In addition to the self-organizing sessions at THATCamp ASECS2012 it would be good to have a workshop or two aimed at scholars who would like an introduction to using digital tools and methods for research and teaching. I would be happy to organize a workshop type session to provide anyone who’s interested with an introduction to the basics of using some simple text analysis software. This will be informal, but a little more structured than the usual THATCamp session.
In the workshop I will demonstrate how to use Voyant Tools to do ‘distant reading’ of texts. Voyant tools a collection of free web-based tools that can handle individual texts or collections, be they digitized novels, online news articles, twitter feeds, or other textual content. It provides a straightforward and easy way for provides scholars and students to do some basic analysis. The workshop will give a brief introduction to text analysis, and then a practical hands-on demonstration of how to get texts into Voyeur and then show what can be done with it.
To participate in the session you will need to have your own laptop and it would be useful if you could come with some texts you want to work with. If you have any questions about this workshop session please put them in the comments below.
Voyant tools are developed by Geoffrey Rockwell and Stéfan Sinclair.
