Final Paper Template

I noticed that the generic ACM template that was posted earlier on the blog is actually a little different than the official CHI format found here: http://chi2008.org/chi2008pubsformat.doc

I’m sure that both templates are acceptable and not much different in length. Basically the CHI format has larger body text but smaller section headings. However I do find the CHI template to be a little easier on the eye

My argument for final paper (YouTube and Goffman).

 BASIC THESIS:  Goffman’s theory of front stage and backstage is being blurred by technology, more specifically YouTube.  Behaviors that Goffman saw as backstage are being moved to the front stage because of the availability of this new technology.  People are posting videos of themselves on YouTube, behavior Goffman would consider backstage, to a very large audience.  I will use Goffman’s theory of self presentation to examine a selection of these videos and critique them in terms of his theory to articulate this “blurring” of front stage - backstage behavior.  This is useful because it provides a new interpretation of Goffman’s theory relating to YouTube technology and communication (posting) behavior.

I plan to start the paper by summarizing Goffman’s entire framework of self presentation.  Second, I will look at other academic use of Goffman’s front stage - backstage theory  and explain what they found (articles i have found include hospital setting, web pages, chat and bulletin board).  Third,  I will interpret a selection of videos (20 random videos) found by searching for “drinking and puking” utilizing Goffman’s front stage and backstage principles to describe what I see occurring in these videos.  Lastly, I will summarize what I’ve found and (hopefully) make the claim that because of this new technological medium, I believe that Goffman’s rigid boundary of front stage - backstage is being blurred.

I think this is a good plan and I have a basic pre-writing outline to do this.  I am wondering, though, if I should spend any time leading into Goffman by describing other theories???  I don’t think so for this paper, but I wanted your opinion.  Obviously if I write this up and have only six pages, I might be more inclined to throw in some other theories relating to symbolic interaction…  but I’d rather not.

Any comments on basic thesis and outline would be greatly appreciated.  I will be writing the paper all day today and tomorrow with hope of setting it aside for the morning on Sunday and proofing it again Sunday afternoon.  I had to start over because I was trying to be too scientific.  I don’t think I’ve written a critical essay before (if so, it was 10+ years ago and I have no recollection of this)… so this is very new to me.

Good luck everyone.

Structuring a Critical Essay

I meant to mention this in class, but I wanted to share a few thoughts on how to structure (or sequence, or arrange into a syntagm yayy!) a critical essay. A scientific paper in our field typically has the following structure (and you are welcome to use it in this class, if it makes sense to do so):

1. Intro
2. Lit Review
3. Methods
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion

Critical essays don’t have a standardized structure like this. Typically, though, they have a structure that can be more or less described as a sequence of high-level ideas or concepts. Take a look at Manovich to see what I mean. Each of his sections develops a single concept. Each chapter covers several of these concepts. And the introduction and conclusion identify the relationships among each of those concepts. And actually, most of the readings I assigned this semester are like that.

So ask yourself what the main ideas you are exploring, and think a little bit about how they relate to each other. That should help you come up with a good outline and thesis.

Last-Minute Reprieve! Paper Extension!

I’ve heard enough from a sufficient number of people to worry about tomorrow’s deadline for the paper.

I am therefore granting an extension on the paper until Sunday at midnight. 

Please bring all of your materials to class today, and we can have an emergency how-to-develop-an-argument lecture (if needed), or we can do whatever. Also, please be careful! If you accept this extension, it could make it very difficult to complete your other assignments due next week. I’m giving you a little extra rope, but don’t hang yourself! 

CHI Format = We have to write a ton!

Jeff -

It seems as if the CHI format is really small text.   I was writing my paper in word in size 11 normal formatting and when I switched it over to CHI format 6 pages of text I have so far became 4.  Thus it seems as if we will actually have to write 12 pages + of normal sized text to fill 8 pages of CHI. format  I am fine with this, but I just wanted to make sure you realized how much writing this is going to be.

Tafsir of the Qur’an

Detailed research and pre-writing on religion and the net has led me to narrow down this broad topic to focus on the internet’s role on compilation of diverse Qur’anic tafsir (interpretations and commentary of Islam’s primary scripture). The arguments are leading to a proposal for a new methodology on compiling an extensive online exegesis of the Qur’an which may include collective interpretations of the scripture from different languages amongst different cultures and religions, compilation of the ‘matn’ and ‘isnad’ (chain of transmission) of the hadith literature, and linguistic evaluation of the meaning.

So this is pointing to a proposal of a new system with an online community.  Individual compilation would be too cumbersome without a collective community contributing to the development of such a system.   So finding the right balance in design to fully utilize social contributions to such a project is what I have been trying to find.

Outline For Final Paper

Here is an outline I have for Jeff’s final paper. I usually don’t work so far in advance, but I have a huge usability consulting project this week, Jeff’s paper, and a paper for Erik, so I figured I should try to get a bit ahead. It is a bit rough right now, but I think this the general structure I am going to use.

I also have alot of cool structural findings on why people may use FB in unexpected ways in order to represent/build/play with their identities. I doubt I will have room for this, but if I do, that will go in at the end. Please let me know of any suggestions or questions you have.

An Interesting Paper

I just finished reading a paper assigned to us in Youn’s Usability and Evaluation Methods class:

This is Not an Article: Just Some Thoughts on How to Write One by Carsten Sorensen, London School of Economics and Political Science

I don’t know if any of you will find it useful, but it makes some interesting points. Here’s the link.

http://mobility.lse.ac.uk/download/Sorensen2005b.pdf

Wii - A Paper Topic

I’m still working out a lot of the details and have a lot more pre-writing to do, but I’m intending to write my paper on Wii Sports. I started out by bulleting a list of every interaction, element, feature, and occurance of Wii Sports that I could think of to see if any insights came out of it. One thing I realized was that many of the items on my list related to creating positive and happy interactions. I struggled a bit to really narrow my paper down and create a focus, but I came up with a starting point.

For a thesis, I’m intending to write my paper about how Wii Sports makes us feel like real athletes and that in turn, our self-esteem is raised by merely swinging the Wii remote.

I attempted a diagram which summarizes the argument, though I don’t think it came out very clear. But basically, I’m saying that through the use of customizable Mii’s, the Wii helps us identify with the characters in the game by having them look like us. And then, the Wii helps us identify with the objects/tools in the game through the use of the Wii remote, aka, swinging the remote like a baseball bat. Through this, the Wii creates an alternative reality that makes us feel like we are in the game.

Once this reality has been set, the Wii sets us up to succeed. Unlike an X-Box where when if you hit a home run in a baseball game, its attributed to pushing a button well, with the Wii, when you hit a home run, you feel like it was your swing that did it. Additionally, the Wii sets up users to feel good about their athletic abilities through the fitness test, the increase in skill level of your mii by playing, and other ways.

To further investigate this, I am considering gathering a group of individuals, giving them a survey which asks basically about their mood, confidence, and other related issues, have them do certain Wii Sports tasks, and then give them the same survey to see if the results change. Am I on the right track so far?

Template for final paper

I’m pre-writing my final paper today and after reading the assignment I wondered if perhaps Jeff couldn’t post a link to the template you would like us to use. I’m kind of assuming that the CHI format you are talking about is the landscape one with two columns and the third row for callouts and figures, but it would be helpful to have this made explicit.

I wouldn’t mind a little more guidance on if you want a lit review section on the paper, and if so how complete.  We’ve all read a basic set of literature (or at least we should have right) how must more do we need to say about that?