IF YOU DON’T KNOW, NOW YOU KNOW

How to Annotate Like a Journalist

Aviva Hope Rutkin MAS700 Final Project

IF YOU DON’T KNOW, NOW YOU KNOW

How to Annotate Like a Journalist

Aviva Hope Rutkin MAS700 Final Project

partnews.brownbag.me

22 y.o., Jewish, Long Island native, MIT grad student, awesome journalist

from Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Juicy’

Different technologies

RapGenius has already been used: * to annotate poetry and Shakespeare * to annotate The Great Gatsby * to annotate the Bible

* to annotate Apple’s terms of service * to annotate MLK’s “I Have a Dream” * to annotate one biological paper

“Everything is hip hop.”

WHY ANNOTATE?

And if you have managed to graduate from college without ever having written “Man vs. Nature” in a margin, perhaps now is the time to take one step forward. We have all seized the white perimeter as our own and reached for a pen if only to show we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;  we pressed a thought into the wayside, planted an impression along the verge.

-- Billy Collins, ‘Marginalia’

RapGenius has already been used: * to annotate poetry and Shakespeare * to annotate The Great Gatsby * to annotate the Bible

* to annotate Apple’s terms of service * to annotate MLK’s “I Have a Dream” * to annotate one biological paper

“Everything is hip hop.”

WHY ANNOTATE?

Smithsonian, ‘Document Deep Dive’

Gawker reader photo comments

Wired’s 20th anniversary rerelease

RapGenius has already been used: * to annotate poetry and Shakespeare * to annotate The Great Gatsby * to annotate the Bible

* to annotate Apple’s terms of service * to annotate MLK’s “I Have a Dream” * to annotate one biological paper

“Everything is hip hop.”

WHY ANNOTATE?

* improve the depth of your coverage

* dumping ground for trivia

* tell complex stories concisely

* currency of collaboration (like links)

* enable transparency

* increase communication

* enhance personal knowledge

* encourage use of primary texts

I annotated five kinds of texts using different annotation platforms,

then developed a list of rules to aid other would-be annotaters.

MY PROJECT

EX. 1: SCIENTIFIC PAPER

EX. 1: SCIENTIFIC PAPER

RapGenius

Corn Flour, Sugar, Peanut Butter (Peanuts, Dextrose, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil [Cottonseed and Rapeseed Oil]**, Salt), Oat Flour, Rice Flour, Coconut Oil, Salt, Caramel Color, Niacinamide*, Reduced Iron, Zinc Oxide, BHT (A Preservative), Thiamin Mononitrate*, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride*, Riboflavin*, Folic Acid*. * One of the B Vitamins. ** Adds a Dietarily Insignificant Amount of Trans Fat Contains Peanut Ingredients

as listed on capncrunch.com

EX. 2: GARAGE SCIENCE

EX. 2: GARAGE SCIENCE

a.nnotate

EX. 3: SCIENCE COVERAGE

EX. 3: SCIENCE COVERAGE

nb.mit.edu

EX. 4: COVERAGE CRITIQUE

Who you even have the possibility to be starts at conception. If you think genes don’t affect how people behave, consider this fact: if you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times as high as it would be if you lacked those genes. You’re three times as likely to commit robbery, five times as likely to commit aggravated assault, eight times as likely to be arrested for murder, and 13 times as likely to be arrested for a sexual offense. The overwhelming majority of prisoners carry these genes; 98.1 percent of death-row inmates do. These statistics alone indicate that we cannot presume that everyone is coming to the table equally equipped in terms of drives and behaviors. And this feeds into a larger lesson of biology: we are not the ones steering the boat of our behavior, at least not nearly as much as we believe. Who we are runs well below the surface of our conscious access, and the details reach back in time to before our birth, when the meeting of a sperm and an egg granted us certain attributes and not others. Who we can be starts with our molecular blueprints—a series of alien codes written in invisibly small strings of acids—well before we have anything to do with it. Each of us is, in part, a product of our inaccessible, microscopic history. By the way, as regards that dangerous set of genes, you’ve probably heard of them. They are summarized as the Y chromosome. If you’re a carrier, we call you a male.

EX. 4: COVERAGE CRITIQUE

Who you even have the possibility to be starts at conception. If you think genes don’t affect how people behave, consider this fact: if you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, the probability that you will commit a violent crime is four times as high as it would be if you lacked those genes. You’re three times as likely to commit robbery, five times as likely to commit aggravated assault, eight times as likely to be arrested for murder, and 13 times as likely to be arrested for a sexual offense. The overwhelming majority of prisoners carry these genes; 98.1 percent of death-row inmates do. These statistics alone indicate that we cannot presume that everyone is coming to the table equally equipped in terms of drives and behaviors. And this feeds into a larger lesson of biology: we are not the ones steering the boat of our behavior, at least not nearly as much as we believe. Who we are runs well below the surface of our conscious access, and the details reach back in time to before our birth, when the meeting of a sperm and an egg granted us certain attributes and not others. Who we can be starts with our molecular blueprints—a series of alien codes written in invisibly small strings of acids—well before we have anything to do with it. Each of us is, in part, a product of our inaccessible, microscopic history. By the way, as regards that dangerous set of genes, you’ve probably heard of them. They are summarized as the Y chromosome. If you’re a carrier, we call you a male.

EX. 5: NON-TEXT

EX. 5: NON-TEXT

szoter

1. Check yourself.

2. Anticipate questions.

3. Make connections.

4. Open up.

5. Bury prizes.

6. Always illustrate.

7. Invite conversation.

I want to use RapGenius to build science explainers. >> Est. platform, playful tone, readily collaborative

Possible explainers: Journal articles, nutrition labels, CDC report, experiment steps, bad science in pop songs

IN CONCLUSION

1. Check yourself. 2. Anticipate questions. 3. Make connections. 4. Open up. 5. Bury prizes. 6. Always illustrate. 7. Invite conversation.

I COMB AA?

The Ethan Z. Triangle

I want to use RapGenius to build science explainers. >> Est. platform, playful tone, readily collaborative

Possible explainers: Journal articles, nutrition labels, CDC report, experiment steps, bad science in pop songs

NEXT STEPS?

* compile more comprehensive list of platforms and their +/-s

* attempt “real” reporting projects using these rules

* curate gallery of more ex.s of annotation in media