Arun Nair

Professor: Damien Hey

Eng 225

11/11/17

Analytic Essay on Ergodic Literature

Books have been around for decades, but have been lacking the interaction between itself

and readers since it was created. Ergodic literature is a new form of literature that not only

involves the reader, but can also have a major positive impact on learning. Red riding hood by

Donna Leishman is a perfect example of this form of literature and what it is possible of. Ergodic

literature requires the reader to use non-trivial effort to read and go through a cybertext. This

and many other things are explained in Eric Hayots essay on Style: Strategy and Mimesis in

Ergodic Literature. Ergodic literature can not only be involving, but it also has a lot of possible

positives. This is proven in Martin-Beltrn essay Using digital texts vs. paper texts to read

together: Insights into engagement and mediation of literacy practices among linguistically

diverse students and Andrea Theormers essay Using Digital Texts to Promote Fluent

Reading. These essays show statistics and proof that ergodic literature can not only improve

children's learning abilities, but is already a more engaging form of reading than reading from a

boook.

Ergodic literature involves the reader by making the reader pick a multitude of choices

throughout the story that either changes the ending or progresses the story. This is the non-

trivial effort that Hayots describes in his essay. This happens a multitude of times throughout

the story in Red riding hood. Throughout the story, the reader is given a multitude of choices

that not only progress the story but changes the ending too depending upon what choices are
made. Without the reader continuing to progress the story by clicking images on the screen, the

story will stand still. The purpose of Ergodic pieces is to maintains tension and excitement

while providing a path for discovery, a coming into focus of a didactic of the design and hidden

principles at work in the work. This means that the purpose of an author of ergodic text is to

keep the reader entertained and in suspense. The multitude of choices are a way to keep them

involved and keep the suspense. Each choice leads to a new one that leads to a new ending.

Making it so that the reader is in a constant state of suspense. With this in place though, the

reader must put in a little effort to continue the story, which keeps him engaged and interested

(Theormer). The reader in Red riding hood is given the choice to either let Little red riding

hood sleep or wake up when she is picking flowers in the garden. If the reader picks to wake her

up, the wolf attacks her. If the reader decides to not wake her up, little red is then kidnapped

instead. This depicts how depending upon the reader's choice the story can completely change.

This ability to change the outcome of the story keeps the readers involved and engaged

throughout the story. Depending upon the choices made by the reader, the ending can change

dramatically (Theormer).(Leishman)(Hayots).

Red riding hood also shows a glimpse of the future of literature to the reader. Ergodic

literature is the future, and Red riding hood is a good example of it. This unique book keeps

the reader involved and helps students to develop skills on how to understand text without

having to read or listen to words. The ergodic piece itself contains little to no text requiring the

reader to infer and use other knowledge to piece together the story. Because it is the childhood

story of little red riding hood though the reader can predict the outcome and one can figure out

what is trying to be portrayed rather easily. Ergodic literature though comes in all forms and

some forms of ergodic literature is simplistic and is almost a normal story. Thus normal forms of
teaching and understanding can still be used. Read alongs and other things can be used to help

improve children's reading skills and ability to communicate (Theormer) . Children now though

have the ability to see a multitude of stories which helps them learn and understand more. As

Theormer said Exposing students to rich and varied fluent models during read-alouds is a

beneficial strategy to support reading fluency development. Meaning that by showing kids a

multitude of different and unique texts, they can learn to read more fluently. This will be

beneficial to the children not only at that moment but in the future as well. Teachers and students

will both now have easier jobs because they can now pick interesting and new texts that are not

confined to that of a textbook. They can also visit some childhood classics like Red Riding

Hood, that have now been remastered and changed into a piece of ergodic literature. This will

help the children to get a unique and new taste to a childhood classic and help them to

understand stories easier in the future.

