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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.1016  Saturday, 18 November 2006

From: 		Hardy M. Cook <editor@shaksper.net>
Date: 		Saturday, November 18, 2006
Subject: 	New Shakespeare Search Engine Launches

From: FOLGER E-NEWS

New Shakespeare Search Engine Launches
On the Web: Shakespeare Searched

"Go search like nobles, like noble subjects"
     --Pericles, Act II, scene iv

Discover shakeseare.clusty.com, a new online search engine providing 
quick access to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Results 
are clustered by topic, work, and character to make it easy to find 
exactly what you're looking for--whether it's identifying the speaker of 
a favorite passage or discovering underlying thematic elements across 
works or finding the perfect quote to start a celebratory toast.

About Shakespeare Searched
(http://shakespeare.clusty.com/search?v%3aproject=billy&v%3aframe=about&)

Shakespeare Searched: Just for Teachers
(http://shakespeare.clusty.com/search?v%3aproject=billy&v%3aframe=teachers&)

Shakespeare Searched: Especially for Students
(http://shakespeare.clusty.com/search?v:project=billy&v:frame=students&)

ABOUT SHAKESPEARE SEARCHED
Shakespeare Searched is a search engine designed to provide quick access 
to passages from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. We cluster search 
results by topic, work, and character to make it easy to find exactly 
what you're looking for. From something as simple as identifying the 
speaker of a particular quote to discovering underlying thematic 
elements across works, Shakespeare Searched has you covered.  This 
website is not a replacement for a copy of the text. It provides no 
analysis or footnotes. It is meant to supplement a traditional reading 
of a work.

Shakespeare Searched is built with Vivísimo Velocity.

SHAKESPEARE SEARCHED: JUST FOR TEACHERS
Shakespeare Searched is a great resource for you and your students. You 
can recommend it to your students when writing papers to quickly locate 
passages that they remember reading but are having trouble finding. It 
provides citations for each passage so using what they found is a 
breeze.  Shakespeare Searched returns only passages from the works of 
Shakespeare -- no analysis, opinions, or interpretations. That means 
potential issues with plagiarism or uncited sources are avoided. We 
provide the text, the rest is up to the student.

You can plan entire lessons or assignments around Shakespeare Searched. 
  Have your students search for a subject like "love" or "death" and 
then report back on the results. What sort of topic clusters are 
generated? Use the tabs to cluster the results by work to see which play 
or sonnet a theme appears in the most. Or cluster by character to see 
what kind of patterns emerge.

Limit your search to a particular work or character to analyze specific 
aspects of certain works. For example:
         Blood in Macbeth
         Revenge in Hamlet
         Beauty in the Sonnets
         Romeo by topic (note the topic clusters on the left)

All of this is provided by Vivísimo free of charge and without 
advertisements. When your students use a typical search engine they're 
bombarded with advertisements and links to term paper sites. When they 
use Shakespeare Searched, they're given the information they need and 
the rest is up to them.

Lesson Plans
You can use Shakespeare Searched to develop lesson plans or supplement 
lessons you already teach. For example, use Shakespeare Searched in any 
lesson plan that calls for a Shakespeare concordance. You'll not only 
get the appearance of every word in a play or by character, but you'll 
also see the topical clusters associated with that word and using the 
"Surrounding text" link, the context in which that word appears. Or, if 
you want to take your lessons online, use Shakespeare Searched to create 
a webquest for your students.

To get you started, we've linked to two lessons from the Folger 
Shakespeare Library that would work well with Shakespeare Searched. 
Can't buy me love. "One of the reasons The Merchant of Venice is so 
interesting-and so troublesome-is that characters in Venice cannot 
define human values such as justice, mercy, and love in anything other 
than economic terms. The language of the Venetian characters is fraught 
with terms of economic rather than romantic exchange." With this lesson, 
students will investigate the multiple meanings that words like fortune, 
value, interest, and worth have in The Merchant of Venice. Using 
Shakespeare Searched will help students pinpoint exactly where and in 
what context these words appear. And using the clusters, they'll see the 
other themes connected to these terms.

Words, words, words. In this lesson, "students will discuss words that 
represent the 'big ideas' in Othello and that recur throughout the play. 
  They will be assigned words to track throughout the text, recording 
which character says the word and in what context." Using Shakespeare 
Searched, you can be sure that your students have found all occurrences 
of the word they've been assigned. And if they would like to go beyond 
the original assignment, they can use Shakespeare Searched to examine 
how that same word is used in other plays or used differently across 
characters.

SHAKESPEARE SEARCHED FOR STUDENTS
So you read the play and you're writing the paper but you can't remember 
where that one quote you need is. That's where Shakespeare Searched 
comes in. Just search by character, work, or a keyword or two and we'll 
find your quote complete with citation. For example, remember all that 
stuff in Romeo and Juliet about thumb-biting? What was that about? It's 
all right here. Wasn't that easier than searching through the tiny type 
in your Shakespeare book?

Shakespeare Searched doesn't give you sample essays, analysis, or 
anything like that. What it does do is help you generate your own ideas. 
Maybe you're having trouble coming up with a paper topic? Need some 
inspiration?  Search for a particular play or character and check out 
the clusters on the left. They give you a quick topical and thematic 
overview and are a great starting point.

For example, a search of Much Ado About Nothing brings back a "Love" 
topic cluster with 66 passages in it. Open up that cluster by clicking 
on the plus symbol next to the cluster title and you'll see a 
sub-cluster for "Scorn." What does love have to do with scorn? And I 
thought this was a comedy? Explore the clusters to find out. Shakespeare 
Searched helps you uncover these kinds of connections and gets you on 
your way to a great paper.

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

DISCLAIMER: Although SHAKSPER is a moderated discussion list, the 
opinions expressed on it are the sole property of the poster, and the 
editor assumes no responsibility for them.

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