Tests, Examples

[Fred Van Ackeren]

Hi,
I'm formatting a math test and have some questions. The yellow boxes on the attached page are my notes to the transcriber.

1. The agency requests the Name, Date, etc. appear at the top of each page, if in print. Here is my interpretation of the top:

Name ____ , etc. (1/1)
(blank line)
Centered head Study Guide and...
(blank line)
Reference # (7/7)
(blank line)
Centered head Powers and...

2. The first centered head is often a repeated heading, are these to be left on test pages?

There are many instances of Example on the test. Some appear with directive text, some with narrative text. I've chosen to make Example a cell-5 heading, (w/o emphasis).

3. In Example 2 the only thing following directions is a displayed linked expression. How is this to be formatted? If I put it starting in cell 3, it may appear in some cases (if the text is long enough) as part of the run-over of directions in cell 3. 5/7 would aid in differentiation, but, to have these three items following each other away from the margin of cell 1, may leave the reader wondering, since there is no reference point (cell 1). This may be especially true if there are several such items, as there are on other pages. However, I am unaware of the blind readers' perspective and may be totally wrong.

Your help is always appreciated,
Thank you,
Fred
edited by fjvan on 10/8/2012
edited by fjvan on 10/8/2012

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[Lindy Walton]

Hi. Your interpretation of the headings at the top of the page looks fine to me. *Be sure to include the lesson number with the first centered heading--in this case, "1-2 Study Guide and Intervention" Also, cross references and incidental notes are now placed in 7-5, not blocked in 7-7. (See BF2011 9.6) This is just an fyi since your notes are so short they will not have runovers.

Your question about repeated headings: Braille Formats makes no additional heading rules for tests. Do not braille the repeated headings.

Now, about the layout of the Examples. Making "Example #" a cell-5 heading is fine. But after reading your next question, I think another approach may work better.

The "Example" text is really a problem phrased in the same wording as the directions in the exercises which follow. For example, the first exercise instructions say "Write each power as a product of the same factor." and then four numbered powers follow. Example 1 replaces "each power" with an actual problem: "Write 6^3 as a product of the same factor."

I am going suggest that you refer to Braille Formats 2011 for guidance with Exercise Material (Section 10) where we are told to format examples in the same way the following problems are formatted. (BF2011 10.8.4) I would treat "Example 1" as an item with no subitems: 1-3. The displayed example problem then would fall in 5-7. This makes the special linked expression in Example 2 look just fine, in the display cells of 5-9, 7-9 (no runovers in this case).

In the case of Examples 1 and 3, the explanatory text would be a displayed paragraph (9-7) and the mathematical expression which follows will be in the display cell 5-7.

Do not leave a blank line between examples since they are each simply itemized text. You will find that this layout saves space and falls nicely under the fingers.

One detail I am wondering about is how to handle the labels (Example 1, Example 2, etc.) since BF 10.8.1 tells us to retain emphasis for labels identifying examples when the label is not followed by punctuation. BANA is preparing guidelines for applying BF2011 to a Nemeth transcription so we are on our own right now. I agree with you that retaining emphasis would be cumbersome here since you would need to use the Nemeth type-form indicators. A solution might be to use double caps for the word EXAMPLE much as we do for labeled statements. That sets the label apart from the text better than following print capitalization here. I would call this creative application of a rule in an unusual circumstance.

I would love to hear if this works for other Examples in this test.

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