15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Dan Ariely Recitation 9: Writing and Presenting Remember Pavlov’s dog, who learned to salivate to a bell by associating the bell with food? Conditioning – some properties of one thing stick to the other Today, we pair writing skills with free food Hopefully over time this will make you feel writing is a better thing to do. This will be an interactive class, exercises Guest Speaker: Mary Caulfield Luann comic, very helpful background Writing and presenting Exercises so you understand what we are getting at when we write mean stuff on papers. The important part in writing and presenting is visualizing your audience Not just filling pages Resist the temptation to copy a formula without understanding it You are not majors in managerial psychology It is tempting to look at a text and copy the way they write But you have to understand or you will get in trouble Controlled prose – understanding what words mean, not what you think they mean or what they sound like. The final thing - the link between writing and presenting Comic: teacher reacting - Silence for two frames, a very long silence Be able to talk about your subject in front of an audience Be confident in the words you use, shared vocabulary $10 phrases get you in trouble There is a point where you’ve got to commit Here’s what I did and saw in the experiment Cut through hopes, assert something Tell us what it meant, what you got out of it Challenging time Look at final draft as if writing 1st time Like new piece of writingNot because you are bad writers, but it is a common part of the process You thought it was great, get it back, are devastated Get back to work, you often throw out what’s written, rethink, Treat as people do in the workplace Visualize TA, professor, others as audience, as if we pay you to do this Do not use every paragraph from the 1st draft Still gathering data, exploring thoughts and not know what data meant yet decide what’s important Data can say more than before, see all data together Establish relationships, transition between ideas questions you want to ask Emphasis changed Significant still significant? Thesis more focused? Looking at smaller population? Smaller questions? Central argument based on questions you were asking, answers from data. Headings, subheadings Make sense? Now is the time to revise Activity: Dividing you into 3 groups How many brought writing? Form groups, 2 people with writing - partners. Others, join writing pair Instructions: People with writing, read each other’s writing Before you start, here is structure (slide) Read Summarize what said in couple paragraphs Name a couple things the writer has done well This is same with performance reviews in the business world 15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Recitation 9 Prof. Dan Ariely Page 2 of 6Important terms, ideas – stuff writer said more than once Don’t edit, just point out where you had to re-read Make suggestions Be observers, give feedback. 3 min for reading, stop, then start discussion, for 5 min TAs keep conversation going, on task Start reading now. … Another minute, but start to think about how you will summarize what you read Ok, in pairs or groups, verbalize to partner summary of what read Finish up and switch to other partner Move on to 2nd bullet point, what writer has done well - do that fairly quickly Terms and ideas, don’t have to go one by one, jump in, also can say where to read twice. Middle, qualitative bullets Now each come up with 3 suggestions for improvement Concrete, very explicit, what suggesting and how they should do it. 2 minutes Half a minute left I will ask you if willing to share 1 or two suggestions -more time? Finish up after class, need to make more points Open up discussion -footnotes less obtrusive, endnotes or something Was this helpful feedback? -yes felt repetitive even if you say new things, words repetitive Other thing to bear in mind Person reading may not be right Do not correct grammar, pass wisdom This process - see work through eyes of reader See what peers struggle with, have questions about, helpful even if don’t take suggestions verbatim Process - get you to write, see again abstract written last read and should make sense separate from rest of paper write the rest as if abstract did not exist not refer in abstract to anything written in rest of paper decide if paper has relevant data 15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Recitation 9 Prof. Dan Ariely Page 3 of 61abstract available separate from paper generally 75-150 words there are descriptive and informative abstracts some are both “this paper contains,” or freestanding st sentence, explicitly state what problem was and what happened Plainly, simply as possible Reader: do I want to read this? Abstract very difficult to write Introduction, conclusion should make some sense on own Bear in mind, people read sections out of order Conclusion first, etc Should make sense on its own Tone helpful, not condescending Doing something based on data, fairly complex Same exercise on key sections and paragraphs Into final draft, identify most important paragraphs Intro, conclusion most important Define terms that seem obvious to you forbidden to use the word “simply” Readers don’t know definitions, why you chose them Entitled to courteous explanation every paragraph says something, carry paper forward leave in only those that add information, say something In service of presenting data, contribute to argument Read grammar handout about who’s kicking whom What does abstract concept do? Issue of repetition tricky Use, add meaning Examples - Read out loud Manner of reading correspond to manner of writing Readily find actor in the 1st sentence? Took a minute to find. Read 2 sentences out loud Sentence becomes shorter, easier to follow if converted to verbs. Know who’s kicking who Take 5-10 min for pizza, talk about final things while eating. 15.301/310, Managerial Psychology Recitation 9 Prof. Dan Ariely Page 4 of 6Combine cranky slide with pizza Can’t emphasize just how important re-reading of paper will be Need to be comfortable reading paper several times Hard to find typos in own work, but can find some I am frantic when I see errors I know spell check would catch Those are the things you really need to correct Peer review, look for obvious typos Common mistake Its is possessive pronoun, no apostrophe It’s = it