The aim of the summary is to unravel the big jumble that is a Twitter chat and provide a short summary of the main points not only for people who missed the chat, but also so people who were in the chat can see what they missed. In essence, this is what you do:

1. Create (and save) a transcript, i.e.: gather up all the tweets that took place in the chat.
2. Sift through and write a summary of the main points.
3. Send it off to be put on the #AusELT blog.

Of course, it’s never quite that simple. Before you start, have a look at some previous examples (there are plenty on this blog) so you can see what summaries are like. And see Tips below for some extra help!

Tips

• An easy way to create the transcript is to use Storify. This is what you do:

–       Set up a Storify account.

–       Click on ‘Create Story’ (top right)

–       Select the Twitter icon in the media panel on the right.

–       Use the search bar to search for #AusELT (uncheck the ‘Retweets’ box to keep the number of relevant tweets to a minimum).

–       Keep clicking “Show more results” until you have captured all the tweets from the chat, than click “add them all” to bring them over to your text pane on the left. This is now a chronological transcript of recent tweets. It is in order of most recent first, but you can reverse this using the “sort elements by time ascending” arrow button above the text pane.

–       Click on ‘Publish’ in the top menu bar to save *and share* your transcript.

• Storify can also be used to write which allows for easy embedding of various media (see here for an example). This goes on the blog in the form of a link to your Storify page. However, many people prefer to just write a straightforward summary in Word – later this can be cut and pasted directly into the blog.

• You don’t have to use millions of direct Tweet quotes – you can just paraphrase and support with a few of the clearest examples.

• Don’t feel you have to use every Tweet or follow every conversational thread – stick to the main ideas.

• Using headings often makes it easier to separate out the main talking points.

• Try to have at least one picture in your summary (because it looks nice when people link to it!) Be careful with copyright though. Good sources are: ELTpics and Microsoft Images. NB: WordPress (this blog site) doesn’t like all image formats: JPG, GIF or PNG is probably best.

• Include any useful reading or links that were mentioned either as you go, or in a final section of your summary, so readers have some direction for continuing to explore the issue.

If you have any other advice/suggestions let us know!

@sophiakhan4