My focus group was a success! I gave out all ten of my surveys, and everyone answered my questions very thoroughly. Afterwards, we all had a great discussion about how reading and writing should be approached in schools, and what everyone's personal opinions were. Here are some pictures:
Today, during e-block, I will have my long-awaited for focus group. Interestingly, I actually changed the focus of my focus group given my recent developments. Initially, the materials/surveys I was going to hand out to the subjects were highly focused on the specifics of writing. But, I thought it would be far more interesting to gather some more broad opinion-based data, especially since I've decided to downgrade the emphasis on my computer program seeing as it doesn't appear to be giving me the results I wanted. Here is my survey: (feel free to take it!)
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Up to this point, my project has been mainly focused on research and creating a framework for my conclusions. Now, as I am about to embark on my field work, I thought it was about time I'd share some more information on the computer science aspect. The programming aspect of my project isn't extremely advanced, but it still holds plenty of learning opportunities for me. I am using a programming language called JavaScript. Aspects of this language will be used in accordance with writing an original HTML file, which is where the specifics of my project come into play.
Here, I'll give a little background into the program itself. First, I didn't want to spend up to $100 on an advanced text file program, so I decided to use Notepad. The HTML file containing the JavaScript functions are stored on notepad, using the text editor to save and progress the program at any time. Writing an HTML file is pretty much like creating a web page of sorts, except this web page contains specific commands controlled by the JavaScript functions. For reference, here is a guide to writing Javascript code: http://www.webteacher.com/javascript/index.html Because I'm not yet sure of what exactly I want my program to run, (hopefully I'll begin to know soon) for now I'm just programming simple tasks like rearranging a block of text into alphabetical order and sorting words into common numbers of letters. Lauren Benson
CAPS research paper outline Draft #1
II. Overview of past studies
III. Fieldwork Explanations
IV. Interpretations of results
V. Explanation of program
VI. Conclusions vis a vis research question
VII. Conclusion
Annotated Bibliography
The purpose of the study was to observe correlations between writing styles and the success of novels. From gathered evidence, there was a strong quantitative connection between specific qualities of writing and their separate success rates in published novels. I will be able to compare this with my own findings of quantitative quality of writing, as well as my own connections between writing styles and people's personal preferences. Perhaps this success rate differs depending on the audience, or perhaps these preferred writing styles are not universal. 2) "Book News: Will Your Book Sell? There's An Algorithm For That." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015. This is only one of the dozens of articles, studies, newspaper clippings, and interviews about special algorithms claiming to be able to predict if a book will sell or not. According to this NPR news article, specific criteria such as heavy usage of "thinking verbs" correlates with stronger sales than books with more "emotional verbs." Interesting. 3) Smails, Caroline. "Who Else Wants To Know How Many Copies Novels Actually Sell?" Http://bubblecow.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. An interesting new take on analyzing the success of fiction novels. According to this article, novel sales are much more unpredictable. "The underlining nature of the publishing world is that best sellers are well… unpredictable. " 4) Dougherty, Mark. What Has Literature to Offer Computer Science? (n.d.): n. pag. Http://etjanst.hb.se/. Web. his academic paper aims to explain the importance of the relationship between the literature and computer science, and explore the bridge between two fields seemingly opposite in nature. 5) Armstrong, Paul. "How Literature Plays with the Brain." Project MUSE -. The Johns Hopkins University Press, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. This is the first book I have as an actual source. It was published in the psychology department at The Johns Hopkins University, and it looks to explore the specific neurological processes occurring during certain literary experiences. 6) Quart, Alissa. "Adventures in Neurohumanities." Adventures in Neurohumanities. The Nation, 7 May 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. This is a really interesting, albeit confusing article. Disregarding the entire computer science element for a moment, Quart explores the growing trend of a newly-coined term: "neurohumanities". Meaning, the importance of neuroscience and the brain on almost any field of academic study. The article describes the attempt to study the brain while reading. A researcher named Phillips used sophisticated brain scans to describe exactly what the brain is experiencing while presented with literature. 1) TOPIC: Success in Literature
2) Research Question: To what extent have recent statistical "trend" studies exploring success rates of novels shifted our definition of "quality literature"? 3) Thesis: TBA http://www.thenation.com/article/174221/adventures-neurohumanities
This is a really interesting, albeit confusing article. Disregarding the entire computer science element for a moment, Quart explores the growing trend of a newly-coined term: "neurohumanities". Meaning, the importance of neuroscience and the brain on almost any field of academic study. The article describes the attempt to study the brain while reading. A researcher named Phillips used sophisticated brain scans to describe exactly what the brain is experiencing while presented with literature. How Literature Plays with The Brain- Paul B. Armstrong
http://muse.jhu.edu/books/9781421410036/ I can download and read this at my leisure. Will do so. As the title implies, the contents seem very relavent to my project. http://etjanst.hb.se/bhs/ith/1-7/md.pdf
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about how exactly I'm integrating literature and computer science. After all, aren't they opposites in nature? One deals with letters, the other with numbers? I came across this academic paper that aims to explain the importance of the relationship between the two. I've only skimmed it so far, but I will definitely come back to it. |
Lauren BensonNewton North High School senior. CAPSTONE participant. Archives
April 2015
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