Phase 1:
  • Break into groups of 2-3. Navigate to https://sarahjpurcell.sites.grinnell.edu/digital_methods/files/ in a web browser. Today, you can experiment with text analysis, topic modeling, mapping, or network analysis.
  • Download the Equiano_Text.txt and Equiano_Tagged.txt files and copy or save to your Desktop.
  • OPEN a Word Document in which to write your experimental results note. Each INDIVIDUAL will need to submit one of these by 5:00 pm today.
Phase 2:
  • Take 10 minutes to explore the tagged file generated by the Stanford NER. You’ll see that the NER has added <LOCATION>, <PERSON>, or <ORGANIZATION> tags around the entities it recognized based on the terms in the classification file.
  • How accurate the NER was in identifying and tagging elements in the text?
    • What errors or problems do you notice?
    • How would those errors impact analysis of this text?
  • What other questions or topics about this text could be addressed via text analysis?
  • What questions might be beyond the scope of textual analysis?
  • Write down anything interesting about the data or any questions you have in your experimental results note document.
Phase 3:
  • Work collaboratively to explore what types of research questions could you ask of this text using textual analysis, or what stories could you tell with this text using textual analysis.
  • Decide what aspects of the text you will need to focus on to address your research question or topic focus.
  • Write your research question/s in your experimental results note document.
Phase 4:
  • What changes or restructuring needs to happen to the text to be able to analyze and/or visualize it in response to your group’s focus?
  • What might be a way to make those changes?
  • Work as a group to prepare the text for your method of analysis.
  • Note how you changed or restructured the text in order to use it for your research question in your experimental results note document.
Phase 5:
  • How do you need to analyze this text to respond to your research question or topic focus?
  • What aspects or dimensions of the text are significant?
  • What tools that we have explored could you use to analyze those aspects of the text?
  • Work as a group to analyze the text.
  • Write in your experimental results document anything that you found interesting in the analysis.  What worked and didn’t work? Did the analysis answer your research question?
Phase 6:
  • How do you want or need to visualize this text to respond to your research question or focus?
  • What types of visualizations might be significant?
  • What tools could you use to visualize these aspects of the text and your analysis?
  • Work as a group to develop visualizations, or use a visual medium to communicate the results of your textual analysis.
  • Write in your experimental results document why you chose your specific visualization tool.
Phase 7:
  • Share your small group’s work with the larger group.
  • Present your analysis and visualizations, but also reflect on your process of developing a research focus and engaging with the text.
  • Insert your analysis and at least one visualization (insert the visual or a link to the website where your visual is saved) into your experimental results document. What did you learn by visualizing this text? Write down some reflections. You may take time to edit the whole document after class, but be sure to turn it in to the class folder in ONEDRIVE by 5:00 today.