INFORMATION THEORY 1

Why Digital Textbooks Are Worth Your Time: First Thoughts About Information Theory

A. Saad Imran

7218332

COMM1085-15F

John Whitzman

October 14th, 2015

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The ability to transmit information in the form of written language over long

distances has always represented power and leverage for governments and militaries

(Cruise, 2014). The use of digital technologies reduced the time taken to transmit that

information across the world to a few milliseconds within the scope of a few decades

(Cruise, 2014) and in our modern time, the widespread use of digital information means

that individuals can empower themselves with vast unprecedented quantities of

knowledge from digital systems and networks. It is difficult to ignore how the use of

digital text is embedded into the power of digital information. Blogs, online publishing

and the obliteration of print media are not just defining characteristics of our era. These

occurrences represent a paradigm shift in the way we use information and it is

becoming clear that denying yourself the opportunity to use digital texts is a huge

mistake. Not only are digital texts easy to search and analyze, they are also easy to

store and weight next to nothing.

First of all, it is extremely easy to search through digital texts and you can easily

apply rhetorical analysis techniques to them. In fact, searching through digital text is

such a common task that most software includes searching functionality (accessed by

shortcut 'Ctrl + F' on Windows) which allows you to search any webpage, PDF or .doc

file for keywords. Complex analysis is also easier with digital files. For example,

consider DocuScope, a computer aided rhetorical analysis tool developed by

researchers at Carnegie Mellon in 1998. The software can perform complex analysis

but unfortunately, it was never accessible to the public (Heuristic, n.d.). Still, even

laymen programmers can easily code simple analysis techniques like the Gunning Fox

index in minutes. Programming languages like Python even have software packages
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available which allow rhetorical analysis on almost infinitesimally large texts (Heuristic,

2014).

The main problem with physical (analog) texts is that they weigh too much and

are difficult to store. While multiple encyclopedias can be stored on a microSD card the

size of an ant, those same encyclopedias in book form would be heavy and would

require a lot of space for storage. The fact that you can store multiple books on a tiny

SD card is a perfect embodiment of the superiority of digital text when compared with its

analog counterpart. The differences in medium between digital and analog text results

in the use of (heavy) paper for analog texts while the other uses microscopic circuitry

the size of microorganisms to store the same information. Digital information intrinsically

requires less space and weighs less than its analog counterpart. Consider this, the

entire Library of Congress can easily be stored on an ordinary hard drive (Hickey, 2005,

p. 2). There are a variety of other problems with analog texts too. Once you begin

realizing that a person has to read a physical book in order to analyze or search it, you

can see how analog texts are just not feasible for our era.

Clearly, exclusively using physical texts results in a disservice for the individuals

involved. Physical texts are simply not welcome in the future because they are a hassle

to search, analyze, store and carry around. Imagine a world where any individual with

access to a computer network also had access to the entire Library of Congress. In the

world we live in, much more than that is possible with digital files and the true power of

our collective intellect cannot be harnessed without them. Suffice to say, if you own a

computer with networking capabilities and you haven't read a blog post,
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downloaded/stolen a digital textbook or watched an online video in the past few months,

you're living life incorrectly.

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Reference

Cruise, Brit (2014, April 28). History of The Alphabet [Video file]. Khan Academy Labs.

Retrieved on October 9th, 2015 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NrTrBzC6dk.

Cruise, Brit (2014, April 28). Morse Code And The Information Age [Video file]. Khan

Academy Labs. Retrieved on October 9th, 2015 from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abq95BTwOGo.

Heuristic. (n. d.). DocuScope: Computer Aided Rhetorical Analysis. Carnegie Mellon

University. Retrieved October 9th, 2015 from CMU website:

https://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/research/docuscope.html

Heuristic. (2014). Textstat 0.1.6. Python. Retrieved October 9th, 2015 from Python

website: https://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/research/docuscope.html

Hickey, Thomas (2005, June 21st). Entire Library of Congress. Retrieved October 9th,

2015 from http://outgoing.typepad.com/outgoing/2005/06/entire_library_.html

Comparison/Contrast Essay Outline
Block Method

A: INTRODUCTION

Attention Grabber/Hook: e.g. a rhetorical question, a quotation, a relevant fact, a bold

statement

The ability to transmit information in the form of written language over long distances has always

represented power and leverage for governments and militaries.

Thesis Statement: i.e. a clear statement of your position and three reasons for support

it is becoming clear that denying yourself the opportunity to use digital texts is a huge mistake.

B: TOPIC #1

Topic Sentence: i.e. a clear statement about your first main focus

Digital texts are easy to search through and you can apply rhetorical analysis techniques easily to

them.

Supporting Details: discuss TOPIC #1 using three or four criteria / categories

- CTRL + F for searching any text

- DocuScope

- Laymen programmers can code Gunning Fox index, and there's a Python

library for doing that too!

B: TOPIC #2

Topic Sentence: i.e. a clear statement of your second main focus

Analog texts are too heavy and difficult to store.

Supporting Details: discuss TOPIC #2 using three or four criteria / categories

- Multiple encyclopedias can be stored on single microSD card

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- Digital information inherently requires less space and weighs less

- Library of Congress can easily be stored on a common hard drive

C: CONCLUSION

Remind readers of your position

Exclusively using physical texts results in a disservice for the individuals involved.

Use the points youve referred to in the body to present an evaluation that answers the overall

question / supports the overall thesis

Physical texts are simply not welcome in the future because they are a hassle to search, analyze, store

and carry around

Present a clincher that looks ahead and builds on your argument:

If you have resources and you haven't read a blog post, downloaded/stolen a digital textbook or watched

an online video, you should do that.