Text Analysis Without Programming by Lynn Cherny.
My favorite line in the slideshow reads:
PDFs are a sad text data reality
The slides give a good overview of a number of simple tools for text analysis.
And Cherny doesn’t skimp on pointing out issues with tools such as word clouds, where she says:
People don’t know what they indicate (and at the bottom of the slide: “But geez do people love them.”)
I suspect her observation on the uncertainty of what word clouds indicate is partially responsible for their popularity.
No matter what conclusion you draw about a word cloud, how could anyone offer a contrary argument?
A coding talk is promised and I am looking forward to it.
Enjoy!