Assignment 1: Tell Me a Story!

Released: Friday, April 3 | Due: Monday, April 6

Overview

For this assignment you'll be telling a story about anything you choose. It can be a fiction or non-fiction story. It can take place in the past, present, or future. It can be happy, sad, exciting, thrilling, or upsetting. It can involve yourself, others, people, or non-people. It can be about animate or inanimate objects.

Your story should:

• Connect with people. Your target audience is your Spring 2026 Storytelling with Data class (students and instructor).
• Be brief. You'll have a maximum of 5 minutes to share your story with the class in its final form. (There is no minimum story length.)
• Be original. Tell a story that you haven't told or heard before. Part of what I want you to get out of this assignment is practice coming up with new stories. You won't get that unless your story is actually new.

Deliverables

Your final submission should be uploaded to YouTube (unlisted is fine) and the link shared via the course GitHub repository. Please consider that your story will be made public in deciding what story to tell.

1. Narrative Outline

Briefly outline your story:

• Introduce the main idea. What's the "hook" you'll be using to grab your audience at the start of your story?
• Go through the high-level key events in your story. How are you furthering your main idea with each event?
• Conclude. What's your overall goal or point and what message do you want to leave people with?

Produce a single document containing your outline (as a .txt, .docx, .md, or .pdf file).

2. Written Narrative

Write out your story in roughly one page (single-spaced, size 10 font or larger). Include all major plot points and tell the story in a way you think your audience will find compelling.

3. Narrative "Sketch"

In whatever format (pencil and paper, digital art, GIFs or memes, photographs — anything!) represent your narrative visually. You are encouraged to be creative, but don't get too abstract; your visual depictions should directly reflect actual story events, key ideas, or plot points.

Don't worry about making your "sketches" look perfect. Rather, try to find a way to bolster the key points in your story using visual tools of your preferred form.

4. Tell Your Story (Video)

Create a video (up to 5 minutes) telling your story. You might want to record a video of yourself speaking, or narrate while showing visual props or sketches, or screencast a presentation. You get to choose how you present the story.

5. Reflections

Please reflect on the assignment by briefly answering the following questions:

• What went well for you? Which parts did you find easy? Which parts of your story are you most happy with?
• What did you have trouble with? What was the hardest part of telling a story? Which parts of your story are you least happy with?
• What sort of feedback would be most helpful to you? What insights from others could most help you improve your story?

Submission

Upload your video to YouTube and submit via the course GitHub repository. Your submission should include:

• Your narrative outline
• Your written narrative
• Your visual "sketch" document
• A link to your YouTube video
• Your reflections document

Resources

• Introduction to storytelling (Khan Academy / Pixar)
• What makes a great story?
• Story structure
• Pitching your story
• Moth Radio Hour stories (for inspiration)