Revised October 2, 1997

Syllabus

Computer Assisted Research
Eng 4A (EN42701)
David L. Steelman
 

References

Joseph Gibaldi. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1995.

A Manual of Style. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.

Gates. Guide to the Use of Libraries and Information Sources. New York: McGraw-Hill Company, 1983.
 

Texts

Our primary text will be a book on Chinese Word for Windows 7.0 (MSWord not Macintosh) which will be announced in class. (Actually, the on-line help for Word 7.0 is probably better than any book on the market.) Not required but recommended are books on DOS, HE 5.0 (漢書), and a basic book on UNIX and the Internet. At least five floppy disks (3.5") will be required for classroom use. If you copy all the files available in class you will need at least one box (10). A number of files containing instructional material will be available in the computer classroom on the SCU network on f:\package\research. Students will be responsible for downloading and reading all files in the RESEARCH directory and subdirectories and familiarizing themselves with the computer functions they introduce. For those who do not have computers at home, computers are available on campus for extra practice outside of regular classes. Books on computing in English and Chinese are available from 天龍 and 儒林 Bookstores on 重慶南路 and many other bookstores. Material on UNIX and the Internet in English and Chinese is available on the Internet. Some of these files will be on the SCU network.
 

Examinations and Grades

Grades will be based on examinations and homework assignments, the latter counting more heavily. One research paper will be required for the year. For details see the file PAPER.CW7. Weekly homework assignments will include word processor exercises and research exercises.
 

Special requirements

No previous experience with computers is required. Instruction will be provided on computer basics. Those who are familiar with the basics of DOS and word processing will, however, be able to proceed directly to more advanced topics. One of the advantages of the computer classroom is that we can do more than one thing at the same time and allow different individuals to progress at different paces.

All scheduled class time should be spent exclusively on material related to this class. There are many other interesting functions of the computer and Windows applications to learn about but individuals must follow up interests in those areas outside of class. No game playing will be allowed in class at any time. Note that Computer Center regulations forbid the bringing of any drinks or food into the computer classrooms. Please observe these regulations strictly. There are wires in the keyboard, computer, and under the floor. Any accidental spillage of beverages could cause them to short circuit and damage the entire classroom. Crumbs from food will attract cockroaches which will eat the electrical wiring and cause damage to the computers and network connections.
 

Equipment

We will be using IBM compatible Pentium PCs with DOS and Windows operating systems. Standard word processors will be PE 2 (PE 3, KS 2, KS 3, HE4, or HE5 all of which are very similar) for DOS and Chinese Word for Windows 7.0 under Chinese Windows 95. Most of our work will be done with the latter.
 

Word Processing

Word processing with the computer is a quantum advance over the typewriter. Educators for the past several years have noted that students doing work on word processors produce uniformly superior work to those using typewriters or writing by hand. Some of the advantages include automatic spelling checks, control of type style and size, and automatic footnote insertions. Papers printed on word processors can be very close in quality with typeset material. The ease of editing with word processors is the primary significant factor in the improved quality of the contents of papers written with computers.

The basics of word processing will include opening and saving documents, basic formatting (page layout, type style and size, boldface, italics, and underline, single and double spacing), control of style with templates, spelling and grammar checks, revision with and without revision marks, and basic editing techniques.

We will continue with techniques used in writing research papers learning how to insert footnotes, prepare a bibliography, and control format in accordance with the MLA Style Manual or the University of Chicago Manual of Style. We will learn how to use CD-ROM data bases and search facilities on the Soochow University network and the Internet and how to incorporate them into research papers. We will work with constructing outlines and developing them into research papers. Another important technique to be covered is how to collect raw data and use the word processor to organize this data into preliminary form for a paper. We will also learn how to use the word processor to search files for desired data.
 

Concordances

Concordances have long been considered an essential tool for many types of academic research. Computer concordances offer distinct advantages over printed concordances in that they can be searched in many different ways and can also be rearranged. However the greatest advance is that concordances which formerly took people a life time to prepare with index cards can now be generated from an electronic text in a matter of minutes. That is to say, making an electronic concordance involves little more than typing the text into the computer.

