ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by reviewing the differences between 'stories' and 'reports'. Having challenged the general division between 'stories' and 'reports', offer more detailed reflections on narratives and narrative forms. Reports, produce stubbornly factual and causative, as opposed to symbolic, accounts. Opinions are similar to stories insofar as both may contain factual and symbolic materials. 'Opinions' may lack the seductive qualities necessary to convince others that the events under scrutiny are fully relevant to their concerns or, somehow, consonant with their experience. Noting the importance of plotting and performance in the art of storytelling, Gabriel (2000) has attempted to forge a categorical distinction between organizational stories and the other, related, narrative forms commonly found in organized settings. Gabriel suggests that a tale may be comic, tragic, epic and romantic, depending upon the construction and organization of characters and events.
