This page was created by Anonymous.
Design Statement
Since I wanted to create this project as a pedagogical tool and share all my findings with a wider audience (anyone can access this project with the link), I have decided to use Scalar. Scalar allowed me to present my findings and analysis in the form of a digital book. I could include all the comparative charts which I could not have done if I had written a paper. Also, Scalar allowed me to create different sections and connect them through a linear path, helping me guide my audience through the materials. However, the scope of using path does not limit the agency of the audience because Scalar also offers non-linear ways of accessing the content. Each page of Scalar has a drop-down menu that allows the audience to jump to different sections. Additionally, Scalar allows the writers to create networks between different sections of the book and between the book and the outside sources. The option of hyperlinking written or media content of one Scalar page to another or to external sources make navigation easier for the audience. In addition, Scalar’s media annotation features help authors to include wide range of media content in their projects. Besides, Scalar offers a wide range of layouts for presenting media content to make projects more visually engaging. Finally, as a browser-based publishing platform, Scalar makes the projects accessible to a greater number of audience. Scalar projects can be accessed from any device, since the affordances of Scalar are not limited to particular brand of electronic gadgets.
However, Scalar has some limitations that can make working with it difficult for the authors and the project designers. For example, working with Scalar is extremely time-consuming; the users need to create separate pages to upload each media item or create notes separately and then import those items to the main book. In addition, Scalar does not offer fonts or other features of Microsoft Word program (such as inserting tables or comments or footnotes). Thus, the authors, who do not know how to code, need to either use Scalar’s default font and size or work on Microsoft Word and copy and paste all the content to Scalar. I have created all my lists and content on word document first and then transferred them to Scalar. One problem of transferring was that whenever I needed to change anything on a specific page, I had to do it on word again, transfer to the page, and rebuild it. I noticed that when I tried to change something on Scalar page, often the formatting automatically changed, and no matter how many times I tried to fix things on that page, it remained the same.
Layout, Color, and Image
I have used “Image Header” option for all pages, except the landing page and the section that discusses Interface. The “Image Header” option allows the designer to use two images for each page––key image for the header and a background image. Since the cover of the First American Edition of Summer was in red with plain gold border, I decided to use similar color and layout for the key image. The only differences are that the red and gold colors of the key image of this project are darker than the red and gold colors of Summer’s cover and the gold border of this project is thicker and has patterns. For the background image, I have used a black patterned wallpaper. However, it does not look black (looks more like dark gray) since the “Image Header” option tones down the color of the background image to make the key image look more prominent. Both the images were collected from the internet and I used regular google search instead of using Creative Commons (CC) search. However, I checked the copyright policy of those images and have cited them in the “Works Cited” section of this project.
The other images of this project include the screenshots from different editions of Summer, including screenshots of four illustrations of Summer by F. Walter Taylor that were published in McClure’s Magazine issues from May 1917 to August 1917. These images are presented as a galley in the section titled “Comparative Chart by Category: Interface.” Initially I wanted to include those images within the body of the text; however, I could not have included all these images in the body section because that would have made reading difficult for the readers. However, I used Scalar's in-line media annotation option to embed some images to provide some examples within the written content of the "Interface" section.
For the landing page, I have used “Book Splash” layout since I wanted a full book cover for my Scalar book.
Font
I decided not to use the default font of Scalar book because I wanted to make the font of this project bigger. Since the lists are very long and most of the variations in the editions include variations in punctuation, ellipsis, capitalization, italicization, and pluralization, I felt that having clearer and bigger font will be helpful for the readers. So, I have used Calibri, font size 14. I have also used yellow highlighter to highlight all the places where changes occur in the editions, so that they are easily identifiable by the readers.
Charts
I have created a section that includes the Complete Comparative Chart (at this point, this chart only includes data from the First American Edition, the First American Edition with Wharton’s Corrections, and the British Edition) and then divided the chart into several sections based on various categories. Each category of variations comes with a short headpiece at the beginning that discusses different types of alterations that were made in different editions of Summer. However, the headpieces do not provide the literary analysis of those alterations. Since each page already has a long list, I tried to keep the discussion short and created a separate page for Literary Analysis. However, each page has a link to the Literary Analysis section so that the audience can easily access that section.
Future Iterations
In terms of design, I want to incorporate pages that annotates important sections and include all the changes made to those sections. The comparative lists do not include the whole sentence (unless it is a sentence level alteration) or the whole section where the changes occur. However, as the literary analysis section will illustrate, the readers need to read the whole sentence, or whole paragraph, or whole section to understand the significance of certain variations. Initially I thought of annotating the entire novel. However, Scalar does not allow word annotation. Like media annotations, written annotations also need to be created as separate pages and then inserted into relevant places. It is not possible to annotate the entire novel in this manner. This is one of the limitations of Scalar. Therefore, I came up with a plan. The sections that the readers need to read in full for understanding the impact of a specific variation, I have decided to create pages that will include an annotated version of the whole section and hyperlink those pages to the relevant section on the comparative chart. See the following example (click on Ch1 and you will see a page pop up):
| Chapter& Criteria | MSS | FAE | EWPFAE | FBE | ||
| Ch 1 Spell Conv | . . . blessings of the most refined civilization. (6) | . . . blessings of the most refined civilization. (8) | . . . blessings of the most refined civilization. (11) | . . . blessings of the most refined civilisation. (5) | ||
| Ch 1 Space Word Change | Every one in the place had told her . . . (6) | Everyone in the place had told her . . . (8) | Everyone in the village had told her . . . (11) | Everyone in the village had told her . . . (5) | ||
| Ch 1 Punc Word Change Capital | . . . to remember that it was Mrs. Royall who brought you down from the mountain.” (6) | . . . to remember that it was Mr. Royall who brought you down from the Mountain.” (8) | . . . to remember that it was Mr. Royall who brought you down from the Mountain.” (11) | . . . to remember that it was Mrs. Royall who brought you down from the Mountain.” (5) |
