When thinking about digital editions…
Since my last post on this topic, I have written a close reading annotation for my digital edition assignment. I received great feedback from my peer group and Professor Tuttle. I think I have truly identified how exactly to dive deeper into a text and work with the specific language and authorial moves within a small piece of text. I chose to frame my annotations this way because I found that this is what makes an annotation the most helpful. I realized this when completing our first assignment of looking through an example digital edition. I also wrote my thesis statement and will begin to draft my critical introduction soon. I will definitely need more guidance on what exactly should be included in this introduction, but I know that that information can be found on the course site. I am wondering how much of the introduction should be summary versus analysis.
WHEN REFLECTING ON THE COURSE AND EPORTFOLIO…
In terms of ePortfolio, I have gone through Professor Gennaco to create a separate site for my digital edition to live. I have started to customize and edit this site to make it more suitable for what I would like for my project. I am definitely still figuring out the organization, and I think I will know more on this when I start to complete some of the parts of the project. In terms of this course, I am fascinated by the content recently, mostly when we discussed systemic racism. I am currently taking a trauma class, and it is evident that systemic racism is a cause for trauma and can have a significant impact on your brain, sometimes affecting your mental health. This is a lens that people sometimes don’t see or choose not to see.
Nice meta-level reflection here, Olivia. And I think it’s useful to consider how we come to realize the things we do about how we undertake out own work. I’m glad you are getting into the deep intellectual work of close reading!
We can keep talking about your project as needed; as for your introduction, one principle always to consider is: what does a reader need? What do they need to know in order to make sense of the edition? They do need some summary–they need to know what the story is basically about what its plot and larger meaning are, because it’s only then that your more specific argument will make sense. And that provides them with a sort of guidebook for making sense of the story when they read it. Think about your own experience taking up a new book for the first time: does it help you to have a general overview to situate the work so that you know more about what you are looking at?