Data Visualization Activity #1: Wordles
Visualizing word frequency in each thesis draft netted the following results:
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- Kerishma’s thesis (topic: George R. R. Martin)
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- Laura’s thesis (topic: Hitchcock and Poe)
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- Colby’s thesis (topic: David Foster Wallace)
As a second step, we used Wordle to generate data about word frequency in source texts related to each project:
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- Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon College
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- A chapter from A Game of Thrones
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- Poe’s “Berenice”
15 Comments
Laura Ayala
February 18, 2014These wordles are so interesting. Granted, I haven’t read any of the primacy sources the other two thesis projects are based on, but now I feel that I have a better sense of what my classmates are writing about.
My understanding of Games of Thrones is all action and intrigue, which is mostly what came across in the Wordle taken from a chapter of the series. Yet, Kerishma’s own thesis highlights what was barely apparent in the original source material: family and familial relationships. Comparing the two, Kerishma focused on a theme that pops up maybe once or twice in the GoT wordle.
Colby’s Wordles brought to mind a different kind of relationship. While is Wordle is nearly taken up by a larger than life name “Wallace”, the text she chose is littered with ideas and notions that concerned said persona. There’s no clear direction taken from the most used words in his speech (“fish”, “think”, “totally”…), which can say something else about the writer’s mindset.
L. M. Freer
February 18, 2014Yes, all that action (bloody or not) takes place in what I sort of think of as George R. R. Martin’s Dallas, the kind of large-scale family drama in which all sorts of hijinks take place. I have a working theory about why family dynasties remain so interesting–because you either have a family as fucked up as the ruling families of Westeros (making it sort of recognizable to you) or you don’t (making it novel and interesting).
Colby Minifie
February 18, 2014Yes! Laura- you got it. Exactly my point. This wordle doesn’t accurately reflect the message of his speech but these are all pretty pleasant words while my thesis Wordle shows things that plagued him throughout his life. Hmmm….
L. M. Freer
February 18, 2014Looking at the three thesis wordles, I see an interesting difference between Kerishma’s project and the other two–where both Colby and Laura’s projects have taken a strong interest in the authors themselves, Kerishma’s seems more rooted in the experiences of the characters. This also makes her thesis wordle seem a little more even, a little more balanced–even though it certainly reflects the “family dynasty” aspect of Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.
What I think is obscured in the thesis wordles is the ways in which you’re all three of you focused on the act of performance–in Kerishma’s draft I see a lot about the performance of gender in a political arena, and I don’t see that as much in her wordle. And the heavy emphasis on the author names in the other two doesn’t actually reveal how much of your work has been on the ways in which these authors perform–as writers and (especially) filmmakers, in Laura’s case, and certainly performativity is a big big part of how Colby is thinking about Wallace.
In fact, the way in which Wallace’s name comes up with such frequency is so big in comparison to everyone else that I actually think it shows one of the drafts weaker points (at least as I remember it)–the fact that Colby wasn’t totally clear quite yet on DFW the writer/the musician/the tennis player/the person. As you revise and let your own voice come out more, that should become clearer here too, I hope. Maybe “I” will be a bigger word if we did a Wordle after revisions?
Conversely, in Laura’s case, I’m struck by the balance achieved–Hitchcock and Poe dominate the landscape almost equally, and most of your key words are terms you have developed over the course of the paper
L. M. Freer
February 18, 2014Some of this comment may reflect my own lack of clarity about Colby’s argument! (Please feel free to blame me, you know, whenever it seems appropriate!)
kerishma
February 18, 2014Colby’s thesis: Well, it’s all right there, isn’t it? Judging purely from the world cloud, Colby’s writing the heck outta David Foster Wallace. Adding in my knowledge of Colby’s thesis, the word cloud isn’t far off; Colby’s thesis is very heavily focused on DFW as a person, so it makes sense that he features most prominently in the cloud.
Laura’s thesis: It seems that subject-wise–at least from the word cloud–Laura’s thesis right now is fairly balanced between the works of Hitchcock and Poe, and is dealing pretty equally with horror and humor (an interesting combination, for sure!). The other words that show up frequently also align with what Laura has been speaking about in class about her thesis, particularly the words relating to the body, violence, and psychology. I would say–from my knowledge of her project–this is fairly representative of her project so far!
Colby Minifie
February 18, 2014Laura’s Wordle tells me that she is focusing on Hitchcock and Poe and that she is talking about both of them equally, judging from the size of each author’s name. She is also specifically discussing the humor and horror within each artist, specifically focusing on “Psycho.” Judging from what I know about Laura’s thesis, this Wordle suggests that the words she uses repeatedly in her thesis reflect her topic. Judging from this Wordle, she doesn’t appear to stray off topic. I like how many times she apparently used the word “teeth” and I am intrigued with the repeated usage of the word “like”.
Kerishma’s Worlde tells me that she is focusing very much on the female characters in her books. The author’s name is apparently not discussed as much as the author’s female characters in her thesis, suggesting that she is doing a thorough character analysis. The rest of her words also feature medieval vocabulary that would appear in “The Song of Ice and Fire” Series. There is not much repetition that extends out of this vocabulary, which makes me wonder how Kerishma is analyzing this series and what she is saying about it.
