“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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.