There are two basic kinds of computer concordances, one which locates a word or string of words in the original context and one which rearranges the original context such as a KWIC (Key Word In Context) concordance. The former is available in most word processors with the Find function which takes us to each successive occurrence of a word or string in the text we are reading. This kind of concordance can be very helpful if we want, for example, to find all pertinent information on Collins in Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice. The KWIC concordance is usually prepared with a special program and then read into a word processor. Following is a sample of a KWIC concordance for the best from Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited. Notice that the key word is aligned in the center of the text.

            said Cordelia, `I believe thats the best answer. And we let the argument
                  where there was some of the best food I ever ate. There were half a
  Remember me to Julia; wish her all the best for old times sake. So youre
  commanding officers wish and thats the best kind of order I know. `Very
 time thrown away. You should go to the best lectures--Arkwright on Demosthenes
                 things. I took him to quite the best man; Well, you know him as well as
    the centuries, catching and keeping the best of each generation, while time
   always want to go to London for in the best of the summer and the gardens all
    were three splendid men; Ned was the best of them. He was the last to be
       He wanted a woman; he wanted the best on the market, and he wanted her a
     the state in which a camp is left is the best possible test of the efficiency of
      Im not sure that tonight would be the best time to start the relaxation.
    had happened. Are you sure this is the best way of dealing with it? Its

KWIC concordances can be very valuable for linguistic and stylistic analysis. They have long been used by sociologists in the area of content analysis. However, in order to be of any significance, KWIC concordances must be prepare from a very large data base. If we wanted to compare stylistic differences between two authors, for example, we would want to have their complete works in the computer to analyze.
 

CD-ROM Data bases

A collection of information is referred to in computer terms as a data base. A common example of a data base would be a telephone directory. There are a number of types of data bases that are commonly used in research. These are treated below. The advantage of having a data base on CD-ROM is that one 3.25 disk can contain the equivalent of approximately 500 copies of the Dream of the Red Chamber. The 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary is contained on one disk. Computer searches of data bases on CD-ROM are much faster that manual searches through printed volumes. Searches are also systematic and less error prone and data can be searches in a number of ways that are impossible with printed versions. For example, if you wanted to know whose telephone number was 311-5171, you would have to read each telephone number in the telephone directory until you came to it. If the number was located in the latter part of the directory, this could take many days. With a computerized directory on CD-ROM all we would have to do is type in the number and the computer would find whose number it was in a matter of seconds.
 

A corpus is a collection of texts. The Library of the Future CD-ROM contains the complete texts of over 1700 works. One of the works in the complete plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Another is the English translation of the Bible. This is an example of a literary corpus. Newspapers and magazines are also available on CD-ROM. There are many other specialized corpora available such as a corpus of modern English, a corpus of spoken English, a corpus of 18th century epistolary English, etc.

These corpora can be useful for a number of purposes, one of which would be the preparation of KWIC concordances. If we were doing a paper on Edgar Allen Poe, we would want to copy his complete works from the Library of the Future into our computer to have it handy for quotations. Copying a literary work into our computer is also very handy for making notes. We can add our notes and comments directly to the text and have plenty of space for adding quotations from articles, for example. One of the problems in the past of adding notes to a printed text has been the lack of space available for that purpose. Often writing in the margins of a book is so cramped that it is illegible. Articles and quotations from books and encyclopedia that we want to keep with a text often fall out and get lost. These problems are eliminated with the electronic versions.

Corpora are extremely valuable for linguistic and stylistic analysis as well as a tool for locating quotations. As an example of the latter, we may recall that Edgar Allen Poe once claimed that the most moving theme for a poem was the death of a beautiful woman. A search for death and woman through the works of Poe could locate that quotation for us in a matter of seconds.
 

