Digital Humanities Assignment 2
This will not be a standard essay in which you interpret a literary text based purely on your reading. Rather, you will use computing technology to shift your perspective on the text in order to observe features you might not otherwise have noticed. Your goal will be to illuminate different aspects of the text, including improving our understanding of how it is read by modern readers. In the first option, you may choose to build on the data for the first Digital Humanities assignment. In the second option, you may construct your own data set and formulate your questions around that data.
Write a short essay on one of the options below.
Option 1:
- Go to the online tools page and download statistics file from the transcription exercise of the first 200 lines of Havelok the Dane (Octavian probably will not be available in time, but check this page again for updates). Formulate a question which you hope to answer using the data. You may use any of the following prompts or make up your own:
What can we learn from the data about the experience of reading Middle English for readers today? What aspects of the language cause the most difficulty?
To what extent are readers today affected by the lack of a standardised spelling system in Middle English?
Does modifying the gloss based on edit distances between Middle English and Modern English increase reading comprehension for modern readers?
- Describe the question you hope to answer and the research method you will use to investigate it using the tools available online (or manipulating the data in Microsoft Excel).
- Formulate and describe a preliminary answer to your question based on the results of your research method.
- Discuss any flaws in the data or the methodology, and, if you can, suggest possible ways in which the methodology could be improved if you had more time.
Option 2:
- The frequency with which words and/or phrases occur in a text or between texts can reveal information about their meaning, method of composition, or transmission. Choose a word or phrase which you think might provide useful insight into any of these topics if placed under the close scrutiny which can be enabled by the use of computing technology. Devise a method for investigating the usage of the word or phrase you choose using the tools available online (or other tools such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel). You may choose to study a single text or multiple texts.
In choosing your topic, don't forget that the notes in the back of the texts provide variant readings in the different manuscript copies of some texts. The the tools available online also contains a complete edition of the copy of Sir Isumbras in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61, which you can use as an alternative to the Gonville and Caius manuscript we read. Do not feel obliged to use these materials, but they are available if they interest you.
- Describe the question you hope to answer and the research method you will use to investigate it.
- Formulate and describe a preliminary answer to your question based on the results of your research method.
- Discuss any flaws in the data or the methodology, and, if you can, suggest possible ways in which the methodology could be improved if you had more time.
Note: Be aware that you have very limited time to do this assignment, so keep your topic small and narrowly focused. Your conclusions are to be taken as preliminary, and both options allow you speculate about what you would do if you had more time.
Format
Your essay should be in normal essay format, typed, edited and proofread, as you would any other essay. The length should be around 4-5 pages of discussion (not counting any data you may present), but it may be longer, if you wish.
Grading
This assignment is true research--formulating a question, devising a methodology to answer it, and coming to a conclusion--rather than looking up information in a library, or worse on the internet (Dante would have reserved a circle in Hell for this, had he but known). As a result, your curiosity and creativity, as well as your analytical ability and attention to detail, will get you the grade. Here are some criteria I will be considering:
- How well are your questions formulated?
- How clearly do you describe your methodology, and how appropriate is it for finding answers to the question(s) you pose?
- How well do you use the tools available to obtain meaningful evidence for answering your question(s)?
- How aware are you of potential flaws in your methodology (or the data)?
- How informed are your questions and answers by a knowledge of the text and its historical/cultural context? (Depending on what you are working on, you may cite background research for this if you feel it is appropriate.)
Due Date
Your essay should be placed under my door (Sierra Tower 803) by 5:00 pm on Monday, May 11 2010. I will be leaving town for a conference on Tuesday morning but will accept assignments by e-mail until 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 12.