Is Powell an eligible Moravian? On Distant Reading

Distant Reading is basically a “machine reading”. Using effective algorithms, we can “read” documents in a smart and statistical way. The easiest two methods of distant reading are 1. finding the most frequent words 2. finding the connections between most frequent used words. By doing those research processes, we can “read” documents from different angles. Edward Whitley, an expert on distant reading, states that though this method can help us to find the patterns in the data that might be missed, we are not able to know the plot, the story, by reading distantly. Traditional reading can’t be replaced by it, but distant reading will improve and perfect the reading process.

I would like to use an interesting example to show how distant reading works compared to traditional reading. I would like to know if Powell can be a miniature of Moravian at that time according to his text. By traditional reading, this is an exactly impossible mission because we don’t have something like “Moravian’s self-discipline” or “Guideline to write a Moravian diary”. Another difficult approach for traditional reading is “comparing”.

The traditional reading method can hardly compare two documents objectively. Researchers’ subjective biases lie during the traditional reading process. However, by using distant reading analysis tools, we can get a decision. Data never lies.  By comparing the most frequent words in “Shamokin Translation Full Version” and “Powell’s Diary”, I disprove Powell as an example of Moravians at that time. There are 7/18 of the most frequent words in “full version” are about religion but only 1/13 of them are

about religion in Powell’s text. I use the tool “Link” rather than “Word Cloud” here because I would like to use words that connect to real life. Only frequent words that interact with people or daily life can be presented in “Link”. The picture comparison reveals that Powell, not like other Moravians at that time, weighs the religious part as 1/3 of daily life. “What the word cloud does not include is almost as informative as what it does” (Whitley)

However, like Whitley’s words, distant reading can only be a part, a step of a complete research. Powell will feel aggrieved about my “research result” if he is still alive. But, the distant reading part provides a direction (religious life in diary) for the researchers to work further on.