Mini-cases

1. Mini-cases Stories to illustrate a point

2. What is a mini-case? • Short example to illustrate your point • 1-3 paras, in a box • 100-300 words • Self-contained • Can be understood by itself • Drawn from real world

3. Mini-cases

4. Mini-cases

5. Title Photo Text Caption 160 words

6. Twenty stone terraces and a little green book SeidHassan Ali and his wife, FatumaSeid Ali, farm a hillside in Derba village, Kaluworeda. Their land was waterlogged or heavily eroded. Seid’s elderly parents were unable to manage it, and had abandoned it to nature. Seid and Fatuma decided to take on the task of rehabilitating the land, and with his parents’ support, they applied for a landholding certificate. As soon as they received their green book, they started building stone terraces and soil bunds to stop the erosion. It was back-breaking work, but in just 3 years, they had built more than 20 terraces. Their maize and sorghum output rose from just 200–300 kg in 2004 to 1,000–1,200 kg in 2008. They plan to grow forage on the terrace bunds to feed their cattle and goats, dig wells so they can water their crops, and then improve their thatched house and perhaps buy some more animals.

7. Catchy title Twenty stone terraces and a little green book Who? Seid Hassan Ali and his wife, FatumaSeid Ali, farm a hillside in Derba village, Kaluworeda. Their land was waterlogged or heavily eroded. Seid’s elderly parents were unable to manage it, and had abandoned it to nature. Where? Problem: What’s the problem?

8. Twenty stone terraces and a little green book Seidand Fatuma decided to take on the task of rehabilitating the land, and with his parents’ support, they applied for a landholding certificate. As soon as they received their green book, they started building stone terraces and soil bunds to stop the erosion. Action: What did they do?

9. Twenty stone terraces and a little green book Data It was back-breaking work, but in just 3 years, they had built more than 20 terraces. Their maize and sorghum output rose from just 200–300 kg in 2004 to 1,000–1,200 kg in 2008. They plan to grow forage on the terrace bunds to feed their cattle and goats, dig wells so they can water their crops, and then improve their thatched house and perhaps buy some more animals. Results: What happened as a result? Future: What will happen next?

10. Photo: People doing something FatumaSeid Ali and her husband, Seid Hassan Ali, have constructed 20 stone terraces since they received a primary certificate that guarantees their right to use their land. Caption: Explains photo

11. 5 Ws and H Name of person featured What happened? Location (village, district, state) Year, season Why did it happen? How did it happen? Who What Where When Why How

12. Twenty stone terraces and a little green book Who Where SeidHassan Ali and his wife, FatumaSeid Ali, farm a hillside in Derba village, Kaluworeda. Their land was waterlogged or heavily eroded. Seid’s elderly parents were unable to manage it, and had abandoned it to nature. Seid and Fatuma decided to take on the task of rehabilitating the land, and with his parents’ support, they applied for a landholding certificate. As soon as they received their green book, they started building stone terraces and soil bunds to stop the erosion. It was back-breaking work, but in just 3 years, they had built more than 20 terraces. Their maize and sorghum output rose from just 200–300 kg in 2004 to 1,000–1,200 kg in 2008. They plan to grow forage on the terrace bunds to feed their cattle and goats, dig wells so they can water their crops, and then improve their thatched house and perhaps buy some more animals. What How Why When

13. Your turn • Choose a mini-case • What is the story about? (an individual, a project, a village, an event…) • Identify the elements in the story • 5Ws and H • Problem, action, results • Data • Other elements • Be prepared to report back to the group

14. What you need for a mini-case • A point to make • A suitable story – a person or event that illustrates the point • Enough information to tell a coherent, honest story

15. Choosing a story • Decide what point you want to make • Think of people or events that illustrate that point • For each one, decide if you have enough information to tell a story • Names, places, dates, sequence of events, quotes, photos • Choose the story that • Best illustrates the point you want to make • For which you have enough information

16. Writing the story • Write three sentences (<20 words each) • Problem: What was the situation before, and why was it a problem? • Action: What did someone do to solve the problem? • Results: What happened as a result? What changes have occurred? • Then expand each of the sentences into a paragraph (<100 words each)

17. Make it interesting • Tell a story about real people, project or event • Use human interest • Eg, story of farmer – give her name and village • Show links to a project or a policy • How the project or policy affects or benefits people • How it supports the need for a change in the project or policy • Show why it is important • Think like a news editor – “So what?”

18. Make it interesting • Give it a catchy title • Use boldface and bullets if needed • Include an illustration or photo • If useful and if space • Give an informative caption • Cite the source if needed • “More information: Joe Bloggs, joe@bloggs.org”

19. Boxes in publications • Use boxes for • Mini-cases • Information that stands by itself • Information that is hard to fit into text without disrupting the flow • Good for lists

20. Boxes in publications • Important design element • Break up the sea of text on page • Refer to them in the text • “See Box 1” • But don’t have too many boxes • Average of 1 per page is enough • If too many boxes • Ask if all are needed • Try to integrate into text

21. Boxes in publications • Don’t use Word Text Boxes • They get deleted easily • Some desktop publishing programs ignore them • Put contents of each box in a single-cell Word table (one row, one column) • Or mark with “BEGIN BOX” and “END BOX”