Rising to the demands of academic writing, scholarship and research is challenging for many practitioners in post compulsory education. Only a small number manage to see their research through to completion and write-up. Therefore, their work is under-represented in peer-reviewed, published literature in the field of educational research. This article foregrounds the role of stories, storytelling and image in the development of different kinds of language, including scholarship and academic writing. Narrative accounts of experiences of practitioner-researchers beginning to engage in research through intensive residential research development workshops, delivered as part of a national Practitioner Research Programme (PRP), are used to illustrate the power of oracy, imagery and story in extending our ability to develop language; research and represent experience; and portray different forms of understanding in a range of educational contexts. The results indicate that being able to listen, read and 'see' the research stories of more experienced researchers, as well as telling stories of their own experiences of research, enables participants to become more comfortable in using experiences of educational practice as a starting point for research and to regard research and practice not as a dichotomy or as separate activities, but as dynamic and integral aspects of educational improvement.