It comes to a point when I write straight from my mind as if someone sings his fovourite song straight from his heart. Writing has become the art. Storytelling is the skill.
When I listen to presentation given by my students, one obvious shortcoming is that their presentations lack the art of storytelling.
Psychiatric presentation is sligtly different from medical presentation in such a way that students have to present symptom history (psychopathology) as well as chronology of events. In some cases, students just concentrate on chronology of events without probing much on psychopathology. How can they make a diagnosis if symptom history is incomplete?
During presentation, students have to make sure that the audience understands the story line. The presenter has to remember that many people have short attention span particularly if the story they listen is not properly organized. The audience has to depend on imagination and visualzation. Therefore, the presenter has to take the story as close to them as he can. In order to make sure the audience ‘feels’ the presentation, the presenter must try to stimulate the audience senses through vivid account of the incident using powerful choice of words.
More often than not, the presenter tends to forget on providing the setting of events as well as the traits of the charactor. That is why the presentation appears dull and dry.
Last but not least, keep the story short. Lengthy storytelling may easily makes the audience sleeps.