Sarah Rosecky

Linn: “The Early Years” Revisited by Sarah and Julia

December 9, 2016 by Sarah Rosecky

For our final project, we, Julia and Sarah, worked on previously transcribed diary entries from James Merrill Linn’s 1850 diary. Using Oxygen XML editor, we were able to mark-up the diary entries with TEI. Sarah marked up the first half of the diary, while Julia marked up the second half of the diary. This was an interesting choice because in this class and HUMN 100 we focused on Linn’s diaries and letters from his time in the Civil War. There was so much to mark up in just the diaries we chose, but we decided to focus on the people. We chose to do this because in his letters and diaries about the Civil War, he did not write about many people very often.

Our work is an interesting addition to the Linn project that the whole class is working on. The majority of the project is on his time fighting in the Civil War, but we wanted to add a different aspect to it. People who look at our website need to realize that this man is not just a Civil War veteran! He grew up in Lewisburg, and graduated from Bucknell. He had a life before he fought in the Civil War. Some people may think that his life during the war was much more interesting, but his life before was intriguing as well.

We extensively marked up his diary of 1850, while also becoming more and more interested as we dug deeper into the analysis. We noticed a couple disturbing stories that Linn wrote about, including a murder of a baby. Also, Linn documented much of his social life, which was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the social life of people our age during the 1850’s. One of the recurrent themes that Linn wrote about that was similar to his Civil War diary is his meticulous attention to the weather and its documentation in the diary. Linn never fails to write about the weather happening wherever he is. Another aspect that we became more aware of was Linn’s preoccupation with other religions. We are not exactly sure what religion, if any, that Linn identifies with; however, Linn writes about his experiences at many different religious affiliations, including Methodist and Presbyterian meetings.

Of course, subsequent “7” became easier to identify. Another aspect of the project that posed some difficulty to us was that the original transcribers failed to produce dates for the entries. After some digging up into the original documents, we were able to identify the dates for the diary entries. Shown in the image, we were originally using transcribed material that was lacking in dates and line breaks.

Space indicates where diary entry/ date started

We seemed to work really well on this project. We are both familiar with James Merrill Linn through our first DH class and each of our independent study projects. We tended to agree on the types of semantic markup that we wanted to do, and our interest level in Linn is very similar. We think that our joint markup of Linn’s 1850 diary was a success.

TEI with JML <3

November 18, 2016 by Sarah Rosecky

Every time I work on TEI, I find something new to challenge me. I worked with TEI, and, specifically, James Merrill Linn two years ago during my first year at Bucknell. As a beginner in all aspects of the digital world, I was scared by the concept of TEI. What is it? What does it do? Honestly, until now I have realized the importance of transcription and text analysis. Over two hundred years ago, there was a man from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania writing from a ship in the Atlantic back to his hometown. James Merrill Linn fought for this country, so I feel a great need respect and honor him and his work through my dedication to this project. In order to do a successful job on an assignment like this, one needs to learn correct transcription skills and semantic markup.

screen-shot-2016-11-17-at-7-14-24-pm — Smudgy handwriting

There are multiple reasons that make Linn’s letters hard to read. The first is that these letters were written in the 1860s; the language and style of writing is not so prevalent today. The second is that after over 150 years, the ink and quality of the papers starts to deteriorate. While the Bucknell archives do a great job conserving these artifacts, it naturally happens. On my particular letter, on March 5, from Linn to his father, or Papa as he calls him, there was a large section that had smudged. It was on the bottom right corner of the letter, and it was illegible to read some of the handwriting. Another thing to note is that Linn tends to use patterns in his writing, i.e., the ampersand, but I could not justify what these words were.

Something else that was very useful to us was the use of the Bucknell archives. I was able to see much more clearly his handwriting when it was in front of my own eyes rather than a computer screen. I actually loved using the magnifying glass to see his handwriting. It is amazing how Linn actually had written and touched those letters during the civil war!

After the original transcription, we marked up the text using TEI. This gives the letter some semantic meaning. People, places, events, etc. are categorized according to the critical judgments of the specific TEI editor. For example, is a ship a placeName or a objectType? I will always argue that it is a place Name, because Linn writes from it. The letters will be cited from the Cossack, which is a ship that Linn occupied during the war. He resided in this ship; therefore, I think it is a p

screen-shot-2016-11-17-at-7-14-41-pm — Linn writing from Cossack

lace. Others may not feel the same way, and they may want to mark this as a objectType; this is why TEI can create some lively discussions. It is somewhat subjective. Also, when Linn writes to his family, he tends to write differently than if he is writing for himself or the Lewisburg chronicle. If he is writing to his father, he will talk about his well-being, while, if he is writing to his brother, he will talk about sending home guns. If Linn is writing for himself or the Lewisburg chronicle, he seems to write more formally about events; he knows there may be a bigger audience, which may be why his writings become more objective.

Once the TEI markup was completed, we transformed it into an HTML format to be able to publish it digitally. This is a part where I struggled, because I am not as familiar with HTML as I would have liked. It was confusing to me how this worked and why it had to be done the way it was. Ultimately, I am satisfied with the end results of Module 3, because I know, or hope, James Merrill Linn would be proud.

