Excerpt vs description field labels are confusing

[reidab]

I've received several reports of confusion between the excerpt and description fields on proposals. We should relabel these to better explain how they'll be used in OCW (and, optionally, at the conference itself).

Proposal:

• Rename excerpt to something like "blurb" or "one-sentance summary"
• Keep description named as-is, but add additional context about expected length and usage

[stacybird]

blurb still seems ambiguous. "one-sentence-summary" seems self-explanatory. Are there any max length issues?

[wolftune]

I think Blurb (like a one or two-sentence summary) is fine. It's descriptive of the purpose without being as prescriptive as "one-sentence summary" alone. Obviously we don't actually insist on a run-on sentence versus a couple brief sentences.

The max-length issue is mostly that hovering over an item in a multi-item view is kinda bad when the "Excerpt" is really long. The other issue is that a blurb is indeed what people want when hovering rather than an excerpt.

[BartMassey]

Proposal works for me. "One-sentence summary" is probably clearer than my proposed "blurb" to some people. "Abstract" might be a suitable substitute for "Description", but maybe "Description" is clearer.

Adding a link to a brief piece about how to write a good proposal somewhere there would cover a multitude of sins. I'd be willing to write the first draft of such a piece if folks think I'm qualified.