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Image from The Shakespeare Web 		Wordcruncher Exercises
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Introduction Exercises



Introduction

Wordcruncher is a computer software program that can be used for searching electronic texts. The following exercises were designed for an undergraduate majors course in Shakespeare. Wordcruncher was used with an electronic version of The Riverside Shakespeare. The search engine can be used to locate crucial plot information, to track appearances and frequency of particular words or clusters of related words, and finally, to look for appearances of differe nt word combinations. Students then can view the results of their search on three levels: as a list of references identified only by act, scene, and line number; as an abbreviated text reference highlighting the relevant word or words; and as a full-text reference. The students either printed the results of their searches or saved the data to a 3" floppy disk.

The students spent one class period (75 minutes) per week of an eight-week summer course or one class period (50 minutes) during the regular quarter working with the software in a networked computer lab. I tried to adapt the length of the exercises to the available time, but feel strongly that the longer class period is better for this kind of work. I liked using the exercises to stimulate class discussion, but the students actually preferred using the information to write their papers. The exercises helped students, particularly those not accustomed to Shakespeare's language, focus on particular image patterns and particular passages. The computer work did make the class orientation more formalist than it might have otherwise been, although that is n ot necessarily a drawback.

Below are the exercises I constructed for Shakespeare 2, "Later Plays" in summer 1996 and Shakespeare 1, "Earlier Plays," in the winter of 1997. I have also included writing assignments that are in part linked to these exercises. If you do not have access to Wordcruncher, you may use M.I.T.'s Search Engine for the Complete Works of Shakespeare, although this works only w ith one word at a time.

You will find more information and exercises at Tools for Studying Shakespeare and His Contemporaries.