Discussion#5: Tweetable Chapter Summaries

Let's have a little fun with social media. 

Part I:

The basic assignment seems simple enough: choose your favorite chapter from next Tuesday's (3/03) reading (Hell's Angels, pp. 101-85), Chapters 9 through 16, and compose a summary of that chapter in 140 characters or less. That's it.

Here's where it gets challenging. First and foremost, these have to be good, substantive summaries, written to the entire Twittersphere, which means it has a potential audience reach in the zillions. This also means that you have to make some tough decisions right off the bat: what are the most important elements of the chapter to include? Why? What is the most word-efficient way to summarize this chapter? What (if any) Twitter lingo can you use to cut down on word count and increase your reader's comprehension? To what sorts of other links, hashtags, or folksonomies Links to an external site. can you connect your Tweet such that it can better inform your readers as to what happens in your chapter?

Moreover, in perhaps a more immediate sense, you're writing to your classmates and me, a group of readers you know will read these Tweets. We know this novel (sort of). What info do you need to give us on your chapter? And the creme de la creme: can you entertain us while informing us? Here are some general guidelines for drafting and revising summaries:

GUIDELINES FOR SUMMARY

1. COMPLETE

A summary should include all the ideas that are essential to the author's thesis.

2. CONCISE

A summary should be considerably shorter than the source. Don't include unessential information.

3. ACCURATE

A summary should represent the author's ideas. Don't distort the author's views.

4. OBJECTIVE

A summary should recapitulate the author's points. Don't include your objections or criticisms in the summary.

5. COHERENT

A summary should make sense to someone who has not read the original. It should not sound like a list of loosely-related sentences that have been strung together in paragraph format.

6. INDEPENDENT

A summary should be written in your own words. Don't take strings of words from the source; don't paraphrase.

Once you've composed and revised your Tweet, tweet it out to the world. Be sure to use our hashtag #MutantEunuchs and to Tweet at @paulgeecook. Also feel free to use whatever other tags or links you think appropriate. Tweets are "due" before 11:30pm EST on Tuesday, 3/03. 

Part II: 

Once you've tweeted, I want you to do some reflecting. In the space provided in the Discussion, reflect on the process of writing the summary: what was the most challenging? What made it so? What aspects, if any, were easier? Why? How do you see this skill as useful for you as both a creative and academic writer? And so forth. These reflections should be in the 200 to 400-word range, and I don't want these to be "mailed in." This assignment is worth 200 points (100 points for each part). Reflections are due before 11:30pm EST on Tuesday, 3/03.

Remember that we do not have class on Tuesday, 3/03. Please take this time to "travel" (whatever that may mean) to your "place" (again, whatever that may mean) for WD#2.

Heehaw and Merry Christmas!