This form of literature has also proven to be useful and constructive in classroom

settings. In an experiment that used 1900 children to see if either books or electronic literature

caused them to be more interactive, and electronic literature won. The experiment divided

children into a group that read digital text and a group that read electronic text. The electronic

literature caused 52% of children to become engaged into the story, and 40% of children to

become engaged passively, whilst the regular books caused 50% of children to be engaged

actively, and 40% percent to be engaged passively. To be engaged actively in the experiment, the

kid must have been reading the text out loud, discussing the work with a friend, or tapping on the

words on the screen. This shows how normal forms of digital literature already cause students to

be more interactive (Martin). Though the level of involvement went up from reading regular

books to reading electronic books, the activity itself has not changed that much. Reading still is a
passive activity when reading electronic literature. Some forms of electronic literature do not

require a student to click through and make choices that shape the story. This causes some

students to passively and sometimes not get engage in the story at all. This is why the percentage

of the children passively engaging in the reading has not changed from reading books to

electronic literature. By giving students pieces of ergodic literature though, they will then be

even more involved in their readings, causing the percentage of actively involved children to go

up from 52%. Because the children will be required to make decisions that will shape and change

the story, they will be more intrigued and more involved in the story. By giving the children

pieces like Red Riding Hood by Donna Leishman, the children will be made to pay more close

attention and make decisions that will affect the story longterm. They will also have to use other

sources of knowledge to try and figure out how to interpret the story. Because the story of Red

riding hood has little to no text, a child must watch intently to the images and actions to realize

what is going on. This also causes the reader to be more actively engaged in the reading. They

will then be more likely to talk to peers or help them to understand more difficult readings.

Promoting both active engagement with texts and communication in the classroom.

Ergodic literature is a new form of literature that not only involves the reader, but can

also have a major positive impact on learning. The story Red riding hood by Donna Leishman

is a perfect example of this form of literature and what it is possible of. This story shows us how

a piece of ergodic literature can not only keep a person involved, but also help provide a way to

educate children on interpreting information. The story keeps the reader involved because the

choices that the reader makes changes the story and also keeps it going. The reader must select

images that continue the story. The story not only keeps the reader involved though but also

provides them with a new way of understanding and interpreting information and stories. This is
also explained in Eric Hayots essay on Style: Strategy and Mimesis in Ergodic Literature..

Because this story has no words children and readers are left to interpret this story based on the

images on the screen. They have to be more actively engaged and really try to understand the

text. In Martin-Beltrn essay Using digital texts vs. paper texts to read together: Insights into

engagement and mediation of literacy practices among linguistically diverse students an

argument is made as to how electronic literature is more engaging than normal books. This is

proven through statistics and an experiment. Electronic literature has already proven that readers

are more engaged when reading electronically, but ergodic literature will be the next step in

engagement in reading. Readers will be more engaged and attentive of their reading because they

have to pay such close attention to what is going on in the story. This will help children learn

how to understand and read books. It will also help them communicate with each other more too.

Work Cited

Hayot, Eric, and Edward Wesp. Style: Strategy and Mimesis in Ergodic Literature.

Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 41, no. 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 404423. Academic

Search Premier, EBSCOhost,

 search.ebscohost.com.molloy.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=14

772121&site=ehost-live. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017.

Leishman, Donna. Red Riding Hood, donnaleishman.weebly.com/red-riding-hood.html.

Martin-Beltrn, Melinda, et al. Using Digital Texts vs. Paper Texts to Read Together:

Insights into Engagement and Mediation of Literacy Practices among Linguistically

Diverse Students. International Journal of Educational Research, vol. 82, Feb.

2017, pp. 135146. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1016/j.ijer.2017.01.009. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017.

Thoermer, Andrea, and Lunetta Williams. Using Digital Texts to Promote Fluent

Reading. Reading Teacher, vol. 65, no. 7, Apr. 2012, pp. 441445. Academic

Search Premier, EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/TRTR.01065. Accessed 29 Nov. 2017.