故事结构
Highlights from Chapter 4 in <<Writing Science>> by Joshua Schimel
1.
All stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
Beginning, middle, and end, however, don’t reflect physical positions but story elements that carry out specific functions.
2.
There are four elements that underlie the structure of all stories, including those we write in science:
Opening (O):
Whom is the story about?
Who are the characters?
Where does it take place?
What do you need to understand about the situation to follow the story?
What is the larger problem you are addressing?
Challenge (C):
What do your characters need to accomplish?
What specific question do you propose to answer?
Action (A):
What happens to address the challenge?
In a paper, this describes the work you did; in a proposal, it describes the work you hope to do.
Resolution (R):
How have the characters and their world changed as a result of the action?
This is your conclusion — what did you learn from your work?
3.
Together these elements generate the acronym OCAR.
Understanding how to manage the OCAR elements is at the heart of successful writing.
A story lacking any element from it will be unsatisfying, ineffective, and slippery, rather than sticky.
4.
The OCAR functions are as central to a scientific paper as they are to a work of fiction.
A good paper describes the larger problem and central “characters” (O); it frames an interesting question (C); it presents your research plan and results, developing the action (A); and it leaves the reader with an important conclusion about how our understanding of the world has changed as a result of the work (R).