Research Report 

by Courtney Preston, The Little Prince Project

Rockwell, Geoffrey. Preprint of: “What is Text Analysis, Really?” 11-18 Feb 2009.

<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~grockwel/personal/publications/WhatIsTAnalysis.pdf>

Abstract

The article, written by Dr. Geoffrey Rockwell, examines the possibilities held in the future of text analysis and the way in which text analysis tools should be used. Rockwell answers the question of why and how literary text analysis can be useful, while incorporating background information on the history of computer-aided text analysis. Although his work is primarily intended for academic audiences, his straightforward diction and humble tone also allow audiences with less knowledge to engage with, and understand it. The logical formation of his arguments, coupled with his un-intimidating vocabulary, make the article easy to follow and therefore very helpful to amateur text analyzers.

Description

Rockwell is a current professor of Computing and Software as well as of Philosophy at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and Project Leader for the TAPoR project (Text Analysis Portal for Research). He argues that by entering an original text into text analysis tools on a computer, a new kind of broken down text is produced that is useful for analysis as a single entity, as well as for analysis of the original work. He also finds the combination of a text’s deconstructions into new “hybrids” of an original text to be worthy of analysis; he writes, “These new texts come from the decomposition of original texts and recomposition into hybrid new works for interpretation” (1). Interpretation of such hybrid texts can give birth to new theories to test and can also expose language patterns or textual relationships that may have been previously elusive without the aid of a computer.

After giving a brief history of computer aided text analysis, Rockwell delves into explanations of his, along with his colleagues’, personal experiences with it. He offers his finding “that one of the things that was important was [the] intellectual process of iteratively trying questions and adapting tools to help us ask new questions. We can do so much more now than find words in a string. We can ask about surrounding words, search for complex patterns, count things, compare vocabulary between characters, visualize texts and so on” (5). He goes on to argue for the importance of changing, questioning, and adapting “procedural habits and presuppositions…and [asking] anew how we can analyze text with a computer and whether such computer-assisted interpretations are interesting in and of themselves” (7). He suggests that the best way to go about making new discoveries and testing the bounds of text analysis is by engaging in what he refers to by “research as disciplined play” (8). In support of “playpen” sites like TAPoR Rockwell claims, “We need to play again and make playpens available to our colleagues rather than re-implement a limited set of procedures grounded in one hermeneutic” (7). In other words, computer aided text analysis offers a fresh perspective on literary interpretation that fosters a new type of critical thinking that begins with casual use of different tools. By “playing” with tools, asking new questions, drawing conclusions, and sharing findings, text analyzers’ computer-based research not only gives new perspectives of texts, but increases collaboration between academics as well.

Rockwell further argues the benefits of text analysis by means of web portals such as TAPoR, which differ from regular websites in that they allow users to operate the site’s tools without having to install them (11). He says that because portals support casual use and practice, they also support the spread of interest in the field of text analysis, and not just to more educators and academics, but to everyday Internet users and students as well. (All of whom Rockwell asserts could not afford access to each individual tool on their own.) Rockwell concludes this article with a plea for increased access to text analysis tools as well as to greater amounts of online texts, for the benefit of curious academics like himself, in the growing field of computer aided text analysis. He says further development of portals is necessary to continue building the computational text analysis community.  

Commentary

Rockwell’s interpretation of the academic processes of computer aided text analysis as more experimentation based rather than hypothesis based is helpful to the Little Prince Project team’s use of text analysis tools, like those found on the TAPoR web portal, because we do not have any clearly defined hypotheses. We will not be attempting to guess what we will find by analyzing Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s 1943 novella The Little Prince, rather we hope that the information we derive from tools that, for example, measure word frequency, will help us interpret individual characters in the story on multiple levels and also help us provide more enriching information about the text to viewers of our team project’s website.

Although computer aided text analysis does not make up the majority of the Little Prince Project, it is an important first step to our analytical process, as it will provide a preliminary foundation for the interpretation of each character. Text analysis is therefore very important for group members to understand, because without a basic understanding of how to interpret computer text analysis output, and of how to create what Rockwell calls “hybrid” texts to study, essential visual and interpretive elements of our project will suffer. For example, if we were to attempt to create a word cloud, of even just one character’s dialogue, without the aid of a text analysis tool, it would take us much longer to complete, and the time we would spend counting words would be far better spent on other elements of our project.

However it is also important to note that the value of the information and arguments provided by Rockwell to the Little Price Project group have their limitations. For instance, the second half of this article is primarily meant to be persuasive to his academic peers, attempting to gain support for the spread of computer aided text analysis availability. Although his arguments for this are well developed, interesting, and educational, they are of little use to the purposes of the Little Prince Project.

Resources for further study

Links to additional sites on the topic of computer aided text analysis: 

Harris, Jonathan. “Word Count.” 18 Feb 2009. <http://www.wordcount.org/main.php>

MacDonald, Andrew. “Word Cloud: Ways of Using.” 20 Jun 2006. 18 Feb 2009. <http://tada.mcmaster.ca/view/Main/TAPoRwareWordCloud#Ways_of_Using>

Rockwell, Geoffrey. Preprint of: “What is Text Analysis, Really?” 11-18 Feb 2009.

<http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~grockwel/personal/publications/WhatIsTAnalysis.pdf>

UsingEnglish.com: “Text Content Analysis Tool.” 18 Feb 2009. <http://www.usingenglish.com/resources/text-statistics.php>

“Online Text Analysis Tool” 18 Fed 2009. <http://www.online-utility.org/text/analyzer.jsp>

"Wordle" 19 Feb 2009. <http://www.wordle.net/>