concrete


Concrete information gets your audience involved, and helps them understand and remember your story.

Wait, what is the difference between abstract and concrete information? Abstract language is very common in academic communication. It is used to communicate theories, ideas and concepts that are generalized from reality-as-we-experience-it.

Abstractions are usually not very effective for triggering the imagination. They are also more difficult to understand and remember than concrete details.

Concrete language refers to particular things that can be experienced directly. Things that your audience is familiar with, and things they can see, feel, hear, smell or taste.

With concrete details, your audience can create a vivid mental picture. They get the audience involved, and help them understand and remember your story.



1. Describe the topic in sensory detail

Tickle the senses: describe what your topic looks, feels, sounds, smells or tastes like.
Examples:X “An arachnid with necrotic venom.”

V “A hairy, yellow-brown spider with a flesh-eating poison.”

———————

X “The medial temporal lobe is a region within the cerebral cortex.”

V “If you would put a finger above your ear and push it into your head about two inches, you’d be in the area called the medial temporal lobe.”

———————

X “Ocean acidification will negatively impact calcifying organisms.”

V “As oceans become more acidic, sea snails grow thinner shells. Coral reefs may erode faster, as coral skeletons become weaker and more brittle.”


2. Make general concepts more specific

Abstractions are usually very broad concepts – and therefore, not very precise. Specify what you mean!
Examples:X “A state-of-the-art imaging system”

V “A medical MRI scanner that is outfitted with the most recent A.I. imaging technology.”

———————

X “The system’s power supply.”

V “The electric car’s Li-NMC battery.”

Be aware that some abstractions can mean many different things.
Examples:X “A model”

V “A 3D human embryo model in a petri dish.”

V “A weather forecast model.”

V “A model of a house made out of canvas.”



3. Explain unfamiliar concepts in familiar terms

Introduce abstract concepts that are difficult to picture by:

  • giving recognizable examples
    Examples:X “Stigmatization is a common societal phenomenon, where people assign negative perceptions to individuals because of their perceived difference from other members of the population.”

    V “People tend to bully, stereotype or disadvantage people whom they consider “different” in terms of class, culture or ethnicity.”

    ———————

    X “She is a famous and influential woman.”

    V “She was on the cover of Time Magazine twice. She frequently dines with the presidential family at the White House. Bill Gates calls her for advice.”

    ———————

    X “The search function for this database takes into account the non-standardized nature of the data.”

    V “If you search this database for ”The Netherlands”, the search results will also include hits for ‘Holland’.”

    ———————

    X “Direct air capture.”

    V “Filtering CO2 from the air”

    ———————

    X “Mobility solutions for corporate car sharing.”

    V “An app for carpooling with colleagues.”
  • or via analogies with things your audience knows.
    Examples:X “Facebook has a very large user base of over 2.2 billion people.”

    V “If Facebook was a country, it would have the largest population on earth. More than 2.2 billion people, about a third of humanity, log in at least once a month.”

    ———————

    X “Leukocytes are crucial in immune defense.”

    V “Leukocytes are like policemen that catch criminals; the criminals are viruses and bacteria that make you ill.”


4. Hook your audience

Start your story with a concrete detail that makes your audience curious and draws them in. So, rather than starting a story like this:

Today I will tell you about seismicity as a predictor of the onset of volcanic eruptions.

..start with, for instance:

  • a telling number
    Example: There are over 1,500 active volcanoes on Earth, with, on average, one erupting every week.

  • a vivid description
    Example: When Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines, erupted in 1991, it sent a grey, bulging plume 40 km high into the atmosphere. Ash rained down, blanketing rice paddies and sugarcane fields, and causing roofs to cave in and houses to collapse.

  • a striking fact
    Example:When Mount Pinatubo, a volcano in the Philippines, erupted in 1991, it released millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, which caused global temperatures to drop 0.5°C for three years.

  • an analogy
    Example:Tectonic plates make up the outer layer of the Earth, much like pieces of a cracked egg shell. They move around about as fast as your fingernails grow. Most volcanoes form at the boundaries between these plates, where they slide apart or bump into each other.