TEI fun

November 1, 2016 by Sarah Rosecky

screen-shot-2016-11-01-at-5-33-24-pm — “Declaration of Independence” Caesar Rodney TEI markup

I believe that this kind of engagement with text helps us better understand the subject matter. Relationships between characters, places, and objects are better understood.

The work with Edgar Allen Poe and the Declaration of Independence assignments were vastly different from each other. Edgar Allen Poe wrote the “Tell Tale Heart,” and, instead of factual information, was creative writing. Therefore, using this to the best of my knowledge, I needed to know mainly, persNames vs. roleNames and objectTypes vs. placeNames. This is a challenge I had before when writing about James Merrill Linn. I had decided to make “old man” a roleName, even though, originally I had him as a persName. He was one of the main characters besides for the narrator, but because they never referred to him as his surname or forename, he “old man” played just a role in the story. Also, at the beginning of the poem, this man was referred to as “old man” and as the poem progressed, he was referred to as the “victim,” which inherently I also made a roleName. Because this character took on so many different states in the poem, he was a very transient character, so he experienced many shifts in roles.

screen-shot-2016-11-01-at-5-33-53-pm — “Tell Tale Heart” EAP TEI markup

Another difficult part of marking up the “Tell Tale Heart” was distinguishing some objectTypes vs. placeNames. I ended up calling “floor,” a placeName rather than an objectType; the murder occurred in a bedroom and the victim was on the floor. The location of the victim was the floor, and I consider a location a place. People may disagree with this aspect of my mark-up style, but it is just a personal stylistic choice that I have made.

Working on the Declaration of Independence piece, I found it more tedious but more straightforward. We were given instructions one what was to be included and did not have much freedom in the style of our markup. I completely understand why this was the way it was. Because we were working on a collaborative document, there needs to be a sense of uniformity. On the “Tell Tale Heart,” I was working alone, so the stylistic choices I had made did not affect other members of my group. As Pierazzo writes, “two scholars, given the same transcriptional criteria, are most likely not to produce the same transcription of the same exemplar” (465). For the second assignment, our works had to be cohesive. Also, especially because it is a historical document, it is important to only state factual evidence and facts. We were not working on a creative piece but rather a straightforward historical document.

Text markup during the “Tell Tale Heart” was much more about objective information and organizing the text into categories. During this markup, we had to be careful to make sure that it was just a “revision” of the original text and work. The “Declaration of Independence” text markup was more about providing information in a manner that was independent from other information in the work. When doing the “Declaration of Independence” project, we were essentially creating new work based off the old work, because we were adding new information. As Rasmussen states, “still, the boundaries are fluid here; only concrete individual assessments can determine whether it is appropriate to speak of a new work” (122). So, was are “Declaration of Independence” project a new work? Or was it just a new “edition”?

Best Game EVER seriously, guys!

September 20, 2016 by Sarah Rosecky

My group’s project is a murder-mystery game. So far there are 3 characters that are interactive: the narrator, the player, and the detective. Of course, the murder victim is also a “character,” but he will not be a major part of the game. He was murdered, so he does not need to be an interactive character. The objective of our game is to figure out who murdered the victim. The player is trying to find out the real story, along with getting questioned by the detectives himself. The conflicts that we are building into our game is that the player is actually the one who committed the murder, but the player does not know it. The whole time they think they are innocent or also trying to find out who the murderer was, but it was the player the whole entire time. The player’s storyline begins with waking up and not knowing how he got there. Also the narrative adds specific clues and ideas that serve as alibis for the player. However, if the player decides to let the detective him, he fails, and it is “gameover”.

Rettberg analyzes the relationship between readers and authors in actual printed material. Readers know their favorite authors, but not their favorite editors (Rettberg). With digital editions and the World Wide Web, we can serve in all aspects of the project. We are the authors but also the editors and other important roles that go into publishing a work of art. Rettberg writes that “any time of collective narrative mst be understood not only in terms of a resulting “work,” but also as a performance (Rettberg 197). This project is not only about the final result; it is about the experience off creating the work of art,

There are many benefits and drawbacks of working collaboratively in completing this assignment. Some advantages are that the workload can be evenly distributed. Also, when working with others, there is a type of courtesy to your peers that allows yo to get work done in a timely manner and with good quality. Because others rely on your work for their own grades, it is very important that work is completed on time and with good effort. Another benefit of working with others is that it is very easy to ask or help. If an particular aspect of the assignment is challenging for you, your teammates are there to assist you. An advantage that may be the most beneficial is the creativity that can be conjured up by three people rather than just one. It allows the project more room to be creative and more successful.

A disadvantage to working with others on a project is that sometimes it is not on your own time. Sometimes, for example, I may get a creative revelation and want to change the project, but I cannot just go ahead and make changes. It is not only my project, and I must consult my peers. Also, the other team members may not agree with my opinions about the direction that I see the project going. As a finished project, I helped collaborate with my team to make the best quality that I could, but it is not “mine” and cannot speak about all of the creative decisions.

Each team member is contributing creative and artistic talents, time dedicated to Python, and opinions about the story line. Each member has a few chunks of the story that we all will put together. Also, the work with Python is going to be as a group and will be exclusively collaborative.

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