“Marking up Linn”

(Assignment Objectives for Reflection Posts can be found here.

Reflection post #3 due (Thursday, Nov. 17 by 11pm.)
Reflection comment #3 due (Friday, Nov. 18 by 11pm.)

This reflection post and comment sequence is expressly attached to the submission of your Module #3 assignment. It should therefore speak directly to that experience, and address this question: How has the experience of transcribing and encoding the letter (or letters) that you have done affected your understanding of James Merrill Linn’s experience in the Civil War? Use the following in your post:

1. Show how you were able to decode his handwriting through the act of transcription. Knowing that reading someone else’s handwriting can be incredibly frustrating, how did you deal with that frustration? Did you look for other handwriting samples in the text to compare individual letters or words? Did you ask your classmates for help? Incorporate a close-up screenshot from the manuscript page side-by-side with your encoded text in oXygen or Sublime Text.
2. Describe the experience of being in the Archives and being able to compare the material page with the digital facsimile. Which version did you find easier to “read”? What is the tradeoff between the material and the digital? If the Linn archives were not at Bucknell, how might you deal with a problem that arose from not having access to the paper copy? Illustrate your experience by including a side-by-side close-up screenshot of the picture you took in the Archives and the scanned copy you worked from.
3. Read the section of the Linn journal that is directly before and after the date for your letter. Can you find a pattern of expression, emotion, or experience that is the same or different (remember audience – when Linn writes for himself, does he reveal things that are different from when he writes to someone?)

Give TWO categories for your post: “Reflections” and “Reflection #3”. These categories are crucial to organizing how readers will find your work.

“Encoding Texts”

(Assignment Objectives for Reflection Posts can be found here.

Reflection post #2 due (Sunday, Oct. 30 by 11pm.)
Reflection comment #1 due (Monday, Oct. 31 by 11pm.)

As we’ve discussed in class, TEI encoding offers a kind of close reading at the same time that the encoder is negotiating the text. You’ve already experimented with diplomatic and semantic markup in different ways (Poe assignment), and with the connection between texts and paratexts (Declaration of Independence exercise). Based on those experiences and your reading of Pierazzo and Rasmussen, do you believe that this kind of engagement with text helps you to better understand the subject matter? This is a yes or no question – there is no wrong answer.  But while I respect your opinion, I expect you to support your answer with evidence and examples. Therefore, in your reflection post:

1. Situate your work in the Poe and Declaration of Independence assignments, giving a brief synopsis of how you worked with each text
2. Demonstrate your approach to text markup in each case – what tags were most helpful to you? Incorporate two screenshots or code snippets from the work you have done so far
3. Defend your answer by contextualizing at least two direct quotes from Pierazzo and/or Rasmussen.

Give TWO categories for your post: “Reflections” and “Reflection #2”. These categories are crucial to organizing how readers will find your work.

“Build Your Own Text Adventure”

(Assignment Objectives for Reflection Posts can be found here.

Reflection post #1 due (Sunday, Sept. 25 by 11pm.)
Reflection comment #1 due (Monday, Sept. 26 by 11pm.)

Many of us have experimented with writing short fiction (stories, poems, plays) for a class or for fun. Many of us have written computer code of some kind (programming, to engage in text encoding or analysis) for a class … and some of us for fun. But I expect that most of us have not found a way to combine the two, and that is what the “Build Your Own Text Adventure” assignment is meant to do – give us the chance to experiment with fiction, games, puzzles through code scripting.

In your reflection post, you will consider your progress with your team in developing your project. Include information about and consider these issues in your post:

1. Describe your project – the genre, the narrative arc as you envision it, the characters, the objective, the conflicts you are building into the story for the player to be confronted with in order to succeed (or fail).
2. Demonstrate how you are thinking about your work in light of the history and current state of interactive fiction and text-based games by incorporating one direct and one indirect quotation from one of the readings you are doing during this module.
3. Discuss the benefits and challenges of working collaboratively in your team of three to complete this assignment. Explain what each team member is contributing to the project.
4. Present your work in progress through screenshots or code snippets from your project, an image, video, or audio clip that shows your inspiration for your project.

Give TWO categories for your post: “Reflections” and “Reflection #1”. These categories are crucial to organizing how readers will find your work.