These Wordles are so cool!
Laura Ayala
February 18, 2014It’s really interesting for me (and I’m sure we’re all getting a kick out of these) to note the small, insignificant words we scattered throughout our papers. “Like” is one of them. Also “still”. As if I’m making a statement and yet trying to excuse it. “Norman loved his mother unconditionally, but he still resorted to killing her and her lover.” I wonder if I do this a lot, and if so, does this demonstrate one of my weaknesses.
Or maybe I mentioned it a couple times and it means diddley squat.
L. M. Freer
February 18, 2014I love how different the three thesis/source text combination wordles turned out to be. Colby, DFW’s commencement speech reminds me of reading Whitman–long intense lines of poetry that, when you take a step back, are formed from the simplest parts of speech and the most straightforward vocabulary.
Kerishma, the way the word “Lord” and the names of male characters dominate your source text wordle demonstrates to me, at least, the need for your thesis to begin with! It’s awfully easy to read this kind of worldbuilding/epic type of fantasy writing as nothing but a sausage-fest; hopefully you will be able to shed light on some of the hidden complexities in Martin’s books.
Laura’s source text ends up emphasizing “chamber”, which is really interesting, given Poe’s emphasis on containment. Think about it–the heart contained beneath the floorboards, the room in which the Raven speaks–he’s really interested in small, closed spaces. I wonder how this compares to Hitchcock’s cinematography.
Laura Ayala
February 18, 2014I didn’t pick up on that word specifically, but I did realize that what Poe does textually Hitchcock does visually. They are both focused on creating a distinct setting that enhances rather than detracts from the actions that follow. It can also defy expectations, or play into them. Words like “chamber” within the context Poe uses it can be attributed to the Gothic literary genre and the affinity those authors had with dungeons and chambers and studies etc. Setting is a huge part of what makes these stories work. It’s something that I realize I should be dedicating some of my writing to or at least acknowledging so I can do something with it for my digital project.
Laura Ayala
February 18, 2014Filled with doubt about the direction my written thesis is going in, my Wordle was unexpectedly reassuring. The juicy bits of my argument didn’t get lost, apparently, because “horror”, “humor”, “obsession”, “murder”, etc. are the key words that need to be scattered throughout my paper so that my argument won’t get lost in the rubble. Or, this could say that I’m overusing key terms to the point of overkill…I’ll take the former.
In comparison to my own text, Poe’s seems much more steeped in suspense and words that drive emotion. I’m all sex, blood, and rock ‘n roll (big attention grabbing words ready to serve as National Enquirer headlines) while Poe is concerned with establishing a distinctive atmosphere in which his nefarious narrators can roam.
Considering that mood and atmosphere play a large role in how humor and horror are detected and perceived by readers, I might have to take a lesson from Poe and do more to critically analyze scenes and not simply make big, bloody, grandoise statements.
L. M. Freer
February 18, 2014I’m actually quite glad you found this reassuring–sometimes data can serve that function for us, confirming that we are on the right path. Of course, if you use data visualization solely for that purpose, it’s tricky, but I’m glad we netted that unanticipated positive result!
kerishma
February 18, 2014I love looking at my Wordle pair and yours next to each other–yours go so perfectly together, and mine are so different that if it weren’t for the crazy fantasy names, you might be hard pressed to realize they were on the same source material! It’s interesting how that happens.
kerishma
February 18, 2014Just looking at the Wordles, my thesis seems to be almost completely the opposite of the source text I chose (a Catelyn Stark chapter of A Game of Thrones). It’s interesting to note that the chapter I chose centers on Catelyn, a woman I focus on in my paper, but features the names of men more than her own: “Lord,” “Hoster,” “Robb,” “Walder,” etc. Being a chapter that takes place during war, it also features corresponding words, such as “swords,” “dead,” and “walls”. The cloud from my thesis is totally different–it overwhelmingly features the names of women characters, and emphasizes their family relations to other characters. War is present in my cloud, but in a different way–in the ideas of knighthood and chivalry as opposed to the act of violence itself. I kind of love that my Wordle brings the women to the forefront, because obviously (looking at the source text) they’re not brought there enough!
Colby Minifie
February 18, 2014So my Wordle pretty accurately represents the subject of my thesis: David Foster WALLACE. But the smaller words around his name that are also repeated reflect the argument I’m making about DFW: self-consciousness, anxiety, success, and addiction are all large parts of his life and large parts of my thesis. The two sources I heavily rely on, Lipsky and Max, were the two interview-based and biographical sources that seemed to both know DFW best and have researched him the most. These two sources would have been aware of the performance aspect of Wallace’s media appearances.
The Wordle of Wallace’s commencement speech at Kenyon college shows everything I love about this speech and Wallace’s writing. Featuring words like think, life, freedom, day, experience, and default setting are all subjects in this speech that are inspiring and beautiful. But it also shows that Wallace was striving for a life that reflects his kind message in this speech while my thesis shows the life he was really living: an anxious one. This exercise proves my thesis in a way: DFW was performing for a large portion of his life.