Single Word Sum-Ups

This gets everyone participating in discussion without making extended comments. It also tests for understanding and demonstrates the possibility of multiple interpretations.

Purposes

• To express an idea or make a point concisely
• To give everyone a chance to speak briefly
• To identify patterns and themes of summary words and dig deeper into these
• To use selected summary words to start subsequent conversation

How It Works

• A presentation, video, or discussion on a concept, theory, idea, or technique takes place for ten to fifteen minutes.
• Each member then writes down on a notecard the single word he or she thinks best sums up the content explored so far.
• The large group forms a circle and each person, in turn and without interruption, reads his or her word.
• A recorder writes these words on a newsprint wall or board. The facilitator can also record these electronically to create a word cloud.
• Once all the words are spoken and written down, everyone in the group comes to the newsprint or board. They are given a marker to underline, emphasize, connect, or otherwise indicate (including with written comments) discernible patterns, themes, linkages, and opposing viewpoints.
• Members then return to their seats and continue a whole-group discussion of the content using the data from the newsprint as a springboard for their comments.

Where and When It Works Well

1. When group process has become sluggish and routine. At the simplest level, the one-word sum-ups are always a nice change of pace.
2. When uneven patterns of participation are developing. This is a quick and nonthreatening way to hear from an entire group.
3. To stimulate new thinking about complex ideas. Providing single words and exploring relationships among these opens up new channels of communication.
4. When participants don't know each other. This eases people into conversation when they're unsure of what to expect from each other.

What Users Appreciate

1. Its brevity. The whole exercise, including the debriefing, can be done in fifteen to twenty minutes.
2. Its novelty. This shakes things up for people, so it's a good way to introduce energy into a flagging format.
3. Its safety for introverts and ESL speakers. Giving a single word is something that nearly everyone can do, and making newsprint connections requires no speech.
4. Its visual element. Similar to Chalk Talk (technique 2) and Newsprint Dialogue (technique 4), the graphic nature of this activity is a boon to visually oriented learners.

What to Watch Out For

1. The constraint of a single word. Sometimes it's frustrating to search for a single word that captures an idea, yet allowing more than one word prolongs the exercise, so despite the limits it imposes, one word works best.
2. Problems of interpretation. Sometimes it's hard to see the thinking behind a word choice. Putting the summary words on a board enables people to have the chance to connect different words, underscore concepts that appear repeatedly, or use inequality symbols and lightning bolts to suggest conflicts.
3. Straying from the words. In the culminating whole-group discussion it's easy for people to neglect their exact words, so facilitators will need to keep people focusing on these.
4. The misplaced quest for profundity. Sometimes people think that because they are confined to only one word, it should be weighty, allegorical, or allusive. Although we encourage creativity, we don't want people to be pressured to come up with an astoundingly profound word.

Questions That Fit This Protocol

• “What single word best sums up for you what you have just heard and seen?”
• “How are the single words that people came up with related to each other, similar to each other, or even, in some cases, opposed to each other?”
• “What recurring themes or patterns do you discern between and across the words?”