You would think studies are dry and dull, but they can add a lot of spice to a show. They’re essentially bite-size mysteries. You offer a problem and a potential solution in 25-30 seconds. They’re timely and offer actionable information. The best part is that they’re easy to write if you approach them correctly.

Sentence One: A Mystery Unfolds

Here’s where you tell people a mystery has been solved. We know how you can catch the killer… of plants! In August 2021, Oregon State University researchers found that slugs and snails are strongly attracted to bread dough.

It doesn’t sound too significant unless you garden. With the rising popularity of home gardening, every market has thousands of viewers who want to know how to protect their backyard lettuce, kale, and cabbage from little, slimy, hungry mouths. Now they have an answer, and you have the first sentence:

“If your garden is plagued with leaf-munching slugs and snails—there’s a new way to redirect that slime trail away from your fruits and vegetables. And the solution is likely already in your kitchen.”

If you garden or know someone who does (have you called mom lately?), you are likely intrigued by this budding mystery.

Sentence Two: A Mystery Solved

Here’s where you clearly tell viewers about the key details of the study and who cracked the case. You’re offering clarity about the hook sentence you just led with and lending credence to the sentences that follow. 

That declaration of credibility is important for studies. Viewers want to know that this is legit information, not just the wine- or chocolate-is-healthy-for-you-study-of-the-month. As you should always do in television news, start with attribution.

“Oregon State University researchers have discovered that slugs and snails are attracted to bread dough.”

I laid it out clearly with no flourishes. You want to be as transparent as possible here because people are so used to misinformation online and on social media. Television news is still a highly credible news source because of attribution.

Sentence Three: The Gory Details

This is no murder mystery. There’s no body. There’s no smoking gun. But there is an impact on viewers, not just their backyards. Snails and slugs devastate crops. In the news release for this study, scientists point out that the pests cost 60 to 100 million dollars a year to just Oregon’s grass seed industry. That’s a niche industry devastated by these little slimers. And that’s a significant bit of information to tell your audience in the third sentence to continue to build intrigue. 

“Researchers estimate the pests do 60- to 100-million dollars in damage to Oregon’s prominent grass seed industry…each year.”

This sentence boosts the story’s importance and makes the mystery more compelling to viewers.

Sentence Four: The Motive

If this sentence were in a Scooby-Doo cartoon, it’s where the unmasked villain would lay out their diabolical plan to keep tourists away from the family swamp. For our purposes, we need to explain the why. In some cases, it will be why scientists were looking into the issue or how they came to a solution—depending on which is most interesting and necessary for the story. In our scenario, we want to explain to viewers why slugs and snails are attracted to bread dough because it’s interesting and informative to people who garden.

“The team at OSU is not sure why bread dough attracts the pests —they believe it has something to do with fermentation. Slugs and snails chose it over other tasty bait like lettuce, fruit, and beer—and in one case, scientists trapped 18-thousand snails in 48 hours.”

Yes, it’s more than one sentence, but there’s so much that’s interesting here, it’s worth the extra five to ten seconds to get it all in.

Sentence Five: Stay Vigilant

There’s always something to learn from a mystery. Both scientists and your viewers can benefit. In this sentence, you want to tell viewers what scientists say is the next step—or you can give them actionable information from the study.

“The dough they used is a simple mixture of flour, water and yeast. If you try it out, let us know what results you notice—you can share your findings in the comments section for this story on our Facebook page.”

We just took a study about helping the multi-billion-dollar agriculture industry and turned it into something personal to our viewers and gave them a way to interact with our digital sites. It can be challenging to make studies relatable. Stay on the lookout for any opportunities.