Assignment Number Two

The Literature Network e-text that we examined was somewhat reliable and relevant, but would last 5 years, as it is an acceptable resource for Grade 9 English Students. 

The Literature Network e-text was somewhat accurate and reliable. It had accurate text, but sometimes it was punctuated differently from the OxfordNext version. It also had the same characters, but sometimes they had different names; for example, the Literature Network e-text named the Captain a Sergeant, which isn’t quite accurate. As well, the description for the setting in each scene was not as detailed as the OxfordNext description, and some of the descriptions were completely different. For example, the OxfordNext version set Act 1 Scene 1 on “The battlefield”, whilst the Literature Network version set it in “A desert place”. As well, OxfordNext mentioned that Act 1 Scene 2 was set in “The king’s headquarters”, however, Literature Network merely mentioned that it was “A camp near Forres”, which would give students the idea that it is merely one of the king’s camps, and not his headquarters.

The Literature Network website also contains many dating, birth control and other ads which are highly distracting for readers. The ads take up half of the space of the area where the Macbeth text is supposed to occupy, and therefore draws the eye more than the text. The website will have a block of Macbeth text, and then an ad that cuts in between the text and forces readers to acknowledge it, which is very distracting and annoying when one is trying to analyze a famous English text in history. Some of the ads are also inappropriate for Grade 9 English Students, and completely irrelevant to the website and to the text.

The Literature Network e-text also had very primitive formatting and poor comprehension aid for its texts. First, stage directions were hard to differentiate from what the characters were saying, as they were placed next to each other and separated only by an empty row, and were both in the exact same font and size, and formatted in the same way. Second, it was not easy to see which character was saying, as everything was in the same font and size, and the character name was placed directly on top of what he/she was saying. The only difference was that the character name was typed in capitalized letters, but even this was inconsistent, with some character names capitalized, and some not. Finally and most importantly, there was no glossary or tool to aid English students in understanding the text. It is hard for modern English students to fully understand the Elizabethan Early Modern English which Macbeth is originally written in, and a good e-text like OxfordNext Online would provide aids. However, The Literature Network has nothing to help English Students comprehend the Early Modern English.

Because of these important flaws, the website article will probably not last 5 more years, because, despite its mostly accurate text and content, it is almost useless to all Grade 9 English Students but those that have a wealth of Elizabethan English understanding and comprehension experience (because of the lack of a glossary), and the format and article design is very poor as well.