Instructors can create this sense of anticipation in their students by giving presentations as if they are telling a story, ordering and presenting their topics in ways that stimulate in their listeners a sense of unfolding and discovery. To tell any story well, the narrator must become almost as caught up in the plot as the listeners. Even if they have told a story countless times, masters of the ancient storyteller's art grow excited at hearing the tale once again. They save the big surprises until the end, laying the groundwork early by posing questions from the opening moments and dropping clues along the way. The storyteller must approach the well-known plot as if telling it for the first time so that listeners will experience it afresh, even when they too have heard it before.
Superb lecturers share many qualities with storytellers.
They, too, save the conclusions or most crucial points until the end, having teased the students along the way with key questions and preliminary findings or interpretations. Such instructors seem genuinely moved by the story they are presenting, the excitement of scientific discovery or historical events or the pathos and beauty of literature or art. These teachers have a well developed empathic sense, the ability to imagine accurately the thoughts and experiences students are having as they listen to the story. Some college teachers are natural storytellers who add a sense of drama to anything they talk about. But almost any instructor can learn to be a good storyteller if he or she relaxes inhibitions and reacts to the suspense inherent in most content.