{"id":118,"date":"2014-08-27T16:10:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T16:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/seminar-digitalhumanities\/?page_id=118"},"modified":"2014-09-08T15:14:01","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T15:14:01","slug":"word-clouds-due-9-15","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/seminar-digitalhumanities\/presentations\/word-clouds-due-9-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Clouds (Due 9-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assignment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generate a word cloud that illustrates something teachable about The Education of Henry Adams\u00a0<\/em>(1918). \u00a0Capture a screenshot of the visualization and then include it in a short blog post which\u00a0explains how you created the image and why you think it represents a “teachable” resource (i.e. something that might help others learn about or from this notable book).<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Test out and present an ngram visualization from Google Books or the New York Times<\/em>\u00a0(see details below)<\/p>\n

Step-by-Step Recommendations<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Brainstorm up some ideas for what might offer a good analysis. \u00a0For example, something simple –like making a word cloud from a single chapter– might be revealing and also quite easy. \u00a0Or in a slightly more ambitious way, you might pull together three or four related passages (such as Adams on his “failures” or on key members of his family or some other related “topic”) and then see if visualizing word frequency offers some basis for insight. \u00a0Be prepared to spend some time on this stage –it might take some trial-and-error to come up with a good idea. \u00a0And note that NGRAMS are different than word clouds and will be more challenging to organize but still worth testing out if time allows. \u00a0See below (Background) for more details.<\/li>\n
  2. For easy “cut-and-pastable” online text of the\u00a0Education,\u00a0<\/em>go to the links for Project Gutenberg at the tab on this website for the multi-media edition.<\/li>\n
  3. Take care to create and refine a visualization that has a compelling design. \u00a0You might have to tinker with details such as font, color, layout, and word count to get it “just right.” \u00a0 You can also remove certain unimportant or repetitive words if they clutter the cloud.<\/li>\n
  4. Don’t forget to use screen shots to capture the image. \u00a0Then crop the image to improve the presentation. And make sure to save them in a file format (like jpg or png) that can be uploaded as an image into your blog post (use the “Add Media” button). \u00a0If you don’t know how to make screen shots using your computer, then just Google it.<\/li>\n
  5. Keep the blog post very short (probably 200 words or less), but make sure to explain which part or parts of the book you used to generate the word cloud. \u00a0Also, don’t forget to provide just a few basic details necessary for understanding what it is –such as indicating the exact number of words in the cloud itself (top 150, top 100, top 25, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Background –Word Clouds<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Word clouds are graphic representations of word frequency. \u00a0They represent a quick form of text visualization that can help illustrate important word choices, text patterns, and even sometimes larger themes within a textual source. \u00a0There are many different online tools that can help you freely generate word clouds. \u00a0Here are two of the most popular:<\/p>\n