Blog 2
Voyant was tricky and just all around confusing when I first started using it. It has so many complex tools that made it seem very overwhelming. And every time I thought I was getting the hang of it this would pop up:
But after some tinkering, I was able to learn a few things before even reading the first four chapters. This first image above showed me the main words of the book, some words that we have not even gotten to yet. I really enjoyed being able to tinker and maneuver my way around this website. Trial and error while working on something is actually really rewarding. When I begin and start with confusion and end with a much better understanding it is really a good feeling. It is also pretty neat to have a look ahead and hints as to what may happen or at least words that tie together. The truth is, I love to look ahead in books. I can’t help it!
So voyant gives me that option without actually spoiling the book for myself! It gave me the idea that Terry, Jeff and women would be the main characters. It also led me to believe because of the collocates tool that Terry was not a good guy; and after my reading it was accurate. I was also able to learn from Voyant that it seemed that Terry called most of the shots, and that Terry speaks a lot! He is a jerk and voyant was able to tell me that before I had even read the chapters.
But I still have some gaps in my knowledge that are not able to be found by tinkering in Voyant. I cannot find out specific details and analyze like I could in a close reading. This distant view reading is helpful in a lot of ways but can’t give you all the information needed to fully understand the text. Voyant is more of an overview or a summary of word usuage, trends and many other tools. I would definitely use this in the future but I would not solely rely on Voyant, it has many benefits but is not a good analysis of the text. It is very good for that first look before beginning to read.
One thing I wish Voyant did more of was show more of an understanding of the words and words like it. Such as when using the collocates, it allows you to see that the words “terry— said” tie together many times. But it does not show that he speaks more times than just using the word “said”. The text could use other words than just “said” when Terry speaks. But it does not give you an option to tie every word that resembles “said” together. Overall, Voyant was a very interesting tool that I have not used until this class. I found it to give a very broad overview of the story and give me a good first look. I am also interested to go back and look at Voyant after we have finished the book to see if it gives me an even better understanding of the book.
6 Comments
molwils
I can definitely sympathize with you. It felt like no matter what I did, some sort of error code would pop up at first! With that said, I’m glad we’re at least getting a little more used to it! 🙂 There are definitely some gaps in Voyant’s knowledge, like you say. I guess I am more a fan of close reading! Still, I suppose it’s good that were are able to work with such a tool…one that we have never worked with in previous classes. Good luck with your further exploration!!! 🙂
wschmid
I’m glad you mentioned trial and error. That is one of the best ways to learn new software. Finding the way to get the results you’re looking for helps you retain that bit of information much more than reading an instruction manual ever could. I also encountered the Correlations Error. The only way I was able to avoid it was to select one of the suggested terms in the search-box’s dropdown list. When I tried to enter my own search term, upon hitting ‘Enter’, Voyant would ignore my term and select a seemingly random word. The tool could be very useful if they get it functioning properly.
laujack
I also had problems with the error screen coming up when I was first using Voyant. To be honest I thought it was just my computer being difficult. I am someone who enjoys a deeper analysis with books so even with the information Voyant gave I couldn’t wait to start reading the book. I think that’s why I preferred using annotation studio over Voyant. However, in using this I also learned how to utilize distant reading to get a slightly better understanding of texts that I have not read before. I would also be interested to insert other texts that I have already read to see if I can learn anything new about them.
kcookso
I am glad to know that you guys also had issues with the correlations error, it was extremely frustrating! Thank you for the suggestion “wschmid”, I will have to try that and hopefully I will be able to avoid the error bubble every other click.
Prof. DeSpain
Kate, I really like your idea to use Voyant as a way to read ahead without fully cheating and reading the last page.
cmorone
Ah, yes, the dreaded “Error” box. I encountered that several times on my journey tinkering around with Voyant as well. I like that you said Voyant is a good way to look ahead without spoiling the book, because I feel the same way. It’s enough to know what to expect, but not enough to spoil any surprise twists or endings. Plus, it’s also just fun to navigate the website to find connections in the book that you may not have thought of.