The largest dictionary on CD-ROM at present is the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. which consists of 20 large volumes in the printed edition. Other dictionaries available include The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed.; Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary; Websters Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary; Websters New World Dictionary, and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Two inexpensive disks available in Taiwan are Multipedia and Infopedia. Both contain a number of reference works including an encyclopedia and specialized dictionaries from Funk & Wagnal, Merriam-Webster, and Oxford University Press. Besides speed of search, the primary advantage of computerized dictionaries is that we can search them in a variety of ways not possible with printed dictionaries. We can search for all words containing time in the definition. We can search for all quotations in the dictionary containing the word sensibility. We can search for all words ending in -ism. We can search for all words derived from the Latin facere. Many computer dictionaries allow us to automatically look up a word from the text we are reading in a word processor simply by marking the word and pressing a hot-key. If we want to quote something from the dictionary, lines may be marked and copied directly into our word processor. It is human nature to not want to interrupt our reading to look up a word in the dictionary, but with computer dictionaries there is for all practical purposes no interruption. Using computerized dictionaries will enhance our understanding of the texts we read and improve our general knowledge of the English language.

Learning to use the various dictionaries varies in difficulty with the complexity of the dictionary software, but for even the most complex, learning is relative painless and once one works with the dictionary for a while, it all seems very simple.
 

The most commonly available encyclopedia are Comptons, Microsoft Encarta, World Book, Funk & Wagnals, and the Grolier. The Encyclopedia Britannica is now available on CD-ROM. The latest versions of Comptons and the Grolier are multimedia and contain sound and video as well as text. This can be helpful for one who has seen the expression laughed like a hyena in his reading and would like to know exactly what a hyena sounds like. The failing of most of the encyclopedia so far is that they are insufficient for serious research purposes.
 

The MLA International Bibliography is an example of an extremely valuable bibliographical database for research. The CD-ROM contain bibliographic records produced by the Modern Language Association of America pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore from over 3,000 journals from 1981 on. For research in the above areas, this is a necessary first stop. The bibliographies produced by searches with this disk can be saved are read into any word processor.
 

Bowkers Books in Print has a rather clumsy interface which takes a few minutes to master, however, the results produced from a search of this disk can be very valuable for research. It is also a necessary first stop for most research topics. Searches may be made by author, title, subject, or key word. Subject and key word searches are not very accurate (many of the works listed will not be relevant to the topic searched) and have to be closely edited. In spite of the deficiencies of the software and data base organization, this is still an extremely valuable research tool.
 

Anyone who has made a pains taking search through the printed version of the Readers Guide will appreciate this CD-ROM. The printed version is separated into volumes covering approximately a year each. Each volume must be searched separately. The entire CD-ROM can be covered in one single search and has the advantage of allowing a key word search through the abstracts of the articles. The printed version does not contain abstracts. The major deficiency of the CD-ROM version is that it does not contain all of the books of the printed version but only the last several years. In time, however, they will be added. Another problem with the Readers Guide is that citations often do not match with Asian editions of periodicals such as Time Magazine. The basic fault is with the publisher of the periodical for putting out two different versions of a periodical rather than with the Readers Guide for not including Asian editions.. One advantage of the CD-ROM is that it contains abstracts of the articles which often contain enough pertinent information to be valuable even though the original article cannot be located.
 

Internet

The Internet, almost unknown a few years ago, is today rapidly becoming one of the most important single sources of information for research purposes.

The Internet had its beginning some 20 years ago as a U.S. Defense Department network designed to support military research. In the 80s the National Science Foundation created five supercomputer centers making resources available for scholarly research. Today Universities, Libraries, government and business organizations all over the world are linked together by an international computer network called the Internet. In 1994 Soochow University was provided with a direct link to the Internet. This means that any computer connected to the Soochow University network is also connected to the Internet. Internet and e-mail accounts are assigned when one registers at Soochow University. Since this is an international network, users must be responsible and not abuse the privilege of being allowed access. Records are kept of many types of communication on the Internet, and irresponsible behavior may evoke complaints from other users which will result in ones account being canceled. The user is legally responsibility for illegal use of his account. For this reason, it is very important that one not let others use his account for any purpose.

The interface for the Internet is rather complicated and at present is sometimes somewhat frustrating to try to learn. However, with patience and practice, anyone can learn to use the vast resources available on the Internet.
 

