Identify Themes within a Text
This is a recipe to identify simple themes within a sample text
This recipe and exercise is available as a PDF download.Ingredients
- An electronic text to explore
- A Concordance tool such as the TAPoR Find Words - Concordance Tool
- A Collocation tool such as the TAPoR Find Collocates Tool
- A List Words tool such as the TAPoR List Words Tool
This recipe is applied to a sample text in Identifying Themes within a TextSteps
- Find an electronic text at a source such as Project Gutenberg
;
- Prepare text by removing any added infrastructure ;
- Generate a word list (sorted by frequency) using the TAPoR List Words Tool;
- Examine list to see if anything unusual stands out;
- Refine word list by applying a stop list
;
- Re-examine list for particular words you expect or don't expect to see ;
- Explore keywords using Find Words - Concordance Tool to find their context;
- Identify collocated words using Find Collocates Tool to determine usage patterns;
Discussion
Finding a Text
Possible sources for electronic texts are listed on the Electronic Texts Panel of TAPoR. When preparing text for analysis, you should be aware that academic infrastructure included in the text may obstruct reading the text for its original construction. It may be useful to remove notes and other materials added by subsequent authors from the original work. You can use tools such TAPoR Extract Text to remove added material.Using a Word List
The word list can provide a first clue about the nature of the text. Questions which can be asked of the word list may include:- What are the basic preoccupations of this text?
- What is unusual in the text?
- Are there any patterns in the tenses of words used?
- Given any expectations, are there words missing from the word list?
Glossary
- Stop List
- A Stop list is a series of words that you may choose to exclude from a particular operation because you deem them to be irrelevant or obstructive to your analysis task. If you are searching for descriptive terms for example, you may choose to exclude function words normally occuring as part of everyday speech. Your interest may lie only in extraordinary words.
Next Steps/Further Information
- List of All Recipes
- Exercise Identifying Themes within a Text
- Help with Particular Tools
- Background on Text Analysis
- Information about the TAPoR Concordance Tool
- Information about the TAPoR Collocation Tool
- Information about the TAPoR List Words Tool
