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Week 10: More Assessment Results & Great News!

This week I continued the group mentions assessment with the researchers in PRINT. Thanks to Casey, this assessment had 8 mentions which meant the researchers were tasked with a somewhat difficult letter. Here is an example of the letter below:

16158 - George Shaw, Bickerstaffe, Lancashire, England to Phineas Pemberton, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1684 

"...Dear PP I rcd [received] thy dated ye 27h of the 9h mo: 83 in which I was glad

to hear of your wellfare: freinds are generaly well hear

a way the last assizes the judge gave in charge they must put

the laws in exemption aganst desenters: Justices [Entwistle?/Entwhistle?] &

[Haith?] sent warrants to seeke for conventikles meetings ye offecers are prity sivell [civil] att the present: ouer dere [our dear] friend James Fletcher

went for Irland [Ireland] this last winter and I recd [received] a letter from him

yesterday and he sayeth Wm Edmondson [William Edmondson] is gone ^to^ the West [Ingagues?] [West Antigues/Antigua?] before

he came thither: and Jon Burnet [John Burnett] is att home whos wife hath born him a son

but it is dead: and he sd [said] freinds are generly well meettings quit [quiet]..."


Based off the responses I found that researchers had a difficult time with unitization, which is an issue mentioned in Inter Annotator Agreement literature. Researchers had questions on how to break apart information in a sentence that has multiple mentions. For example, the line about James Fletcher going to Ireland and sending a letter to George Shaw would be considered two different mention types (trip and virtual document). Later in the week, Brook and I had a meeting discussing the process we had been making through quality assurance assessment. We both agreed that we would continue group mentions until the end of the summer then try to address unitization through other assessments/workshops. All in all, the researchers have expressed how these assessments have helped them understand mentions better which I was grateful to hear!


I also received news this week that my paper proposal, "Strengthening Quality Assurance in Digital Humanities Projects: Using Inter Annotator Agreement for Improved Protocols and Reliability," had been accepted to the Digitorium conference at the University of Alabama. 



As I finish my last couple of weeks of my internship I intend to focus on my internship showcase presentation and finishing my final paper.




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