Thing 13: Reflection

Thing 13 is REFLECTION. Write a post reflecting on your 13 Things for Writers experience. Please write a meaty post--multimedia if possible--reflecting on some or all of the following questions:

• Did this turn out to be what you expected when you started?
• Were you already familiar with any of these "things"? For example, did you already have a Twitter account? Or were they mostly new?
• Did your Wordle of your blog give you any insights?
• Which was your favorite post?
• Did you discover anything new that could be helpful in your day-to-day activities?
• Did you discover anything new that you think you might use in your Life After Coe?
• How did you feel about "self-discovering" as opposed to having specific due dates created by the professor?

I'll be reading and commenting on these after the due date, April 8. Hope you found this assignment useful and satisfying.

Thing 12: Word Clouds

You've probably seen word clouds on various websites. They make a visual image of the words that are used--on a particular website or in a particular document. Words that are used most often become more visually prominent--they're BIGGER. This can help you see which themes are repeated most often.

Often, we can get some great insights from looking at word clouds. For example, look at these cool word clouds of presidential inaugural speeches.

Word clouds can be made using the website Wordle. Luckily, you don't have to create an account or pay to use it. You'll just need to save it to the "public gallery," where your word cloud will get its own URL and embed code. Here's the word cloud for 13 Things for Writers:

You can also make a word cloud of any document. Here's Gorgias's "Helen" speech (if you've taken Rhetorical Theory, you may remember it!) I just copied the text from a website and pasted it into the Wordle box.

I couldn't resist comparing this speech with Socrates' long discourse on "rhetoric" and "flattery" from the dialogue we read in Rhetorical Theory.

Isn't it interesting how "Body" is bigger in Socrates' explanation? "Soul" is in both. And the word "persuasion" never comes up in Socrates. Hmm.

If you haven't taken Rhetorical Theory yet, you're in for some fun.

Discovery Exercise:

Create a word cloud of your 13 things blog and embed the code into the blog. Then copy and paste the text of something else--something you've written, or a text you've become familiar with recently. Embed the code for that into the blog, too.

Did these word clouds give you any insight about the documents/sites? Which words are most prominent? Did this visual representation of words bring any thoughts that you didn't get from reading? How might you use this in professional life? Or is it just a fun toy?

Thing 11: Visual Thesaurus

The word is right there on the tip of your tongue...but you just can't make it come out! You've got lots of other words that mean something close...but just not the right word.

You need a visual thesaurus. A visual thesaurus shows you all the synonyms to your word, plus, with a click of the mouse allows you to drill deeper into one of the related words, and then see all of the synonyms to THAT word. Somewhere in that exercise, you'll find the perfect word.

The Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus is actually a commercial tool, with a limited free interface. Even with it's limitations (you'll have to click "try" when you first start, and you'll be limited to a handful of drill downs) the tool is rich. Enter a word you'd like to explore, and you'll get a pop up application with all the related words, plus definitions of your original word. Click any of the related words, and get a new view. You can print with the free trial, but you won't be able to save your word searches or share them. A membership will cost $19.95/year. Also worth noting is the information included on the main website: a word of the day section, a blog feed written by writers talking about writing, featured word lists, lesson plans and more.

Other visual thesuarus tools to try:

• Visiwords: very similar to The Visual Thesaurus, but not quite as robust: you don't get the drill-down functions, and you'll have to decode the color codes to determine meanings based on word type (nouns have a purple background)
• Lexipedia: again, very similar in visuals, but this one, in my humble opinion, is a bit easier to read than Visiwords. I like this one the best. Mouse-over tips help you decipher color coding, and you can show or hide different word forms (keep nouns, hide verbs when applicable).
• The benefit that both Visiwords and Lexipedia have over The Visual Thesaurus is that they are free (open source).

Discovery Exercise:

• Choose a word or two from a recent post, and enter them into the visual thesaurus of your choice. Do you come up with any useful alternatives? List the words you like best, along with their definitions.

• In general, do you use a thesaurus when writing? Have you ever had any problems using one (for example, you found out later that the word you chose wasn't exactly what you had in mind . . . )
• Play around with the thesaurus for a while and see if you discover--or rediscover--any great words. Sometimes simple ones are the best. Try: say, play, word, table, time . . . Share a couple words you searched and a couple synonyms you found. And/or comment on the connections between words.
• Are you a word nerd?