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A narrative is an anecdote (a brief story) or a somewhat longer account that can be used to support your main points. Narratives stimulate your listeners’ interest because humans (by our very nature) love a good story.¹⁶

Here is an example of a medium-length anecdote presented in a speech about the importance of work experiences early in life:

Marissa Mayer has an impressive biography—CEO of Yahoo! at age thirty-seven after a highly successful career as an engineer and executive for Google. But she attributes her work ethic to her experience as a grocery-store clerk in high school. Veteran clerks could check out forty items in a minute, and they taught her the secrets of the trade so she could match their productivity.¹⁷

In a speech on the construction of the thousand-mile Alaska-Canadian highway during World War II, a presenter used the following longer narrative to show how the project not only built a highway but also contributed to civil rights:

Three African American regiments were sent to the mountains of northern Canada to work on the highway. They faced not only prejudice and doubts about their ability but also hostile conditions. Working nonstop for three days and using the headlights of trucks when it got dark, these soldiers cut down trees, built trestles, and worked chest-deep in the icy water to build a bridge across the Sikanni Chief River. The unit earned a reputation for its ability to rapidly build strong bridges in the worst of environments, helping “pave” the way for desegregation of the armed forces in 1948. The highway has been called “the road to civil rights.”¹⁸

Stories like these are great for capturing audience attention or for illustrating a point. Consider incorporating such stories as attention-getters or when you want to show how concepts play out in the real world. And you can always use a quick anecdote—lasting no more than five or ten seconds—to reenergize an audience after tackling complex or technical material.

Narratives and anecdotes are like lay testimony in that they can effectively build audience interest or illustrate a concept; however, anecdotal evidence is no substitute for credible proof. Stories of a relative who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and lived to the ripe age of ninety-eight, or a roommate who partied every night and still maintained a 3.8 grade point average, do not prove that such behaviors are safe for the population as a whole.