Microcontent
Microcontent refers to short pieces of text which represent longer content. They include:
- Titles
- Headers and sub-headers
- Hyperlink text
- E-mail subject lines
- ...
Microcontent is one kind of "summary", and must often function out of context to represent your content.
General guidelines
- Use low-frequency words.
- Avoid high-frequency words, e.g. the, and, some, interesting....
- Use words unique to your content.
- Avoid "click-bait".
Summarizing
Article about Baclofen
By yourself:
- Read the article from Science magazine (jpeg image--blow it up).
- Write on a piece of paper, a concise title for the article (*not* from Ameisen's point of view.) Use low-frequency English words, which are unique and specific!
- Summarize the argument that Ameisen is making:
- Use a bulleted list with no more than 4 points.
- You *do not* have to write full sentences for each point.
- You *may not* simply repeat something in the article: put it in your own words.
- Write each bullet point from Ameisen's point of view. (Don't write..."Ameisen believes that..." each time).
Discussing a common reading (up to 10 minutes)
In your discussion groups:
Discuss your reactions and judgements about the article. Designate one person to write these down, and enter them into this google Doc: tiny.cc/baclofen
- points of agreement
- points of disagreement
Everyone else in the group must help him/her!
Here are some positive roles in a group discussion:
encouraging $\ \ \cdot\ \ $ stating uncertainties $\ \ \cdot\
\ $ pausing
listening $\ \ \cdot\ \ $ contrasting $\ \ \cdot\ \ $ summarizing
timekeeping
Discussion part 2 - summarizing and evaluating
Designate someone *else* to write down results for this part of things...and help them!
From the summary sentences I asked you to write...
- Pick out only 3 for further evaluation. (Maybe some will be composites of several points suggested ahead of time.)
- Paraphrase each point down to 4-7 words (*not* a full sentence).
Evaluating
For each of your 3 points, evaluate the strength of the evidence:
- very solid
- solid
- suggestive
- plausible
- attractive
- not unreasonable
- improbable
- highy unlikely
What's the overall strength of Ameisen's argument? Look at
- Internal consistency
- Were alternative explanations considered?
- Overall probability