My Distant Reading Approach: COLLAR

I use distant reading to notice patterns across many texts without losing the human work of interpretation. For me, it is a way to move across a text set, use digital tools when useful, and come back with better questions.

What this is

COLLAR is my teaching-friendly framework for distant reading: accessible enough for newcomers, while still staying true to digital humanities practice.

Core idea

Gather texts around a concept, notice patterns, and let those patterns reshape how you read and learn.

Quick questions

What is distant reading?

Distant reading studies a text set through patterns, counts, comparison, and often computational methods. It helps us notice what would be difficult to see by reading one text at a time, then decide where to look more carefully next.

How big does the text set need to be?

There is no magic number. A text set can be small enough for a class exercise or large enough for a major digital humanities project. What matters is that the set is large enough to make comparison meaningful.

Where does computer science fit in?

One beginner-friendly way to think about it: computer science gives us tools for sorting, counting, comparing, and spotting patterns across a lot of text. It helps us zoom out. The human part is deciding what those patterns mean.

Does it replace close reading?

No. Distant reading helps surface large-scale patterns. Close reading helps test, complicate, and interpret those patterns. For me, they belong together.

The COLLAR workflow

C 💡

Collect texts around a concept

Start with a big idea, question, or theme, then gather texts connected to it so you can compare patterns across them.

O 👀

Observe broad patterns

Start wide. Notice repeated words, framing, metaphors, tonal tendencies, and recurring assumptions.

L 🌐

Look wide

Use digital tools to scan across the text set so patterns, repetition, and shifts become easier to notice.

L 🎧

Listen differently

Think about the perspectives you are hearing, missing, or overlooking. Notice which voices dominate and which points of view need more attention.

A 🧠

Ask interpretive questions

Ask why a pattern appears, what it might reveal, and what tensions, silences, or assumptions matter too.

R 🧭

Reposition yourself

Let the patterns change your next move. Return to the texts, refine your questions, and shift your perspective so you can learn more with greater care.

Why COLLAR works for me: just like a collar helps guide a curious dog — and helps that dog get returned home if it gets lost — this approach helps me move through large landscapes of language without losing my way. When the information gets noisy, distant reading helps me find my way back to what matters.

Three go-to resources

Google Books Ngram Viewer

A quick way to track how words and phrases rise, fall, and shift across a very large book collection over time.

Voyant Tools

A browser-based environment for exploring frequency, trends, and patterns across your own text set.

Media Cloud

An open-source platform for analyzing media coverage and information flow across large news collections.

Open-access article: Underwood, T. (2017). A genealogy of distant reading. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 11(2).

Keep the conversation going

If you want to bring these ideas into your school, district, team, or event, explore my menu of workshops on AI, futures literacy, digital humanities, media literacy, and leading learning in changing times.

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