Texts, provenance, and access

Course corpora

The course uses prepared, documented corpora so that class time can focus on analytical decisions rather than large-scale data collection and cleaning.

Course data repository
Approved datasets, corpus cards, and access instructions are maintained in the separate private BA3 Text as Data corpora repository. Enrolled students will receive access before Session 2. The link opens only after access has been granted.

What is a corpus?

A corpus is a deliberately selected collection of texts used to answer a bounded question. It is not simply every file that happens to be available. For every course corpus, check who produced the texts, when and why they were produced, the unit represented by each row, the inclusion rules, known gaps, and what reuse is permitted.

Primary course material

Primary focus

Political speeches

Most demonstrations will use prepared selections of South Korean presidential speeches. Speeches provide substantial documents and useful metadata for comparing speakers, periods, speech types, and political contexts.

A difference between presidents may reflect the speech type or period. The audience, document length, and selection rules may also account for the difference.

Limited use

Presidential tweets

A smaller number of exercises may use prepared selections of presidential social-media posts, principally from Moon Jae-in’s account. Tweets are shorter, platform-specific, and shaped by posting and collection practices.

Engagement measures do not measure public opinion. An account’s posts also cover only part of a president’s public communication.

Other materials may be introduced for a specific lesson. They may show how document length, genre, or language changes a method’s output. Classroom use does not grant permission for independent reuse.

The current teaching plan uses prepared presidential speeches in Sessions 2–4 and 6. Session 5 uses a prepared selection of presidential tweets for classification and sentiment analysis.

How access and release work

Before a session, the session page names the required corpus and tells you where to place it locally.
During a session, use the prepared version supplied for that task so that the demonstration remains reproducible.
In your repository, record the corpus name and provenance. Upload the data only if the corpus card permits it.
After the course, follow the source license and corpus card. Course access does not grant permission to publish the data elsewhere.

Hackathon corpora

The final hackathon uses a prepared menu of course corpora. Each option will include the following materials.

a short description and feasible comparison units
a data file sized for Orange and the DH Lab computers
a codebook and provenance record
known limitations and guidance on permitted use
an Orange starter workflow and, where applicable, an R import script.

The menu is released with the hackathon brief on Oct. 30. Groups choose from the approved menu. They do not collect or clean a new dataset during the timed event. The assessment covers the analysis and its verification. It also covers how well the group communicates the result.

Data care

Keep course repositories private unless instructed otherwise. Never commit personal data, credentials, restricted files, or a full corpus simply because you can access it. If a corpus card says “metadata only” or “local use only,” those terms apply to every member of the group.