E-mail is probably the most familiar Internet function. Upon registering one is assigned a user id as well as a password. Ones userid is his registration number with a u substituted for the first digit (lowercase). His password is his identity card number (uppercase). This user id along with the Internet address of the computer system one uses is ones Internet address. For example, ones userid may be u8210007. The address of the main campus mail server is mail.scu.edu.tw (mail is the name of the computer, scu stands for Soochow University, edu stands for educational organization, and tw stands for Taiwan). Anyone wanting to send him e-mail would send it to u8210007@mail.scu.edu.tw (@ stands for at). Anyone anywhere in the world can log onto their Internet account and write a letter or note and send it to me at that address. In a matter of seconds their e-mail will be received in my account. The next time I log on, it will be there for me to read. If we are doing research in Shakespearean studies, for example, and have someone at Oxford University is interested in cooperating with us, we can communicate almost instantaneously via the Internet and exchange ideas and material. Any electronic texts in our computer can be sent to another computer via Internet. Even binary files and programs can be sent with e-mail in the form of attachments.
 

How do we get to know people on the Internet to communicate with? The most common way is through Lists and news groups.

When we log on to the Internet, one thing we can do is look through a long list of news groups to look for subjects we are interested in. One such news group is Chinese Texts. Anyone have a Chinese text can send it to the news group. Anyone wanting to talk about problems related to putting Chinese texts into the computer can express his view on this news group. If you see a message that discusses something you are interested in, you can send your views to the net group and it will be available for anyone reading that news group. You may ask for help on a particular problem and receive messages from around the world with suggestions and possible solutions.

Lists are similar to news groups with the exception that you must subscribe to them. Once you are subscribed, all messages going to the List are sent to you as e-mail. If you are interested in Shakespearean studies you may subscribe to a Shakespeare List and come into contact with people all over the world who share your interest. You might be interested in obtaining a recording of Richard Burtons Hamlet but not know where to find it. If you asked on the List, almost certainly someone would post information on where to find it. Some times two or more people get very interested in a certain topic and have many messages to exchange. If the topic is not of continuing interest to the other member of the list, they may continue their discussion by going off list and exchanging e-mail privately.

Many lists and news groups maintain archives of past communications so that you can go into the archives at any time and look for information on a topic that may have been discussed before.
 

Ftp or File Transfer Protocol is a tool which allows Internet users to transfer both text files and binary programs from one computer to another. Computers connected to the Internet may maintain an ftp site where they keep a repository of text files and computer programs which may be copies by anyone. One simply logs on to an ftp site and searches their directory much like he would search a directory in his own computer. When he locates something he wants, he types in a command and the file is sent to his computer. The latest anti-virus programs may be obtained this way. An electronic text one needs for his research may be obtained from the Oxford Text Archive via ftp. In other words, resources from institutions all over the world may be shared using this tool.

But how does one know what site has what material? One way of locating material is by asking on a relevant List if anyone knows where a particular item may be found. If one knows what the file name is, one can use a tool for searching ftp sites called Archie. Another helpful tool for locating material is Gopher.
 

Gopher is another Internet function which presents one with a series of menus. On simply picks what he wants from a menu. The outer layers of the menu system are the rough outline of services available. As one goes deeper into the menu system, one meets with progressively narrower categories of menu items.

One very helpful service available through Gopher is the Veronica search. One searches for a key word and is presented with a menu containing all the items the search revealed. For example, one might search for James Joyce to locate articles, electronic texts, or discussions from List archives on Joyce and his works. Gopher is a rather complicated system and requires time and patience to explore.
 

Telnet is an Internet function which allows one to connect to a remote computer and use its facilities. Many library catalogs are available for remote search via Telnet. The Dartmouth Dante Project is an example of a computerized literary research data base being made available to the international scholarly community. It contains the full texts of Dantes La Commedia and planned total of 60 different commentaries.
 

The Internet has been growing the past couple of years at an increasingly astounding rate. Resources are being added almost daily. In the not too distant future, we can expect to see the Internet become not only the primary source of information for research but also a primary instrument for publication of scholarly studies through electronic journals (which are growing rapidly and gaining ever widening acceptance as a recognized venue for research publication). Internet access to libraries and texts also augurs a drastically revised concept of copyright law. Some day we will probably see international research libraries supplying electronic texts of publications and manuscripts as the primary source of research information.