HyLighter for Writing

"Chance favors the prepared mind"
-Louis Pasteur

The key to good writing is the ability to draw from multiple sources and synthesize the relevant information from those sources and what you already know. To do this, you need not get bogged down by the process of collecting, catologing, and tracking sources but, instead, get your focus on using those sources to be creative and innovative. HyLighter addresses this issue with a new software system designed for writers. What follows is a description of how to use HyLighter to foster creativity, serendipity, and insight.

Writing with Hylighter:

Individuals

Five-Phase Discovery Process:

Exercise Your Curiosity

  1. Establish a digital collection of documents on a topic of interest

  2. Import your files to HyLighter

  3. Read the documents in a preferred order and add HyLights
  1. Review each document in a preferred order with a focus on highlighted fragments and comments

  2. Copy high-value HyLights to the mashup
  1. Review your mashup using individual button badges or the next arrow to visit each HyLight in context

  2. As you move from HyLight to HyLight, add a descriptive tag that best classifies each HyLight into a category -- strive to keep the number of different tags to a minimum

  3. Organize HyLights into categories by sorting the mashup by tags

  4. As you review the reorganized mashup, ask yourself, “What do I understand? What don’t I understand? What non-obvious associations do I see? What pattern do I see emerging from the information and my own current knowledge?

  5. Record your thoughts by adding to or editing your mashup comments

  6. Delete HyLights from the mashup that fall outside the scope of your topic

  7. If you are feeling stuck or just want to try a different approach, check out this creative thinking technique (i.e., an adaptation of the descriptive enumeration technique as described by Arthur Murray in Deep Learning Manual, 2016) by clicking here

  8. As you engage in this process, revise your comments and add replies that capture your current thoughts

  9. Using the Move HyLight feature, rearrange HyLights in the mashup to reflect your emerging storyline

  10. Alternatively, export the mashup to Word, GoogleDocs, or other word processor, rearrange the HyLights, and import the results back to HyLighter
  1. Similar to Phase 3, as you review your mashup by navigating from HyLight to HyLight, ask yourself, “What do I understand? What don’t I understand? What non-obvious associations do I see? What pattern do I see emerging from the information and my own current knowledge?

  2. Fill in missing information by searching your current collection and foraging for new sources

  3. Search for meaningful analogies and exercise your curiosity by exploring areas that border on your area of interest or are, even, somewhat distant

  4. Import new documents to your collection, add HyLights, copy high-value HyLights to your mashup, add tags, and move the new HyLights to reflect your storyline

  5. Once again, review the mashup using individual button badges or the next arrow to navigate at high-speed to each HyLight in context

  6. Using the mashup Move HyLight feature, rearrange HyLights to revise your storyline
  1. Use the mashup as a guide for writing a first draft of your paper

  2. Embed HyLight IDs within your draft that point back to HyLights within your sources that stand behind your written words

  3. When you complete the final version, readers will have the option to read your paper in HyLighter with a mashup of embedded HyLight IDs

Writing with Hylighter:

Team

Seven-Phase Discovery Process:

Engage in Deep Collaboration

  1. Project leader establishes a digital collection of documents on a topic of interest and imports the documents to HyLighter

  2. Project leader composes a task description and invites members to each document in the collection using the Share feature

  3. Team members read each document and add HyLights
Alternative Distributed Reading Approach
  1. Project leader organizes the collection into document subsets

  2. Project leader assigns each team member to read and markup a subset

  3. Team members review all of the documents with the benefit of seeing existing HyLights
  1. Project leader reviews each document in a preferred order with a focus on highlighted fragments and comments

  2. Project leader copies high-value HyLights to the mashup
  1. Project leader reviews the mashup using individual button badges or the next arrow to visit each HyLight in context

  2. Project leader adds a descriptive tag that best classifies each HyLight into a category -- striving to keep the number of different tags to a minimum

  3. Project leader organizes HyLights into categories by sorting the mashup by tags
  1. Project leader shares the mashup with the team and instructs members to review the entire mashup and add their reflections by submitting replies to HyLights in corresponding sessions

  2. Project leader instructs team members to:

    • Ask themselves questions as they review the mashup including, “What do I understand? What don’t I understand? What non-obvious associations do I see? What pattern do I see emerging from the information and my own current knowledge?

    • Fill in missing information by searching the current collection and/or foraging for new sources

    • Search for meaningful analogies and exercise your curiosity by exploring areas that border on your area of interest or are, even, somewhat distant

    • Import new documents to the collection, add HyLights, and invite team members to the new documents

  3. Project leader reviews input from the team and updates the mashup to include pertinent input from team members
  1. Project leader reviews the updated mashup

  2. Using the Move HyLight feature, project leader rearranges HyLights in the mashup to reflect an emerging storyline

  3. Alternatively, project leader exports the mashup to Word, GoogleDocs, or other word processor, rearranges the HyLights, and imports the results back to HyLighter
Alternative Hardcopy Mashup Sequencing Method
  1. From your word processor, print out the mashup

  2. Cut the mashup into individual HyLights (i.e., paper snippets)

  3. Put the snippets in a bag and shake

  4. Reach into the bag and, review one snippet at a time

  5. Arrange the snippets on a table or the floor into columns of related HyLights and rows that reflect your emerging storyline

  6. Enter the HyLight IDs back in the new order as a comma-separated list to produce a new mashup
  1. Similar to Phase 4, project leader shares the mashup with the team and instructs members to review the entire mashup and add their reflections by submitting replies to HyLights in corresponding sessions

  2. Project leader reviews input from the team and updates the mashup to include pertinent input from team members
  1. Use the mashup as a guide for writing a first draft of your paper

  2. Embed HyLight IDs within your draft that point back to HyLights within your sources that stand behind your written words

  3. When you complete the final version, readers will have the option to read your paper in HyLighter with a mashup of embedded HyLight IDs