Wordle

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. It is a quick and easy way to make a data visualization using words. It can be a source of interesting conversation about WHY certain words display more prominently and what that prominence means. While the original tool is no longer online, EdWordle functions similarly and allows for some customization.

For additional word cloud generators for textual analysis, see our section on Voyant Tools.

wordcloud made from words associated with Digital Humanities
Wordle created in the first faculty “Reboot” camp (Summer 2014) from words associated with Digital Humanities
Student project comparing the main words in two articles design
Student project comparing the main words in two articles discussed in Professor Jessica Pressman’s ENG 563: “Digital Literacy” class (Spring 2014)

Possible Lesson:
1) Give student a short text from your class to play with using Wordle.
2) Ask students to try a few different versions of a Wordle visualization on the text, outside of class-time, and ask them to compare the versions.
3) Ask students to come to class ready to explain what they noticed in the comparisons: how did the Wordle images make them think differently about the text? what did the visualization prompt them to see or consider?

Faculty point of contact: