History Main / ShownTheirWork

->“''A writer cannot do too much research... though sometimes it is a mistake to try and cram too much of what you learned into your novel. Research gives you a foundation to build on, but in the end it's only the story that matters.''”

* ShownTheirWork/NewspaperComics

* ShownTheirWork/WebComics

->"''A writer cannot do too much research... though sometimes it is a mistake to try and cram too much of what you learned into your novel. Research gives you a foundation to build on, but in the end it's only the story that matters.''"

'''Try to keep this page from becoming GushingAboutShowsYouLike.'''

More often than not, the stuff authors look into won't be things with which the average Joe is is familiar. If it's something particularly [[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]], the audience might just write it off as typical fiction, even though [[AluminumChristmasTrees it actually is a thing]].

Contrast CriticalResearchFailure and DanBrowned.

** ShownTheirWork/AvatarTheLastAirbender
** ShownTheirWork/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic
** ShownTheirWork/PhineasAndFerb

[[http://little-details.livejournal.com/ There]]'s a LiveJournal community for authors conducting such research on non-trivial topics.

When an author shows off work they haven't actually done, you've been DanBrowned. Any examples of that list are there, here is about it being done right.

* ShownTheirWork/Other

* {{ShownTheirWork/Other}}
[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* While working for Capitol Sports Promotions/The World Wrestling Council, "Sucio" Dutch Mantel would travel to mainland cities such as New York to eavesdrop on conversations between Puerto Ricans who had migrated from the island in order to figure out [[CheapHeat which insults would be most offensive]] to the Puerto Ricans who chose to remain on the island. This made him among the most hated wrestlers on Borinquen, second only to Ox Baker who had killed two men with his bare hands and routinely "[[{{kayfabe}} attempted]]" to murder several other wrestlers in the same manner.
* Brian Alvarez and Vince Verhei of Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter were former pro wrestlers and Verhei in addition was a sports broadcaster, so they often bring various details to their analysis that would go unnoticed by most marks and in the latter case, even fellow wrestlers.
* At the Russian promotion [[http://www.wrestlingfederation.ru/ IWF]] President's Cup 2007 event, Wrestling/{{Raven}} made a surprise appearance and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBBrvu9XBhk cut a promo in Russian]].
* Before acting as a guest commentator for Wrestling/WrestlingSocietyX, Music/{{Pitbull}} made sure to do some homework so as not to come off as lost like previous musical guests.
* Motor cycle gangs were hardly an original idea for Wrestling/EricBischoff by the time 2012 rolled around but Wrestling/AcesAndEights angle in Wrestling/{{TNA}} was actually based on a real life group, which members of the TNA version such as Wrestling/DLoBrown and Wrestling/TheDudleyBoys would allude to and mention the practices of.
* While Wrestling/RomanReigns did not invent the jumping "Superman punch" strike, he is unique in that he duplicates the movements of Henry Cavill in ''Film/ManOfSteel'' as he sets up the move.[[/folder]]

More often than not, the stuff authors look into won't be things the average Joe is is familiar. If it's something particularly [[RealityIsUnrealistic unrealistic]], the audience might just write it off as typical fiction, even though [[AluminumChristmasTrees it actually is a thing]].

Compare DoingItForTheArt, NarrativeFiligree (both also about going above and beyond in regards to production quality), LampshadedTheObscureReference.

-->-- '''GeorgeRRMartin'''

Contrast CriticalResearchFailure, TheyJustDidntCare, and DanBrowned.

This often happens in older, harder SciFi books, wherein the authors try to keep the science as consistent as possible with currently-understood scientific theories. Of course, since ScienceMarchesOn, this may date the book badly.

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* Before acting as a guest commentator for Wrestling/WrestlingSocietyX, Music/{{Pitbull}} made sure to do his homework so as not to come off as lost like previous musical guests.

* Brian Alvarez and Vince Verhei of Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserver were former pro wrestlers and Verhei in addition was a sports broadcaster, so they often bring various details to their analysis that would go unnoticed by most marks and in the latter case, even fellow wrestlers.

* While Wrestling/RomanReigns did not invent the jumping "Superman punch" strike, he is unique in that he duplicates the movements of Henry Cavill in Film/ManOfSteel as he sets up the move.

* While Wrestling/RomanReigns did not invent the Superman punch, he is unique in that he duplicates the movements of Henry Cavill in Film/ManOfSteel as he sets up the move.

* At the Russian promotion [[http://www.wrestlingfederation.ru/ IWF]] President's Cup 2007 event, Wrestling/{{Raven}} made a surprise appearance and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBBrvu9XBhk cut a promo in Russian]].[[/folder]]

* While working for Capitol Sports Promotions/The World Wrestling Council, "Sucio" Dutch Mantel would travel to mainland cities such as New York to eavesdrop on conversations between Puerto Ricans who had migrated from the island in order to figure out [[CheapHeat which insults would be most offensive]] to the Puerto Ricans who chose to remain on the island. This made him among the most hated wrestlers on Borinquen, second only to Ox Baker who had killed two men with his bare hands and routinely "[[{{kayfabe}} attempted]]" to murder several other wrestlers in the same manner.[[/folder]]

Although many talents in fictional media show they didn't do their research, some actually did. In fact, sometimes they learned so much and worked so hard to learn it that it would hardly seem fitting to just not show it off.

Contrast CriticalResearchFailure, TheyJustDidntCare.

The Shown Their Work trope comes in when the creators tweak their stories to show the viewer/reader what they have learned. The trick is to do it so this advances the story instead of stopping it cold. When it's done right in a well made work, awards for its educational value can be just as nifty as the artistic awards.

Note that this is only as good as the writer makes it. Just because you did the research, doesn't mean it adds to the story. Likewise, sometimes it's better just to make things up. Remember that one of the reasons why the SciFiGhetto existed in the first place was because Authors of old (and some still do) overused this trope, creating walls of InfoDump instead of stories. If people wanted to have a lecture in Science, they would grab scientific essays in the first place.